FARMERS STRIKE Monday July 29th

Butcher Boy

Pidae.m wrote: »

Yes they did. I
ts a 4 day week next week.
They are wrong to block the factories. Its a cheap PR stunt.
Look at the huge discount on meat in supervalue this week. 33% off.

The factories are not going to give more next week because of the protest that means they are admitting that they are wrong.

Alls it will happen is a logjam next week or the week after.
Listen there was no beef baron had cattle up there today, only all middle of the road lads.

Look you went in end of storey ,and most of the lads not all but most that went in to bandon today are factory men anyway,

Pidae.m

grange mac wrote: »

I heard tonight that Dawn Charleville has about 4weeks stock in storage, not sure how true that is but if they do then they don't give a **** about a strike for few days.... I think upto me what I'm gonna do this winter. Have tough choices to make about my stock when am I gonna crystalyse my dam losses. Its upto each individual to make their own mind and stop complaining about be a bytch for the factories..... I am hearing of guys already selling 700kg stores and then buying the 300kg charlaois that everyone wants now thus upping their price to stupid levels .... If said individual moans again I will tell him... He is his own worst enemy!

That's exactly it. People seem to have no personal responsibility. I've made more mistakes than anyone that is a fact!! , but I make sure I only do them once.

Grueller

Pidae.m wrote: »

Well for the 16 or 17 who went in today, we'll won't forget faces either.

No but they have shown solidarity even let it not sort anything. I was at Slaney meats for seven hours today. I was in the company of dairy men with no skin in the beef game other than selling calves. Fair play to them for that show of solidarity.

Pidae.m

Butcher Boy wrote: »

Pidae.m wrote: »

Yes they did. I
ts a 4 day week next week.
They are wrong to block the factories. Its a cheap PR stunt.
Look at the huge discount on meat in supervalue this week. 33% off.

The factories are not going to give more next week because of the protest that means they are admitting that they are wrong.

Alls it will happen is a logjam next week or the week after.
Listen there was no beef baron had cattle up there today, only all middle of the road lads.

Look you went in end of storey ,and most of the lads not all but most that went in to bandon today are factory men anyway,

What's a factory man?

older by the day

It's a dirty thing to pass a picket. It's not about wether you agree or not. It's about showing solidarity with your fellow farmers. I know in the bottom of my heart that I'm probably the last full time farmer on this farm and surely I should make some type of fight against it. There's an American rapper called Eminem, and the young lad has a CD in the car. One verse is , fu@k that. Shoot the bit@ch, does she give a f@ck if you got kids. Well the factory don't. So anything goes. Peaceful or not

Butcher Boy

Pidae.m wrote: »

What's a factory man?

take a look at the crew that went there today and you will know what i am talking about .

Pidae.m

No factory agent in the q. Only all farmers.
Still don't understand why its OK for 2 of the main 2 protester's who had a heads up on the strike to kill so many cattle last week. Handy.

Cavanjack

The kill figures for this week will be interesting. I wouldn’t imagine they’ll drop too much because of the protests

Water John

Every man/woman has to live with their own conscience. Saying, look over there, is whataboutery.

wrangler

Pidae.m wrote: »

No factory agent in the q. Only all farmers.
Still don't understand why its OK for 2 of the main 2 protester's who had a heads up on the strike to kill so many cattle last week. Handy.

Wonder was it the same guy that had his large entitlements well protected by IFA in the last CAP reform, ironic eh ......eaten bread is soon forgotten

Bass Reeves

This could turn into the processors and Government's worst nightmare. In any strike to succeed you may have to go beyond the norm. Look at the last big ESB strike they threw chains to knock out a few important area's. I not saying it right but it often the only way to succeed.

Processors have a problem yes they may have 2-3 weeks beef in cold stores, but 80% of that is hanging to mature. This protest is gathering momentum. The treat of 3.45 next week may actually have hardened the resolve of farmers. This protest is not as such finisher led but suckler farmer led. It may be a lot harder to get these lads to remove the pickets than lads with a few doubles of cattle to kill. As well while cattle are being slaughtered it is only 50% or less of what it should be and numbers will dry up more if this goes on. The line is costing them the same whether they kill 200 or 500/day. Yes it will be a pain in the hole to get cattle killed in 2-3 weeks time but lads have to worry about that then.

