THE NEW president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association has called for a fair trade deal for farmers.
As he was installed at the organisation’s agm last night, Gabriel Gilmartin said: “We want fair trade for Irish farmers. Fair trade is not just about coffee and bananas. It’s time it started at home with our beef and lamb.”
He insisted beef farmers needed an immediate price rise for their stock and reiterated the ICSA call for farmers to stop selling beef to factories at anything less than this price. The ICSA is looking for €3.36 a kilo for cattle or the farmers will refuse to sell.
Meanwhile, there was an angry reaction from the 500 farmers attending Teagasc’s national tillage conference in Carlow yesterday when Colin Byrne of the Department of the Environment outlined the demands of the water framework directive, which requires all water to be pristine by 2015. In certain areas that would require a cutback in the use of nitrates and phosphates.
His paper, Likely Implications of the Water Framework Directive for Tillage Farmers, said that 31 per cent of farms might be non-compliant with the Good Agricultural Practice Regulations 2006, which are compulsory. He said inspections would be stepped up.