Arthur
Well-Known Member
Cormac Healy putting his carefully crafted version of events.Who is on? Some useless interviewers in rte
Cormac Healy putting his carefully crafted version of events.Who is on? Some useless interviewers in rte
Who is going to volunteer to take a smaller cut, the processor or the retailer? The supermarkets don't give a shite where the beef comes from, neither do the consumers for the most part. If Irish farmers were to get a bigger cut then it's highly likely the price of Irish beef would go up on the shelves, people would buy imported beef instead because it's cheaper and the supermarket would still get their margin. And that's just addressing the Irish retailers, what about the retailers in other countries, where 80% of the beef ends up?I do not think farmers want meat to the consumer to be more expensive, they just want a bigger share of the final price.
Who benefited from the fall in beef prices over the last year or so? The processors, retailers or the consumers? Who ever it is the farmer has paid for it.Who is going to volunteer to take a smaller cut, the processor or the retailer? The supermarkets don't give a shite where the beef comes from, neither do the consumers for the most part. If Irish farmers were to get a bigger cut then it's highly likely the price of Irish beef would go up on the shelves, people would buy imported beef instead because it's cheaper and the supermarket would still get their margin. And that's just addressing the Irish retailers, what about the retailers in other countries, where 80% of the beef ends up?
I understand that. I'm not defending anyone, I'm just saying it's not a local problem or an Irish problem. The big multi-national organisations are calling the shots with the the entire agricultural output of Europe. I've seen it first hand on a small scale, you don't tell the supermarkets what you want, they tell you what they'll give you. If you have something they can't get anywhere else they might negotiate, if they can get it elsewhere good luck and thanks.Who benefited from the fall in beef prices over the last year or so? The processors, retailers or the consumers? Who ever it is the farmer has paid for it.
What's the silver bullet then?Very little would allow Beef production to continue but at present prices and pricing structure it cannot continue . When the 3000 workers turn up at the dole office looking for their entitlements it might focus minds . I think a lot of the line staff will return to their own countries if it goes on much longer .
Silver bullet is stop all imports of beef from south America into Europe. That would sort out any excess straight away. They have been steadily increasing imports and the price has been falling.
That's not going to happen its going to keep growing and growing and going forward it's going to be a big challenge people want cheap meat/food and we are in trouble...there's only so much marketing we can do to sell out hormone free "grass fed" beef
What's the silver bullet does anyone know... if the base stays put something has to give so the suckler cow with the average weanling is in serious trouble, the valves on dairy bred calves has drop and drop substantially in some cases the beef farmer might have to be paid to essentially to take these calves
Beef farmers stop paying ridiculous money for calves at the mart..!!
Handing it to the dairymen who are not supporting ye now.
What's the silver bullet then?
It might be mad money relative to end price but these stores and calves should be making good money and the finished bullock should be 250 to 300 euro more and everything would work itself out..we have fertiliser and feed coming from other countries and at same time sheds full of barley and wheat here. If i try to buy rolled barley/wheat today, my merchant will try pushing a complicated blend on me. But who is winning ?Followed by the retired lads giving mad mad money for stores
Dairy farmers are out helping the beef farmers from the start of the protest. No farmer wants to see another farmer go underBeef farmers stop paying ridiculous money for calves at the mart..!!
Handing it to the dairymen who are not supporting ye now.
They’re not around here anywayDairy farmers are out helping the beef farmers from the start of the protest. No farmer wants to see another farmer go under
They’re not around here anyway
I liked your comment mucky as it's TRUE and lads dont want to see or believe it. Rural Ireland is in for some serious challenges in the next 10-15years ,was talking to my relief milker yesterday and we went through who would be around in 10 yrs,I'll be over 50 he will be 60 and the amount of lads that will be finished or dead with no one to take over is frightening and that's within a 3mile radius. So what's to become of farming in general is the next question
Why forestry? Why not tillage! We import vast amounts of grains to keep our production up! Just grow 10 times more grains and the land won't be there for cattle. Production goes down milk beef and lamb value goes up, tillage value goes up.The government has proposed the silver bullet but nobody wants to accept it (including myself). It's a reduction in suckler numbers back to 1980's levels. It's to put land which is currently being used for sucklers and their offspring into forestry. The government are currently pushing themselves on this agenda for increased forestry while at the same time holding themselves back by paying SFP to farmers based on history instead of the here and now. If lads were not getting good sfps, they wouldn't be stocking land. They would be looking at other ways to make money from it. Next round of CAP is going to bring big changes. I'm sure that the government are happy to see the IFA's loss of power during this beef price demonstration. It puts them on the back foot for CAP negotiations. Wait until you see, the government will welcome Beef Plan, Independent Farmers and every other group to the table for CAP negotiations and everyone's bargaining power will be weak. It will be a case of taking what we are given. There will be no such thing as "Nobody loses" as we heard from the IFA in the last round. The whole thing will be set up so that you'll either farm efficiently to try to make money or you won't and your only other option will be forestry. It will kill 2 birds with the one stone in terms of carbon reduction. ie. A reduction in cow numbers and an increase in forestry.
Anyone that isn't dairying who wants to keep cattle will either be finishing dairy bred cattle for beef or in a very small number of cases, running an ultra efficient suckler to beef system.
And this is not something that will have to be enforced. 30% of farmers are aged over 65 years and most of these are in sucklers or beef. Only 5% are aged under 35 years. With the right incentives in place, the whole thing will happen naturally and smoothly for them over the next 10 years. People will die and people will retire. If the incentive is not there to go into beef or suckling and there is an incentive to go into forestry or some other type of renewable energy growing, its easy to see what will happen.
The fact is that the government don't want suckler farmers in this country and they don't need beef farmers. They pay lip service to us in a few ways like Teagasc Succession Information events, sitting in on meetings such as the beef protest etc etc. Most of the 3000 workers that we hear that have been laid off in meat factories this week are foreigners. In 2009, 1900 people were laid off from Dell in Limerick and it was headline news for over a month. We heard how it would lead to 10,000 jobs being lost in the limerick area. There was absolute uproar and the state invested billions into the Limerick area in a very short period of time. The layoff's in the beef factories barely made the 9 o clock news last night. These layoffs and the beef sector which farmers are protesting about employ tens of thousands of people directly and indirectly, but it's back page news for our government. The problem is that rural Ireland costs them money because they have to provide services for it. They'd prefer to have people living in towns and cities and have a good proportion of rural Ireland under trees which would meet climate targets and and save carbon fines.
Why forestry? Why not tillage! We import vast amounts of grains to keep our production up! Just grow 10 times more grains and the land won't be there for cattle. Production goes down milk beef and lamb value goes up, tillage value goes up.
Not just forestry, but their reason for promoting forestry is that a lot of sucklers are operating on the more marginal land