IFA national livestock chair Angus Woods warned farmers at a Limerick meeting that producer groups were often subject to rigorous specifications.

Woods was commenting on the idea that processors would be more relaxed on producer groups.

“If people think that by coming into a group they’re going to bully processors into more lenient specifications, they’d be mistaken,” Woods said.

The beef sector can’t continue the way it is

A beef, sheep and tillage farmer, Woods spoke from personal experience of being part of a lamb producer group where specifications for fat and weight were stricter than if he went individually to a factory.

However, he insisted that producer groups could pave the way for the future of the beef industry.

He highlighted the difference between securing guaranteed price contracts for the grain and sheep he produced in comparison with beef, where farmers were left in the dark on price from one week to the next.

“The beef sector can’t continue the way it is. We currently have no way of knowing what we’ll be getting for beef,” he said.

Specifications

The importance of specifications was backed by a Limerick farmer, who told the crowd of a local producer set up in the early 1990s which failed due to varying specifications.

“I had heifers of 500kg and another man had heifers of 300kg and it didn’t work,” he said.

“We probably needed to be more prepared.”

Producer groups

Tim Harty, a producer group facilitator, also addressed the crowd and told farmers that they’d need a minimum of 20 people to set up a producer group.

“It’s simple enough to set up,” he told the crowd.

With more numbers comes greater bargaining power

“The most complicated bit is probably setting up the legal entity.

“The simplest way might be to get your local mart to support you, but you could get a company as well.

“With more numbers comes greater bargaining power with processors,” Harty said.

But he also warned that producer groups could be “corrupted.”

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