The Irish Farmers Journal understands that farm organisations, live exporters, Bord Bia and AHI will gather on Friday to hear concerns raised by exporters that too few Irish weanlings are being vaccinated.

A notable absentee from the meeting is the Department of Agriculture, which informed the group that it is not willing to attend at this time.

The meeting is expected to examine how the industry can move forward to ensure greater numbers of beef cattle are vaccinated in time for the peak autumn sales next year. It’s understood that those attending the meeting favour the introduction of a new, separate beef health programme which would roll out advice and supports to suckler and beef farmers.

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While the boycott of sales for a week by the exporters created worry and concern, there was no notable drop off in the trade with farmer buyers taking up any slack. Their presence around rings in the last week has injected more life into the trade with bull weanlings up 8-12c/kg on the previous week.