Cattle finishers are currently looking at losses of €300 to €400 per head on cattle bought last October, Francie Gorman, IFA president has said.

Gorman told the Irish Farmers Journal that he has spoken to beef finishers over the last few weeks who have “feed their cattle this winter for absolutely nothing,” describing the recent beef price drops as “extremely challenging.”

“We believe that there wasn’t a need for factories to pull the price of cattle to the extent that they did over the last number of weeks,” he said.

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Over recent weeks Gorman said that the IFA livestock committee has been meeting with factories around the country, setting out farmers frustrations over price cuts and the IFA has warned factories that if they don’t put a stop to price cuts, they won’t have finishers going forward.

Watch the full video below to hear more on what Francie Gorman had to say about what its like for beef farmers on the ground at the moment.