Processors have only themselves to blame they have colluded over the last 8 weeks to drop prices by 5c/kg every week and are open that there worry is that no one will finish cattle next winter. Because of that they have forced prices down to try to reduce store prices. However store prices are still quite strong drive by a huge amount of grass and feed in the country and smaller cattle numbers coming through because of the rise in exports in 2018.

For the government this add to the bad publicity they have got over the last 6-8 weeks. Its there own fault. I have been a FG supporter for a while now but I am finding it harder and harder to to find a reason to vote for them. The shambles of the children hospital, the broadband debacle, the local election etc. When Leo had his vegan brain fart he alienated under pressure drystock farmers. Now they are getting caught in the crossfire because they were in a hurry trying to protect the dairy industry.

Base price

I'm supposed to bring a cull cow and a free martin heifer on Friday for a neighbour who is small scale suckler farmer. He booked them in last week. His only mode of transport is a tractor and the factory is too far a drive for him so I do the transport for him.

I think I will be having a lie on Friday morning.

Never wrestle with pigs

At it a few days now. It's getting momentum. It's only starting. Vets and AO's are pulling to our side now too. We are hitting other areas of their link now too and hopefully they will be backlogged in the next day or two. The trouble for the factorys is only starting tomorrow. It's going to be an interesting few days. Fair is fair, I don't even kill cattle, I have sucklers.

We have top department people working on things in the background too. This will work more like a slow strangle. They have cattle in the factorys for the morning but they may not be able to kill them.

As for the poster saying that he passed the picket twice, you will be remembered for a long time my friend. You are taking the soap but you won't have many friends when this is over. You do not pass a picket in any industry.

Stick together and give an hour if possible. We are all busy we all have things to do. Be a part of something special, it will work if you give a hand. Ifa or any political group it does not matter, we are all farmers first.

Base price

Bass Reeves wrote: »

This could turn into the processors and Government's worst nightmare. In any strike to succeed you may have to go beyond the norm. Look at the last big ESB strike they threw chains to knock out a few important area's. I not saying it right but it often the only way to succeed.

Processors have a problem yes they may have 2-3 weeks beef in cold stores, but 80% of that is hanging to mature. This protest is gathering momentum. The treat of 3.45 next week may actually have hardened the resolve of farmers. This protest is not as such finisher led but suckler farmer led. It may be a lot harder to get these lads to remove the pickets than lads with a few doubles of cattle to kill. As well while cattle are being slaughtered it is only 50% or less of what it should be and numbers will dry up more if this goes on. The line is costing them the same whether they kill 200 or 500/day. Yes it will be a pain in the hole to get cattle killed in 2-3 weeks time but lads have to worry about that then.

Processors have only themselves to blame they have colluded over the last 8 weeks to drop prices by 5c/kg every week and are open that there worry is that no one will finish cattle next winter. Because of that they have forced prices down to try to reduce store prices. However store prices are still quite strong drive by a huge amount of grass and feed in the country and smaller cattle numbers coming through because of the rise in exports in 2018.

For the government this add to the bad publicity they have got over the last 6-8 weeks. Its there own fault. I have been a FG supporter for a while now but I am finding it harder and harder to to find a reason to vote for them. The shambles of the children hospital, the broadband debacle, the local election etc. When Leo had his vegan brain fart he alienated under pressure drystock farmers. Now they are getting caught in the crossfire because they were in a hurry trying to protect the dairy industry.

Which unfortunately has created a sense of division within the farming community. TBH I am horrified to read some of the comments on the Beef Plan social media platform - the antagonism show towards dairy farmers is upsetting to say the least. I was at a local agri show last weekend and heard simular attitudes around the show rings. BTW I'm not a dairy farmer and I haven't put a set of clusters on a cow in over 20 years.
Beef consumption is reducing worldwide, the UK are now rearing their own dairy bull calves instead of exporting/culling them (except for some parts of Scotland) and we have too many cattle in Ireland going into a saturated market. New markets like China can pick and choose where they buy imported beef from.

