Farmers would be better off shooting their cattle now that factories do not want them, according to the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association. At the ploughing championships yesterday, Mr Frank Allen demanded immediate government action on cattle prices, which he said were "in freefall".
He called on the Government immediately to introduce its own export credit insurance for the Russian market until the EU set up its promised scheme.
"Most factories are now killing one or two days a week. Farmers would be better off shooting their cattle because the factories do not want them," said Mr Allen.
He said he was serious about what he had said, adding that the income problem for beef farmers was not understood outside the agricultural community.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, visiting the site yesterday, explained his controversial fodder package and said he was doing all he could for the beef industry. He confirmed he would be travelling to Tehran next Tuesday to meet Iranian officials in the hope that they would sanction the reopening of the beef trade with Ireland which has been suspended since 1996.
Mr Walsh, who was given a polite reception when he toured the stands, said he would be resisting any attempts by the Iranians to refuse to take beef from different counties where the BSE rates were high. "I understand there is even an attempt to sub-divide counties and I will oppose such a move because of the difficulties it will create for the industry," he said.
Mr Walsh also explained his £13 million rescue package for the fodder-hit areas of the west. Aid would reach the farmers in the form of increased headage payments on animals. Farmers who were in the greatest difficulty could expect to receive aid equivalent to the cost of four tonnes of concentrate feed, which costs £140 per tonne. Teagasc, the farm advisory service, had identified the farmers involved and their needs and he would be attempting to get aid to them as quickly as possible.
On the beef crisis, which he described as being as difficult as the 1996 BSE crisis, Mr Walsh said he hoped the reopening of live trade with Libya would bring some competition back into the marketplace. He defended his handling of the crisis and said he held out hope that talks between the farm organisations and the Department of Social Welfare may yield results in the future.
On the fodder crisis, Teagasc said there had been a huge demand from farmers with winter feed problems for advice from its staff.
In Leitrim, almost 60 per cent of farmers surveyed had less than half their fodder requirements and 95 per cent had less than 70 per cent of their requirements. It estimated that in Clare, 1,500 farmers were badly affected. In north Donegal, a survey of 70 farms showed that 23 per cent had little or no fodder and a further 30 per cent had less than half their requirements.
The Irish Auctioneers' and Valuers' Institute president, Mr Gerry Slattery, called for immediate Government action to avert what he termed a "bleak future". Land values may be endangered, rural life could suffer and villages die as farm incomes continued to fall. He upheld the view that nobody outside the farming industry believed agriculture was now in a sorry state. "Perhaps if some of the good days had been acknowledged over the years when they existed, then there might be more sympathy, interest and understanding of the situation today," said Mr Slattery.