DEAR SIR: There is a saying in journalism that, “if it bleeds, it leads”. This effectively means that the bigger the disaster, the bigger the headline. This I’m afraid is not the case in agricultural journalism. If it was, then a recent headline would have been something like “Modern day slavery”.

I say this because of an article on page 36 of the Irish Farmers Journal of 10 February entitled “BETTER farm beef challenge”.

It even starts out on a positive note. The headline says margins up. The first paragraph says our 27 BETTER farmers recorded an average gross margin of €709/ha in 2017, an increase of 24%. Brilliant. If you gave up reading now you might be happy with your lot. But way down the article it states the real story that the average return was €2.37 per hour, hence my reference to slavery.

Last year, at a meeting with Teagasc, I challenged them to come up with a model where a 100-acre beef farm could make at least the industrial wage. I haven’t heard back yet. I wonder how it’s going? I challenge them again here in these pages. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request.

Where does the blame lie? Is it with the Government or Teagasc or ourselves for allowing this national scandal to persist? I have spent many years in farm politics and at times I wonder why. When we went into the beef forum, the Competition Authority went on record that we couldn’t discuss price rises under threat of legal action. Talk about having one hand tied behind your back.

Teagasc’s mantra always seems to be to produce more. All this will do is exacerbate the situation by producing a glut. The Government seems to think we should all get an off-farm job. Imagine if the Minister for Education said that at a teachers conference. They would be lucky to get out of the hall.

Maybe Shane Ross should say something similar to the CIE drivers. I wonder how that would go down.

I remember when one of the transport unions was on strike last year. Their spokesman said that under no circumstance would they work one minute longer or drive one mile further to fund a pay rise. That says it all.

They say that modern day slaves are not in chains, they are in debt. Are we on a treadmill that we can’t get off? We won’t make a living from bat boxes.