Keepgrowing

Bass Reeves wrote: »

This could turn into the processors and Government's worst nightmare. In any strike to succeed you may have to go beyond the norm. Look at the last big ESB strike they threw chains to knock out a few important area's. I not saying it right but it often the only way to succeed.

Processors have a problem yes they may have 2-3 weeks beef in cold stores, but 80% of that is hanging to mature. This protest is gathering momentum. The treat of 3.45 next week may actually have hardened the resolve of farmers. This protest is not as such finisher led but suckler farmer led. It may be a lot harder to get these lads to remove the pickets than lads with a few doubles of cattle to kill. As well while cattle are being slaughtered it is only 50% or less of what it should be and numbers will dry up more if this goes on. The line is costing them the same whether they kill 200 or 500/day. Yes it will be a pain in the hole to get cattle killed in 2-3 weeks time but lads have to worry about that then.

Processors have only themselves to blame they have colluded over the last 8 weeks to drop prices by 5c/kg every week and are open that there worry is that no one will finish cattle next winter. Because of that they have forced prices down to try to reduce store prices. However store prices are still quite strong drive by a huge amount of grass and feed in the country and smaller cattle numbers coming through because of the rise in exports in 2018.

For the government this add to the bad publicity they have got over the last 6-8 weeks. Its there own fault. I have been a FG supporter for a while now but I am finding it harder and harder to to find a reason to vote for them. The shambles of the children hospital, the broadband debacle, the local election etc. When Leo had his vegan brain fart he alienated under pressure drystock farmers. Now they are getting caught in the crossfire because they were in a hurry trying to protect the dairy industry.

Perfect summary, your last paragraph sums it up perfectly. Lifetime rural FG voters are being faced with the hardest of decisions.
Do I vote Shinner? Not a chance
Do I vote Ind ? No chance as the best they can do is disrupt
Do I vote FF? This is looking like a distinct possibility.

Most thinking people realise that FG and FF need to be the top 2 parties or we’ll end up with a NI type situation where every pot hole to be filled could collapse a government.

Leo is so out of touch with his non urban party members.

whelan2

LuasSimon wrote: »

The big problem many have with farmers is all their children get free fees and student grants whilst PAYE workers who have less ..have to pay through the nose for their kids

Where can these free fees be got and Grants for all children? That is an extremely ignorant post

wrangler

Base price wrote: »

Which unfortunately has created a sense of division within the farming community. TBH I am horrified to read some of the comments on the Beef Plan social media platform - the antagonism show towards dairy farmers is upsetting to say the least. I was at a local agri show last weekend and heard simular attitudes around the show rings. BTW I'm not a dairy farmer and I haven't put a set of clusters on a cow in over 20 years.
Beef consumption is reducing worldwide, the UK are now rearing their own dairy bull calves instead of exporting/culling them (except for some parts of Scotland) and we have too many cattle in Ireland going into a saturated market. New markets like China can pick and choose where they buy imported beef from.

Apparently England are expecting a huge swing back to dairying after Brexit because of the lack of viable alternate enterprises so there'll even be more dairy beef sloshing around.

Robson99

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Perfect summary, your last paragraph sums it up perfectly. Lifetime rural FG voters are being faced with the hardest of decisions.
Do I vote Shinner? Not a chance
Do I vote Ind ? No chance as the best they can do is disrupt
Do I vote FF? This is looking like a distinct possibility.

Most thinking people realise that FG and FF need to be the top 2 parties or we’ll end up with a NI type situation where every pot hole to be filled could collapse a government.

Leo is so out of touch with his non urban party members.

