farawaygrass wrote: » I went two evenings to a protests and at the time I thought fair play to ye. I think there was good men and women involved but the whole thing got out of control, with the tail wagging the dog. I have since changed my view and thought was a mess the whole thing was. First thing that annoyed me was they took shots at everyone and anyone, ifj, Ifa, bord bia. They should have picked their battles better. I’m not pro or anti any farm organisation by the way. Secondly, sending that letter to English’s beef customers saying Irish beef wasn’t truly grass fed-what were they thinking? It had the potential to be something brilliant but the agms were the final nail in the coffin. How could you let them represent you with all the infighting.
mf240 wrote: » The factorys have been riding farmers for the last 50 years. Nothing to do with any group. The only thing left for farmers to do is simply not produce beef cattle.
manjou wrote: » Haven't read the article but bit of a coincidence that at the same time abp are trying to justify polish beef imports the editor of farmers journal trys to lay blame of beef price on protests. Remember the second round of protests where farmers led . The only thing the processors fear is farmer unity because if irish farmers all joined together they might achieve something. Ad for polish beef it's comming in by the container load.
ppn wrote: » Wasn't that ridiculous letter sent by unofficial BeefPlan though? Seems like there is a small cohort in BPM that have become hungry for power, with ego's to match and I'm not talking about the original founders, who seem to be actually trying to do something rather than sniping, etc.
Good loser wrote: » Don't you understand that the price of cattle is determined by market forces? Supply and demand? Factories reflect these forces in their quotes which fluctuate from day to day. Have you never heard the expression 'cattle are scarce'? No factory was responsible for the daft store prices of Jan and Feb 2020. Conspiracy theories are the product of weak minds and unsound reasoning. Such theories (in general) arise from the mistaken theory that, whatever happens in society - especially happenings such as war, unemployment,poverty, shortages, which people as a rule dislike - is the result of direct design by some powerful individuals or groups. (In the Middle Ages and earlier the Gods were blamed.) FYI the price of cheese in Chicago dropped 40% in the last fortnight. Butter fell 30% ($1,000 per tonne) in 10 days. Demand for mozzarella has plunged 50%.
Good loser wrote: » Conspiracy theories are the product of weak minds and unsound reasoning. Such theories (in general) arise from the mistaken theory that, whatever happens in society - especially happenings such as war, unemployment,poverty, shortages, which people as a rule dislike - is the result of direct design by some powerful individuals or groups. (In the Middle Ages and earlier the Gods were blamed.).
wrangler wrote: » Good explanation of Beef plan. Conspiracy theories with no evidence to support , Thanfully most have moved on from middle ages
declanflynn wrote: » Why dont we reduce supply?
Jjameson wrote: » The history of this is interesting. It has quite a bit to do with the demographics of family farms in that the brightest boys either went abroad to work or became priests. Leaving mentally deficient men who had been conditioned to farm from a young age. Tongue in cheek of course! The taxation system has a lot of us on a hamster wheel but aside from that it’s just belligerent pride or fear of change that is stopping a widespread move to more extensive farming. The answer to bad prices is never increased production from more inputs and this penny needs to drop.
Duke92 wrote: » I’m presume you mean the farmers in the west A lot would be great I’ll agree but not all They want to get the same wage as the guy milking 200 cows in southeast some joke They should just leave it as a carbon sink over there
Hard Knocks wrote: » It’s not so simple The number of suckler herd is reducing and should level at 500-600,000 by 2022 Our Dairy herd has increased from 800,000 to 1.3m On top of this to control the market there is allot of beef imported and processed here
Base price wrote: » You mean the fellas who were selling their weanlings/stores in the marts whilst stopping their neighbours bringing beef and lamb to the factories - feckin conts.
manjou wrote: » True in one way but on other hand if all 70000 odd beef farmers had of been together on this it may have been different. In the end a lack of unity as much as factory power caused it to go the way it did.
Hard Knocks wrote: » Emm If they got the same wage as someone milking 30 cows, it’d be an improvement
Panch18 wrote: » It seems to me that some beef farmers expect to be able to make a living from 50 acres with 30 sucklers on it It’s about time they woke up to reality that those days will never happen again NEVER If you are a beef farmer it’s pretty simple. You should be aiming for 200 profit per acre. If you can’t achieve that on a regular basis you probably shouldn’t be farming, or farming at any level other than hobby From your 200 an acre it’s Then it’s an acres game. If you have enough acres you can do it full time, depending on your income needs depends on how many acres you need. Maximise all cheques in the post. If you haven’t enough acres then you can’t do it full time. It’s that simple But if you are losing money then you need to sharpen up dramatically or get out
Neddyusa wrote: » There are no beef farmers out there making €200/acre profit. Not mathematically possible with beef at e4.50/kg not to mind e3.30 or whatever it is now. If they think they are making that "profit" there's two possibilities: 1. They are counting subsidies, income from other enterprises or (worse again) off-farm income as income from "beef farming" And/Or 2. They are not including their full costs of production: The ones usually left out are labour, capital, buildings and machinery - and God forbid you put a price on it - land.
Jjameson wrote: » Farming is now essentially the haves and the have nots! Inheritance, spousal inheritance or income, independent income, large holdings and large sfp and menial living expenses, pensions.. for a sizeable proportion of beef farmers beef price will never have them on the breadline. I agree with all the above and if I was given the benefit of hindsight I would not have bothered my hole going to shake my fist at Larry.
Panch18 wrote: » Then fellas need to get out or have it as a hobby
wrangler wrote: » When I had 50 sucklers to beef and 250 ewes an eminent consultant(not teagasc) told me it wasn't a full time occupation ........ at the time I thought I was killed working
Neddyusa wrote: » Fully agree. The bit of your first post I took issue with was the suggestion that "bad" beef farmers were losing money and the "better" beef farmers were making money. I have a problem with that idea - promoted by IFJ , Teagasc etc - that somehow doing everything by the textbook would make the beef farmer a nice profit. It wouldn't - and never would - unless beef remained consistently > €5/kg. But the notion that beef is profitable - as promoted by various vested interests - is what has a lot of very good beef farmers wondering what's wrong with them, that they can't make what "the lad in the paper" is making.
