Thousands of homes will need a Christmas miracle to get a turkey on the table this year because local abattoirs will be forced to shut up shop at the end of November.

It is estimated that 100,000 birds are slaughtered for the Christmas season in local abattoirs, and the timing means farmers with small-scale operations supplying customers and farmers markets directly are likely to be hardest hit.

The crisis has been sparked by a long-running funding dispute between the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and local authorities who oversee the management and payment of vets who certify small-scale abattoirs.

It is understood that roughly €1m is needed to keep the service going, but talks between the FSAI and the County and City Management Association (CCMA) have reached a stalemate with the CCMA confirming in writing that it will terminate the contract on 30 November.

Peter Nolan from Fórsa, the union representing local authority vets, said vets are “caught in the middle” and has called on both sides to enter arbitration.

Poultry farmers and producers have been caught unaware of the trouble brewing between the two sides and are horrified by the impact it could have on their main source of annual income.

“We’ll be left in limbo with no way to kill the birds in time for our Christmas customers,” said one farmer who wished to remain anonymous for fear of worrying customers who had already ordered birds.

Some 176 local abattoirs and 528 food business are supervised by local authority vets and local abattoirs process roughly 10% of the overall national kill between cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.

Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork said the closure would be a disaster for farmers and local food producers.

“It is not OK to drop these farmers and producers who rely on this for their livelihood when there’s no other plan in place,” Allen said.