This is the situation with a lot of people
FF voter here but are they going to change much
We need to be canvassing our local FG tds now and making it clear that we as farmers will do everything in our power to disrupt their next election campaign.... it's the only thing that might wake the dopey ****ers up and stand up for Rural Ireand cause them Muppets Creed Hogan and Varadkar don't care about us

mr.stonewall

Robson99 wrote: »

This is the situation with a lot of people
FF voter here but are they going to change much
We need to be canvassing our local FG tds now and making it clear that we as farmers will do everything in our power to disrupt their next election campaign.... it's the only thing that might wake the dopey ****ers up and stand up for Rural Ireand cause them Muppets Creed Hogan and Varadkar don't care about us

Yesterday I attended the protest as farmer and not a member of the beef plan. The support on the ground is from 99% normal and calm farmers majority not members of beefplan. Everyone is anger with the situation on a number of fronts, the factory's, the grid, feedlots, margins, the lack of political support in Ireland and the chaos in the UK, mercosur etc. We can keep moaning to each other about it. It's not going to change.
We currently have 7 different bodies representing beef farmers. I felt it's time to put differences oneside and stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow farmers. 90% of what each group wants is the same. We need to pull together now.

I would encourage every farmer, from every sector to put their views one side and support in any way. That's just my view

Bass Reeves

Just on an aside. I slaughtered cattle and got a base of 3.60/kg. Was with a lad who killed some heifers the base he got was 4/kg. They were slaughtered through a relations herd number. He has got this done a good few times over the last 2-3 years. Usually there a 5-10c/kg difference but since early June he has been getting 4 and over/kg. These were coloured heifers mostly off dairy cows grading O's =/+ and R-'s. His relation finished a lot of cattle and seems to have a contract or a verbal agreement for June/July cattle this years.

This is the sh!t that goes on all the time. This is why we are quoted and paid one price but the factory returns are often 10-20c/kg higher on the factory returns shown by Agriland and the FJ. This is the market manipulation that goes on.

Sheep breeder

Never wrestle with pigs wrote: »

At it a few days now. It's getting momentum. It's only starting. Vets and AO's are pulling to our side now too. We are hitting other areas of their link now too and hopefully they will be backlogged in the next day or two. The trouble for the factorys is only starting tomorrow. It's going to be an interesting few days. Fair is fair, I don't even kill cattle, I have sucklers.

We have top department people working on things in the background too. This will work more like a slow strangle. They have cattle in the factorys for the morning but they may not be able to kill them.

As for the poster saying that he passed the picket twice, you will be remembered for a long time my friend. You are taking the soap but you won't have many friends when this is over. You do not pass a picket in any industry.

Stick together and give an hour if possible. We are all busy we all have things to do. Be a part of something special, it will work if you give a hand. Ifa or any political group it does not matter, we are all farmers first.

how have you the department AOs on your side, they have to report for duty and clock in or take a days annual leave.
how have you top department staff working for you in the back ground, they have to treat every customer the same (factories as well) under GDPR.
as for the man passing the picket do you know his circumstances and if you were in the same position would you cross.

kk.man

Keepgrowing wrote: »

Perfect summary, your last paragraph sums it up perfectly. Lifetime rural FG voters are being faced with the hardest of decisions.
Do I vote Shinner? Not a chance
Do I vote Ind ? No chance as the best they can do is disrupt
Do I vote FF? This is looking like a distinct possibility.

Most thinking people realise that FG and FF need to be the top 2 parties or we’ll end up with a NI type situation where every pot hole to be filled could collapse a government.

Leo is so out of touch with his non urban party members.

+1 with all you said in your reply.
Since the foundation of this state thru thick and thin we supported FG.

mahoney_j

LuasSimon wrote: »

The big problem many have with farmers is all their children get free fees and student grants whilst PAYE workers who have less ..have to pay through the nose for their kids

Go back to school and get an education .wheres your basis for that uninformed nonsense

Anto_Meath

Base price wrote: »

I'm supposed to bring a cull cow and a free martin heifer on Friday for a neighbour who is small scale suckler farmer. He booked them in last week. His only mode of transport is a tractor and the factory is too far a drive for him so I do the transport for him.

I think I will be having a lie on Friday morning.

