IFA and Factory Bitching thread.

wrangler wrote: »

Just losing patience with the niggly little complaints, Base Price hasn't even asked the county rep in three years yet keeps on and on about nothing.
FFS Dept did 660 inspections last year, they got 21 overtrims in 50000 carcases, not exactly a crime spree, I shouldn't have to transcribe the journal here anyway. It just seems to be open season on IFA here, but the shooters have precious little ammo.
I can tell you not all farmers have the high moral ground either

Is 660 inspections over the course of a full year pretty low ,how many of these were on the spot inspections .I had a load of cows in yard ready to travel for factory last year ,but got a call as i was loading not to bring any cow with bad feet or any way lame because of dept inspection that day ,2 days later i rocked up with my cows and no word on anything,Sure if the factory know the day there being inspected it is easy to have no over trimmed carcass and correct grades and fat score

wrangler wrote: »

o
I'd be more worried about my healthcare in the public service now than whether they were slicing too much fat off my cattle.
Your never going to be sure unless you go with the cattle and educate yourself .
I've sold 10000+ lambs since the tagging and have never had a reason to doubt the scales, or the KO.....

yep but you had a person follow them down the line ( in some cases maybe yourself)



I used to send a lot of lambs to the same factory, & know damn well I got jocked more than once , last instance took the biscuit with cull ewes.



going a different road now so far no complaints.

kk.man wrote: »

The big problem with the Irish meat industry stems from the toothless Competition Authority. They are unable to stem the 'big three' due to poor legislation and a similar principal with the Supermarkets. If there were more competition for beef and the Supermarket margin greatly reduced it would be a massive help. The day the got rid of the small processor and butcher didn't help either.

3 big companies are better abroad than 30 smaller ones.thats where thr majority of the meat is going.

kk.man wrote: »

The big problem with the Irish meat industry stems from the toothless Competition Authority. They are unable to stem the 'big three' due to poor legislation and a similar principal with the Supermarkets. If there were more competition for beef and the Supermarket margin greatly reduced it would be a massive help. The day the got rid of the small processor and butcher didn't help either.

The competition authority have zero interest in helping the farmer. In the organic side of the house there are only two killing plants and when Larry got a 50% share of both of them, the organic unit of DAFM( in fairness to them) asked the competition authority to investigate. The authority found that as long as prices to the consumer were kept low there was no case of monopoly.

Moral of the story don't be hanging your hopes on the competition authority sorting out the factories as in there eyes it's the consumer not the farmer they are working for.

orm0nd wrote:

yep but you had a person follow them down the line ( in some cases maybe yourself)

orm0nd wrote:

yep but you had a person follow them down the line ( in some cases maybe yourself)

orm0nd wrote:

I used to send a lot of lambs to the same factory, & know damn well I got jocked more than once , last instance took the biscuit with cull ewes.

100% true. As a part time sheep farmer I can't hang around a large factory in south east following them up the line. Plenty of instances where I have questioned the kill outs matched to tags. They know who and how to fiddle and are at it frequently.

orm0nd wrote: »

yep but you had a person follow them down the line ( in some cases maybe yourself)



I used to send a lot of lambs to the same factory, & know damn well I got jocked more than once , last instance took the biscuit with cull ewes.



going a different road now so far no complaints.

Have you tried our group, 5.20 for Us last week and you'd have someone following them up the line.......depots in Kilkenny, laoise, most midlands, suppliers come from all over

Base price wrote: »

Firstly I don't think it's a niggly little complaint. As a staunch IFA member and supporter I accept that you don't take kindly when the organisation is criticised in any way.

TBH I never thought of asking the county rep and if I did, I wouldn't have as I firmly believed there was a conflict of interest between factories and the IFA over the collection of levies.

FFS, I doubt if your County gives sh...e about IFA finances no more than I ever did. Many times I told you, when we go broke we'll go home

Aravo wrote: »

Who decides on clipping charges and the category given A, B or C. Is it the factory or the dept personnel working in the factory.

They're clipping the bellies on everything, they're charging 20c for that, if they're bad the farmer pays for whatever needs to be done, shearing etc, Department Vet decides that. Dag their tailends and fast them before transport and you'll avoid some of the hassle
I've seen some rejected coming in too

Aravo wrote: »

I dagged everything. Checked bellies and trimmed here where applicable. Fasted from night before on straw bedding. Straw on trailer. Low and behold everything is Cat B, 25c fee.

As I say, everything is clipped on the belly and charged for, the shearers are there all the time so it has to be worth their while too.......don't know what they get

Base price wrote: »

I'll post this here rather than the beef price tracker thread.

Irrespective of how good the standards of animal welfare in Ireland are vis a vie live exports if this vote passes (in its current form) it will have a detrimental effect on our beef industry. Prices are bad enough at the minute.
https://www.farmersjournal.ie/align-third-country-standards-or-ban-live-exports-says-eu-report-423907

Maybe......... as long as the stuff coming in comes from countries with aligned welfare standards.

