16 OCTOBER 2020

ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham has said meat factories must follow through on their commitment to supply live weight information to farmers. “Under the terms of the Irish Beef Agreement meat processors gave an undertaking that they would install weighing scales at plants so that farmers could get accurate information on the live weight of their cattle. To date, this has not been done,” he said.

“The Beef Taskforce needs to ensure that any measures agreed to at the Taskforce are carried out and carried out in a timely manner. We are at risk of farmers losing all confidence in the process if the processors can get away with procrastinating at every step along the way.”

Mr Graham said, “The Department of Agriculture has highlighted the importance of weighing cattle with schemes such as BDGP, BEEP and a new €5m initiative for weighing dairy calves. Now, we just need meat factories to play their part and deliver on their pledge to install these scales.”

ENDS