Over 150 farmers attended the Beef Plan Movement meeting in Tullamore last night. With calving taking place on a lot of beef farms around the country, meetings will wind down over the coming weeks with final meetings planned for Clare and Leitrim.

We aren't just here to be critical of stakeholders, we see ourselves as the biggest spokespeople for beef farmers

A number of stakeholders including Bord Bia, ICBF, Teagasc as well as farm organisations and meat factories were accused of having their finger in the €2.6bn beef industry pie, leaving nothing left for primary producers.

“We aren't just here to be critical of stakeholders, we see ourselves as the biggest spokespeople for beef farmers in the country at the moment and we will hold Teagasc, Bord Bia, ICBF and other stakeholders to account and we will make no apologies for it,“ said David Whelehan from Beef Plan Movement.

The group are making progress in the purchasing group area with eight purchasing groups currently set up in eight counties around the country.

These groups have secured deals on fertiliser, health insurance, vaccines, forecourt fuel and other inputs.

“Some of our farmers have just saved €35/t on fertiliser on deals completed last week.

"We have been in talks with a large purchasing group in the UK that currently have 12% of farm inputs in the UK with their group to see how we can work together.

"We would expect farmers to save the equivalent of €0.45/kg by being part of a purchasing group,” he said.

Commenting on the producer group element of the plan, Eamon Corley said that farmers could expect to get 15-25 cent more per kg for their beef from being part of a producer group.

He also said there are plans to hold special sales of weanlings and store cattle for Beef Plan members who don’t finish their own cattle. Beef Plan group members who finish their cattle would then purchase these cattle and support other Beef Plan members.

Corley complimented Bord Bia for taking the Beef Plan lead on looking to brand suckler-bred beef.

“Beef Plan is starting to have an impact when we see stakeholders like Bord Bia taking our ideas on board. Bord Bia have been working with us, Meat Industry Ireland have been less helpful,” he said.

The issue of live exports was discussed and the group have a number of demands for the Minister of Agriculture to address in relation to opening up more avenues for exports. Commenting on dairy beef, David Whelehan said: “Dairy beef is here to stay and there is a place for it especially grass-fed dairy beef but suckler beef is a premium product and we need to be rewarded for it.”

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal after the meeting Corley said that a group of people from the Beef Plan group were meeting Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed today (Wednesday) at 8am in Dublin to discuss a number of issues in relation to anticompetitive practices in the Irish beef industry.