What’s happening in the beef-finishing enterprises across the country is absolutely unparalleled.

The losses being incurred are extraordinary and so far unexplained.

If there is to be any trust between the Irish beef-processing industry and farmers, the meat factory operators owe it to their suppliers to come up with reasons.

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These don’t seem to exist in the marketplace where demand appears to be holding up, but the price received by us as farmers has slipped below all our European counterparts, with no explanation.

The gossip of course is that the meat plants are using cattle from their own feedlots and rented yards to keep their plants going and to give them the flexibility to dictate the price to their farmer suppliers, regardless of actual market returns.

The most advantageous strategy is to create a backlog of farmers’ cattle waiting to be processed while at the same time restricting the number of days the factories are operating.

If this is the situation, then it needs to be examined urgently by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Minister needs to ask his Department what can be done about it. First we need the facts.

With the degree of traceability within the Irish cattle herd, it is a simple matter to identify the ownership and location of every animal.

This preliminary exercise should be done immediately for the factories’ own feedlots. For yards rented, the State should be able to follow the money to determine the beneficial ownership of all cattle being killed.

Is this worth doing? Given the concentration of beef factory ownership and the close operating linkages between some of the major groups, there must be mechanisms put in place to deliver transparency and accountability.

The Agri Food Regulator must be given powers to inspect purchase prices and the returns realised from sales.

These companies are operating with no obligation to file profit and loss accounts while most of their farmer suppliers have no option but to sell their fit cattle to a meat factory.

The mart is not an option for them.

The IFA had a founding principle to object to vertical integration – we are instead seeing it in spades, coupled with huge market power and zero accountability.

While the IFA has issued statements decrying the situation, it is also up to them to put forward concrete proposals that would contribute to solving the crisis.

Side-by-side with an examination of the extent of feedlot cattle directly under factory control, we need to know if the market for Irish beef has fundamentally changed from having a reputation for being a superior product and so justifying a higher price, to simply a commodity with no separate identity.

The Irish Farmers Journal has clearly demonstrated some slippage in the Irish share of the British market in the face of increased imports from Australia/New Zealand and South America but we need to see these effects quantified.

Bord Bia grew out of CBF – the meat board. It should not forget its roots. We need real market information and impartial feedback.