THE meat factories yesterday acted on their threat to impose a levy on farmers of £3 a head on cattle and £1 per ewe to cover the cost of rendering specified risk material under new BSE control regulations.
The imposition of the levy on animals being slaughtered has angered the farm organisations which yesterday arranged a meeting of all parties involved for tomorrow.
The meat plants had no right to charge the levy, said Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr John Donnelly.
His organisation took out advertisements in national newspapers advising farmers to tell plant operators that a condition of sale was that no slaughter levy was deducted, he added.
Mr Donnelly said the IFA was not disputing that there were additional costs involved in the new regulations introduced by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates.
These costs, however, had to be treated like all others in the slaughter and processing industry.
Mr Donnelly added that Mr Yates should not have designated only one rendering company to deal with SRMs, the skull, spinal cord and other at risk tissues from animals, and could not now wash his hands of the issue.
He called on the factories to suspend the levy to allow talks to take place with the meat factories, the renderers and the Minister for Agriculture.
A similar call was made by the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Frank Allen.
He said he had demanded a meeting with Mr Yates to rectify the situation.
He accused the processors of using the BSE crisis to exploit farmers and said they should be forced to stop this and be made share the burdens of the BSE crisis equally with other beef sectors.
"From the very start of the BSE crisis this time last year, the meat factories have gone out of their way to avoid independent assessment of their livestock pricing system," said Mr Allen.
"They have effectively used the intervention schemes which were introduced by the EU to help farmers through the BSE crisis, to maximise their own profits. They have shown no willingness whatsoever to share with farmers the heavy burdens of the crisis in the sector," he said.
But yesterday a Department of Agriculture spokesman said all other industries took care of their own waste and the beef industry should be no different. One plant was sufficient at this point in the killing season to cope with the low level of SRMs but if at peak slaughtering time a demand emerged, the Minister might consider nominating another one.
The Irish Meat Association said it was being forced to place a levy on the farmers because the plant nominated to deal with SRMs, Monery By Products, Cavan, had invoiced the industry on the basis of a charge of £350 per tonne for rendering and storing the material.
The IMA pointed out that. SRMs were rendered for £65 per, tonne in Northern Ireland and the industry said the Government should bassist meat plants and farmers using the UK precedent that disposing of SRMs was part of the BSE eradication budget.