The Beef Stakeholders Forum meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Portlaoise was postponed by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) after the Pedigree Cattle Breeders Council of Ireland pulled out of the meeting.

The council told the Irish Farmers Journal that it had attended in good faith through 13 months of forum meetings.

“For the first six meetings there is no record of the majority of points raised by our members.

“While we welcome that the forum has finally agreed to deliver minute-keeping as a prerequisite, the outcome is still not satisfactory to us.

“In future meetings, we believe the only way to resolve this is to appoint a professional minute-keeper that is fully independent of all parties in the room.”

Discontent

Much of the discontent seems to centre around the ICBF, Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture not taking the breed societies’ contributions at the forum on board.

“We are not shutting the door on future forum meetings. However, to move forward from this point this relationship is going to have to become a lot more professional.

"Our livelihoods and the integrity of our herd books are at stake. It’s about time ICBF and Teagasc recognise the full impact their fundamentally flawed system is having on the national herd,” it said.