“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. It’s not right and we can’t allow it continue,” he said.

He outlined that ICSA estimate that farmers are losing somewhere between €3.7m and €4m/week at the moment based on last year’s prices versus this year’s prices and he highlighted a number of areas that need to be tackled including transparency in the food chain, better markets for our beef and making live exports more central to the industry.

He had some views on where CAP reforms need to go.

“I think we need to be a little more precise at where we direct the BPS payment. 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 ha.”

On consumer trends, he said: “We can’t ignore this vegan ideology. It’s not going to go away and we need to hit it head on.”

Punch also highlighted his disgust at the UK arm of the ABP group starting to market “plant burgers”.

"It’s shocking to see a company built on beef farmers heading down this road.”

He highlighted that some of these “fake meat burgers” had 27 different ingredients with some of the ingredients sourced from the USA and questioned this from a sustainability point of view.

Mairead McGuiness addressed the meeting on a number of issues including CAP reform, convergence and the current beef crisis.

“Don’t resist getting paid for public goods and making environmental changes. The only time we see price increases is when there are shortages, so maybe it makes sense to cut back production and get paid more,” she said.

Speaking on CAP reform, she highlighted the challenges around maintaining the budget and where countries currently stand on contributions and said.

“We will not meet the current deadlines for CAP reform which will mean a rollover of the current system for a period of time.”

On the Irish suckler herd, she commented: “I think it would be a shame to see the demise of the Irish suckler herd and I think the necessary supports should be put in place to make it viable.”

On convergence, she said we need to be careful and very clear about what this will do for farmers.

“I have asked Minister Creed to carry out a study on who the winners and losers would be from convergence and this report will be available soon. I have a genuine concern around the incomes of full time farmers, they can’t pull out of other sources of income.

"They are also going to be more exposed to convergence if it happens.”

She also had concern about how the EU where going to define an active farmer as everyone’s idea of an active farmer is different.

On live exports, she said that farmers need to be aware of the rising number of EU citizens who are against live exports because of welfare concerns.

“We need to be aware that we live in a changed world where many urban dwellers don’t understand farming systems.”