That is a pain, at least if they were your own it's easy to say I wouldn't cross the picket but when they are someone else's it can be more difficult. We know the market for beef is poor but the factories are clearly taken the piss, they have been doing it with grades for the last few years and now they are doing it with the quotes. Intervention or something needs to be put in place to keep a floor under the quotes.

Bass Reeves

Sheep breeder wrote: »

how have you the department AOs on your side, they have to report for duty and clock in or take a days annual leave.
how have you top department staff working for you in the back ground, they have to treat every customer the same (factories as well) under GDPR.
as for the man passing the picket do you know his circumstances and if you were in the same position would you cross.

I am sure what he means is lads that are farmers that work in the department and are involved in beef plan are helping them with there protest. Lads trying to put cattle through are often those with contracts or getting the higher prices I posted about earlier. This is where lads are getting 4/kg. These lads have had cattle in sheds all along during June and July. They did not give a f@@k about the lad getting a 5c/kg cut every week since the start of June, why should we give a f@@k about there so called situation now. This is why this needs to continue. I will have cattle going over age from next week on they will stay put until this is done win, lose or draw. But for some lads this is not in there interest for the last two months they have happily being getting there 4/kg and do not give a f@@k about the rest of us.

I think the processors are afraid to bring the competition authority in as it might have to look at too many other thing that are going on and with the way they manipulate the market. If this goes into next week they will have to start to talk and sort it out. Lads forget that we are in the top 10 beef exporting countries in the world. But we are the biggest beef exporter in Europe so in a way it is our low beef prices that sets the market. Supermarkets in the Uk are making a huge margin at present. This week they got about 50% of the kill that will shrink next week as lads like Pidae.M come under pressure not to supply.

It's a small world and lads that send cattle in pass the protest go to marts, that the place to remind them what they are doing is wrong. A few lads standing behind them with big signs with SCAB's on them. No need to jostle or do anything else they will be reminded of where there loyalty should be and that they do not have there lunch and dinner in the factory canteen.

Bass Reeves

Cavanjack wrote: »

The kill figures for this week will be interesting. I wouldn’t imagine they’ll drop too much because of the protests

This is not like usual protest it had a slow start but is gathering momentum, as nearly all factory's are not being protested at and lads supplying are coming under pressure it is not this weeks kill that will be interesting but what happens from midday Sunday on. Its when this goes into the end of next week taht it will really hit processors.

White Clover

Anto_Meath wrote: »

That is a pain, at least if they were your own it's easy to say I wouldn't cross the picket but when they are someone else's it can be more difficult. We know the market for beef is poor but the factories are clearly taken the piss, they have been doing it with grades for the last few years and now they are doing it with the quotes. Intervention or something needs to be put in place to keep a floor under the quotes.

We'll see if the factories go to Musgraves, Tesco at al to plead their case. If they don't, they need to be squeezed harder until they do.
There is enough revenue in the finished animal to be shared around fairly.
It looks like they have gone a step too far this time expecting the farmer to soak up any dip in the market while they increase their margin year on year.

K9

I feel all this talk about urban vs rural is a load of nonsense. It’s this kind of rhetoric that led to the brexit vote in England with parts of the country sending a message to London. Have friends who went to Dublin working after college and all either back living at home or want to get back.
If the rural TDS spent less time trying to promote themselves on the back of this so called divide and actually came up with a policy I’d have more time for them. I actually haven’t heard one thing they’d do apart from saying rural Ireland is been left behind over and over again

freedominacup

White Clover wrote: »

We'll see if the factories go to Musgraves, Tesco at al to plead their case.

What would you think that would achieve? If those companies agreed to pay a price equivalent to €4.50/kg it would have the effect of moving factory price by around 10c/kg once it was spread across all cattle killed. Will a €3.60/kg base price solve the problem?

Robson99

In fairness to lads with cattle which will be over age it's possible that they could be let in.. most will only have a few for this month anyway. Easy to regulate it at the gate
The flip side is they would be better off holding tight as a 10 cent increase would cancel the QA loss
Where are the taepots Bord Bia in all if this ?
I think it about time we started telling them to shove the 12 cent up their rears as well.
Let cattle run up to 36 months and **** the QA.