With the dust settling on the recent protests and subsequent beef forum, as a beef farmer I feel we haven’t moved in any direction.

The easing on a number of restrictions by the factory can only be seen as a stunt to ease the pressure or the threat of another protest as factories push forward to accumulate enough beef for the Christmas shelves.

I feel that the easing on the quality assurance is the biggest let down for me. It is a smack in the face for farmers who have strived to streamline their businesses to allow for all animals to avail of the quality assurance premium. This easing in particular means we have wasted our time and energy in persuing this premium. I also don’t know what the reaction from outside Ireland will be.

We have to consider what the reaction will be further afield, what does the buyers in the UK and Europe think, when they see relaxing of quality assurance? I feel its rewarding people that haven’t made the effort to move with the times. We are in a different place with agriculture then we were 15-20 years ago and I think prices, specs and quality should reflect this.

Price increase

I wasn’t at all surprised by the 5c rise in price. There has been a 5c rise for the last two weeks and this is a seasonal eventuality. I think the factories are anxious for stock, not only for now but also for next year. There is no secret that numbers were going to be tight next year and this small price rise is having a twofold effect from what I can see on the ground.

It's increasing numbers through the factories but the most profound effect is the mart trade, which is roaring like the Celtic tiger. Smart, coloured continentals are freely making anything from €2.30 a kilo upwards. So the factories will have no worries regarding numbers tightening too much next year.

The final point can be linked directly back to the other two points. The relaxing of weight restrictions is simply a reflection of the market place. When numbers are tight it's an easy way of bolstering supplies. It's no real new invention - lamb factories do it every year.

From September onwards as numbers tighten, the upper weight limits creeps. The relaxing of weight restrictions won’t affect me as a farmer, because the economics of feeding animals to anything over 400kg dead weight will never be positive.