The most recent Beef Plan Movement meeting was held at Edenderry mart in Co Offaly on Tuesday 27 February. Speaking at the meeting Eamon Corley outlined that the group has completed nine deals for members in certain counties.

“Farmers should be able to get 10-15% off the cost of inputs through producer groups. For a finisher this could equate to 45c/kg,” Corley claimed.

The group claim to have completed national deals on farm insurance and calf tags and that a national deal on electricity for members is also in the works.

As there is a minimum price for tags set by the Department of Agriculture it is difficult to see where the savings could be made.

Regionalised deals

Corlet says the group has also worked on a number of regionalised deals deals such as a 2c/l saving on forecourt fuel, savings on BVD samples that are worth 40c/sample and savings of €8-9 on soil samples, though he was unable to go into further detail of individual deals on the night due to the of signing non-disclosure agreements.

A member of the Donegal committee outlined that “the producer group in Donegal are saving €15-20/t on fertiliser costs through the group already”.

“There are seven counties up and running with producer groups and we are in the process of setting up committees and producer groups in others,” Corley said.

Loss leader

Willie McCormack, secretary of the Westmeath committee took aim at retailers on the night. “It’s not fair that the supermarkets are using beef as a loss leader, it is a premium product and should be treated that way,” he said.

McCormack also called for the Movement to have a seat at the table of future industry negotiations: “We now have 18,000 members and are one of the largest groups representing beef farmers – we should have a seat at the beef roundtable."

Quality Payment System

The Movement plans to develop six regional groups, with a database of factory fit cattle to provide them with more leverage when negotiating with beef processors.

There were calls for an update to the Quality Payment System (QPS) grid and in particular the grade differentials between continental and dairy bred stock. The linking of the quality assurance payment of 12c/kg to the grading of animals was also questioned.

McCormack said: “The grid is no longer fit for purpose. The grid was originally based on the meat yield of the carcass, so why does it have an effect on the quality assurance payment? There should also be a bigger differential between U and R grade cattle with O and P grade cattle.”