The chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee has suggested that Irish meat processors ‘have a chat with themselves’ regarding what he described as “blatant blackguarding and manipulation of their supply base in an opportunistic and cynical attempt of trying to regain ‘control’ over the beef trade from the farmers”.
The ICMSA chairperson, Michael O’Connell, said that regardless of the record price this spring, the next six to eight months are critical to the Irish beef industry as farmers’ livelihoods are ‘on the line’ as a result of the increase cost of store cattle resulting from the factories abusive attempts to wrest back their accustomed complete control over the beef trade.
Mr O’Connell cited Bord Bia figures to support his argument: “Delving into the recent Bord Bia figures seems to indicate a further drop in the number of available cattle for the remainder of 2025 of anywhere between 70,000 to 112,000 cattle. Traditionally, we have seen the autumn period as a time where downward pressure would be applied on beef price by the factories as a means of manipulating store cattle price to allow the factories fill their feedlots.
“But these Bord Bia figures indicate that the second half of the year may not be as ‘rosy’ for the factories as they might imagine. There is huge demand internationally for Irish weanlings, some of which would traditionally be slaughtered in late spring/early summer as under 16-month bulls or into the autumn at around 20 months, there’s also a massive cross-border demand for heavy continental steers, heifers and cows.
“Taken together, the indications are that it may not be the simplest summer/autumn period for processors and could present an opportunity for farmers to get properly paid for cattle,” said Mr O’Connell.
Stating that the factories have only themselves to blame, Mr O’Connell noted that an “amazing” amount of traditional type cattle from 420kg upwards were bought by feedlots and factory owned feedlots and put into feed this spring to aid their desperate attempts for throughput.
“I wouldn’t even call them forward stores which traditionally wouldn’t be killed until next September or October at the earliest’ he said, putting the trend down to the factories desperation for numbers and demand for beef that factories had this spring.
“The sheer disrespect and negativity surrounding the trade at present is not making sense. We hear the stories that beef cattle are scarce in the West at the same time as there is so-called ‘waiting list’ to get cattle slaughtered in the Midlands and South. There is a geographic divide in terms of price with stronger prices seemingly available in the West and Northern Midlands. But it seems incredibly difficult to establish the base price of cattle today,” said Mr O’Connell.
He noted that flat prices are still available for cattle and there was as many interpretations of the ‘grid’ as there were farmers selling.
“The factories themselves understand this better than anyone because there is no way that you could put some of the cattle they fed themselves on the ‘grid’ as they would be ‘cleaned out’ at that price. How could you feed a traditional type Hereford, Angus or Friesian bullock 420kg for 60 or 70 days and put it on the grid? That would be madness, and one thing is for sure and certain – they didn’t lose money on their own cattle.
“A number of factory-owned ‘sustainable’ producer groups have extra cattle available in April due to the availability of an off-season bonus, and the feedlot cattle bought in January and February are all coming on stream. So what looks like happening over the coming weeks is that factory-owned cattle are going to be killed at the expense of genuine farmers who will be the losers based on the ridiculous price cuts. These factory-controlled cattle won’t last too long, and momentum will return to beef farmers selling cattle,” predicted Mr O’Connell.
Explaining that ICMSA considered all this to be an attempt at ‘mind games’ on the part of the factories, Mr O’Connell stressed that food security was climbing the agendas of leaders right across the world. He said that right across the EU, there has been dramatic reduction in herds and though some of the reductions might have been involuntarily due to the spread of Bluetongue and the recent disturbing incidence of FMD in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia, there was still a notable fall in overall numbers.
“We are currently one of only five EU countries that is clear of both notifiable diseases which leaves us in a very strong position in terms of export markets. This myth that there are ‘loads of cattle available’ is palpable nonsense. A recent publication stated that the Irish cattle herd is at an all-time low and taking 2024 and 2025 calf registrations thus far, this isn’t going to change any time soon. Irish farmers are in a very strong position for a change and factories should remember this.
“The investments made by farmers over the last few years to meet quality standards as well as improve efficiency on farm is a credit to farmers and they more than deserve prices that reflect that. The factories need to have a chat with themselves; they are trying to undermine that process is unacceptable and – more than that – it just won’t work. We can read the data and we won’t buy the absolutely made-up manipulation and cynicism. Beef markets remain strong, and farmers should vigorously resist any attempts from the meat plants to cut prices,” concluded Mr O’Connell.
