The Beef Plan Movement has announced that if invited, it will not be amalgamating with or coming in under any umbrella of the IFA.

The position has been endorsed by the Beef Plan’s national committee.

The announcement comes on the back of a motion proposed by Michael Rafferty, northeast regional chair and seconded by Enda Fingleton southeast regional chair.

The organisation has a very strong mandate from its membership to stay on course and fight for a fair share of market prices

Dermot O'Brien spokesperson for the Beef Plan Movement said that the movement was founded and borne out of farmer frustration because of poor prices received for their produce.

“The organisation has a very strong mandate from its membership to stay on course and fight for a fair share of market prices. Beef Plan Movement has achieved a lot with its national officers all working for farmers as volunteers for the betterment of its members.

“Beef Plan does not see any amalgamation with the IFA to be in their interest. Beef Plan stands tall amongst our farm organisations and will continue to seek support of other farming organisations to push on with the beef market task force work,” he said.

Fight for farmers

O'Brien said that the national committee of Beef Plan is adamant that the organisation, which is the second-largest farm organisation in Ireland will continue to fight for farmers so that they can gain respect from the industry stakeholders and be rewarded for what they produce.

During the past year Beef Plan has made significant inroads

“Beef farmers are still not in receipt of their costs of production and this imbalance is being addressed by the movement. During the past year Beef Plan has made significant inroads but there is still quite an amount of work to do on behalf of the membership.

“The main focus at this point is to have to beef market task force reconvened, as farmers are suffering immeasurably at the hands of meat processors,” he said.

Beef sector agreement

O'Brien also urged all farmers to familiarise themselves with the beef sector agreement, which he said contains so many possibilities for beef farmers and outlines what farmers are actually entitled to from meat factories when livestock are being booked in for slaughter.

O'Brien said that according to the recent beef sector agreement of 15 September farmers are now entitled to the following:

  • 1. A written contract between the factory and the farmer for livestock being killed at the meat factory on the number of animals, type of animals and date of slaughter.
  • 2. Opt out of paying insurance fees to factories. Farmers who do not wish to allow a meat factory take money from their factory cheques for insurance then a farmer can now tell the factory not to do so.
  • 3. Weigh cattle live prior to slaughter. Farmers have the option to weigh their cattle live prior to slaughter, at a nominal charge.
  • 4. Review and/or appeal of factory carcase grades. Farmers can appeal an animal's grade by requesting the mechanical grader images or by challenging the manual grade at factory and/or Department level.
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