Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has been called on to provide electronic payment facilities to farmers who are selling livestock.

IFA livestock and sheep chairs Brendan Golden and Sean Dennehy met MII recently to discuss the provision of electronic payments.

“Farmers who are selling livestock should have the option of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) if they want to avail of it. It is a standard service that exists across society and we want processors to extend it to farmers,” the committee chairs said.

Bank closures

The exit of Ulster Bank and the branch closures announced by Bank of Ireland will lead to a further contraction of banking services in rural Ireland, as well as facilities to cash factory cheques.

Golden and Dennehy warned that the absence of an EFT arrangement would put farmers who don’t have easy access to lodgement facilities at a disadvantage.

“For cashflow reasons, farmers shouldn’t have to wait for cheques to clear. We expect everybody who does business to upgrade their systems as soon as possible,” they said.

Beef meeting

The IFA is also due to hold an online meeting for beef farmers on Tuesday 9 March.

IFA president Tim Cullinan said: “The factories have pulled prices in recent weeks, to an extent that is not justified. We want to hear the views of beef farmers as we discuss the current price situation, Brexit, Mercosur and CAP.”

The meeting will hear a presentation from IFA senior livestock policy executive Tomas Bourke and Brendan Golden.

Golden said direct payments play a huge role in the viability of beef and suckler farms, accounting for 160% of family farm income, and the IFA is targeting a payment of €300 for suckler cows.

Full registration details can be found here.

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IFA to host online meeting to discuss ‘unjustified factory prices’