The clean livestock policy (CLP) for sheep continues to cause major disruptions to factory processing.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that up to 3,600 sheep or about 7% of throughput were classified as category C last week and rejected from slaughter. The disruptions carried over into this week and caused Kepak Athleague to suspend processing for a period on Monday morning.

The Department’s implementation of the policy has come in for heavy criticism from farm organisations. A delegation from the IFA met with senior veterinary officials from the Department of Agriculture on Monday morning and Minister Michael Creed on Monday night.

IFA sheep chair Sean Dennehy said: “It is unacceptable that there are sheep being presented for slaughter sent home from factories.

“The Department agreed to review the unworkable aspects of the current policy and to revert to the IFA by the end of this week.

“We made it clear that sending sheep home and full shearing are not part of any policy and are totally unacceptable.”

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