This article is from page 38 of the 2007-03-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
CLARE farmer and chairperson of the ICMSA’s Beef and Cattle Com- mittee, Martin McMahon, has called for immediate action to be taken or the plight of winter finishers could seriously damage the beef sector.
He stated this week that given the current beef prices and the substan- tially higher input costs this year, the problem of winter finishers could seriously damage the future of the entire beef sector.
‘There are two main and intercon-
nected issues causing concern at the present time. These are the price of cattle and the problems of slaughter- ing heavier cattle,’ he said.
‘Farmers have fed cattle expensive feed to get them ready for slaughter this spring when, without any notice or indication from the meat plants, cattle over a certain weight are being discounted and are becoming hard to sell.
“The ICMSA considered this to be totally unacceptable and almost suaranteed to force committed peo- ple out of the business. Farmers can-
not operate in a business environ- ment where new issues and policies are introduced overnight.”
McMahon has called on meat plants to discontinue this policy against heavier cattle for 2007. He called on the whole industry, and not just the farmers, to address this issue going forward.
“The matter of price was perfectly straightforward — winter finishers are unable to make a profit at current prices. Irish beef prices have not in- creased this year, with the price of certain cattle having fallen and con-
tinuing to fall,” he said.
“Input costs, most particularly feed costs, have increased substantially this year and Irish beef farmers were particularly irritated by the fact that UK beef prices are up 10 per cent on this time last year, while Irish prices were static or falling. Who could ex- plain such a discrepancy?”’
He concluded by calling on the meat plants to realise and act on the fact that 1f they didn’t pass back a de- cent price to their suppliers then the very future of Ireland’s winter finish- ers must be called into question.