Farmers with a nitrates derogation should get a lower payment per hectare in the next CAP than those at average stocking rates, ICSA general secretary Eddie Punch has said.

“I think we need to be a little more precise at where we direct the BPS payment,” he said at the ICSA Cavan AGM on Monday night. “Our view in the ICSA is that the higher payments should be targeted at the middle-band farmer, who is operating an average stocking rate.

“At the very bottom, where you have farmers with no stock and no farming activity, they shouldn’t be getting any supports and at the other end where you require a nitrates derogation, you should receive the smallest payment per hectare,” Punch said.

“At the moment a farmer spends nearly three years getting a product for sale, a factory spends three weeks with it and it spends three days on a supermarket shelf, and yet the farmer receives the smallest part of the pie,” he said, highlighting how little farmers receive for their beef.

The ICSA estimates that farmers are losing up to €4m on beef prices when 2019 and 2018 prices are compared.