I wonder if they will work as hard to enforce that...no feedlot, no hormone, no stress in the journey and no meat from those animals in...they should work on that too...or else **** off imo

Base price wrote: »

I wonder what the IFA were doing throughout the years :rolleyes:
https://www.farmersjournal.ie/pressure-to-lift-the-lid-on-factories-424571

Dept won't declare the defaulters again, that's for sure.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if farmers were innocent and snow white,
Then you could stay up on the high moral ground that you think you're on

Was at the beef plan meeting last night and have to say there is some serious hatred for the IFA out there.

Never a member but farmers there of a ripe age and alot of breed societies there too and no one has good thing to say about it.

The societies are looking for the disbandment of the ICBF and BDG schemes (I think that's what they are). They reckon they are a disaster and the star ratings are a waste of time.

Agriland were there and some interesting stories were told that night about the dept. If the beef plan group get a chance at all then i can see them doing damage

Check this out on Agriland - Beef Plan Movement: ‘The one thing the factories would love is farmer division’

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/beef-plan-movement-the-one-thing-the-factories-would-love-is-farmer-division/

Reggie. wrote: »

Was at the beef plan meeting last night and have to say there is some serious hatred for the IFA out there.

Never a member but farmers there of a ripe age and alot of breed societies there too and no one has good thing to say about it.

The societies are looking for the disbandment of the ICBF and BDG schemes (I think that's shat they are). They reckon they are a disaster and the star ratings are a waste of time.

Audio and were there and some interesting stories were told that night about the dept. If the beef plan group get a chance at all then i can see them doing damage

Check this out on Agriland - Beef Plan Movement: ‘The one thing the factories would love is farmer division’ https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/beef-plan-movement-the-one-thing-the-factories-would-love-is-farmer-division/

Why do they bother paying their sub then, for people like me that see IFA as a direct line into government, department of AG,to improve my lot I see it as a service. Paying subs and coming out with that sort of rubbish is a bit childish.
Apparently sending out texts asking them to come to protests isn't good enough, seemingly you have to take them by the hand to protect their own incomes....childish again. Factories will love what's going on now, we were told the same years ago, but they'll just continue as usual as long as cattle come in the gate.
As for the schemes, they were proposed, you'd always do your best on them and sign off when no more could be done, but they were never compulsory.
Don't think I was ever in anything that walked farmers down a blind alley,
We turned the deal for the windmills on it's head just by asking the farmers to stop signing up, but they could always go back to the old deal, same with the road deal.
I had a problem with another large organisation, it was nice to say in a meeting ''That's not the way farmers deal with it'', they compensated me fairly quickly.
Unfortunately when people are paying subs they think they don't have to get the finger out.
This crowd have done nothing yet. whineing about factories is useless and maybe even slanderous, protesting without having a innovative way of dealing with Comp Authority will leave farmers vulnerable.
I wouldn't have patience with this carry on and always walked away when it started,'' To help someone up a ladder they have to put the first foot up themselves'' Farmers might just do it this time but I doubt it

Never had a problem with factories apart from price, so won't be getting excited this time either, OH was at a meeting yesterday hearing terrible stories about Camolin being strict on Clean Lamb Policies and their handling of it, Neither our coordinator nor ourselves who'd be there all day every Thursday seen any evidence of the reports

wrangler wrote: »

Why do they bother paying their sub then, for people like me that see IFA as a direct line into government, department of AG,to improve my lot I see it as a service. Paying subs and coming out with that sort of rubbish is a bit childish.
Apparently sending out texts asking them to come to protests isn't good enough, seemingly you have to take them by the hand to protect their own incomes....childish again. Factories will love what's going on now, we were told the same years ago, but they'll just continue as usual as long as cattle come in the gate.
As for the schemes, they were proposed, you'd always do your best on them and sign off when no more could be done, but they were never compulsory.
Don't think I was ever in anything that walked farmers down a blind alley,
We turned the deal for the windmills on it's head just by asking the farmers to stop signing up, but they could always go back to the old deal, same with the road deal.
I had a problem with another large organisation, it was nice to say in a meeting ''That's not the way farmers deal with it'', they compensated me fairly quickly.
Unfortunately when people are paying subs they think they don't have to get the finger out.
This crowd have done nothing yet. whineing about factories is useless and maybe even slanderous, protesting without having a innovative way of dealing with Comp Authority will leave farmers vulnerable.
I wouldn't have patience with this carry on and always walked away when it started,'' To help someone up a ladder they have to put the first foot up themselves'' Farmers might just do it this time but I doubt it

Never had a problem with factories apart from price, so won't be getting excited this time either, OH was at a meeting yesterday hearing terrible stories about Camolin being strict on Clean Lamb Policies and their handling of it, Neither our coordinator nor ourselves who'd be there all day every Thursday seen any evidence of the reports

Only reporting on what was seen but like I said if they get momentum I can see them doing damage. They have alot of firepower within the group.

There were grown men in tears telling stories about the factories and the carry on of bord bia. IFA didn't want to know about any of it.

I genuinely think there is a change coming once farmers get behind them. The IFA will be redundant if that's the case. Too much vested interest with the IFA if half the stuff I heard last night is true