Monday’s marathon beef meeting between Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and six farm organisations was notable as much for the acceleration and impetus delivered to key issues for farmers that have been put on the long finger for years.

The Beef Plan Movement has secured a review of the grid, with a sense of urgency around the timescale.

This is something that has been in the pipeline for quite some time, but as a result of the talks has kickstarted.

The Department of Agriculture has also committed to examining an appeals system for manually graded cattle and will analyse quality pricing system (QPS) specifications with Bord Bia.

Processors have committed to tell farmers four months in advance of carcase weight limit restrictions.

Four months’ notice will be provided. All farm organisations pushed for factories to provide pre-slaughter weighing of individual cattle. MII was to revert to this as we went to press on Wednesday evening, and it is also expected to respond to the call for written confirmation of verbal contracts.

Gates

None of this could have been envisaged last Thursday and Friday, when tensions between farmers and factories peaked.

Minister Creed made an initial attempt to pull both sides together on Wednesday evening.

That fell apart when MII insisted that Beef Plan protestors leave the gates before talks could begin, something Beef Plan referred to as a “precondition” it could not agree to.

MII then threatened legal action against Beef Plan, which also received a warning letter from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).

Relief

There was relief all round on Friday evening when both sides agreed to meet on Monday. Beef Plan agreed to end its factory protests, for now, and MII stepped back from legal action.

It took a lot of Saturday to completely clear factory gates, with farmers slow to leave ABP Bandon, Kildare Chilling and Slaney in Wexford.

The elephant in the room, of course, was price, but competition rules prevented the core issue from being discussed.