No cattle were slaughtered yesterday at the three Kepak plants where the Irish Farmers' Association continued its protest over the prices they are receiving for their cattle.
However, the company did slaughter sheep at its Athleague, Co Roscommon, plant, where no attempt was made by the protesters to prevent production.
The protest is expected to end later this afternoon in this, the first 48-hour action against the factories which has already seen production lost for 24 hours at the AIBP and Dawn plants the weekend before last and, the previous Monday, all AIBP plants shut for the day.
Meanwhile the war of words between the IFA and the Irish Meat Association continued yesterday with the IFA president, Mr John Dillon, rebutting claims by the IMA that Irish farmers were not receiving the lowest cattle prices in Europe.
Mr Dillon said beef farmers were no longer prepared to tolerate the sanctimonious lectures from the IMA on the IFA cattle price campaign when the reality was that the marketing failure by the factories had left Irish farmers with the lowest cattle prices in Europe.
Mr Dillon accused the meat factories of utter failure on marketing Irish beef. He said the latest Bord Bia market monitor verified this failure and highlighted the stark reality that Irish cattle prices were at the bottom of the EU price league.
Mr Dillon said the enormity of this failure by the factories was exposed by the difference this week of €160 per head between cattle prices in Ireland and in Britain.
The IFA president said farmers were more determined than ever to intensify the cattle-price campaign and break the factories' stranglehold on low cattle prices. It was clear the only agenda of the meat factories was to keep Irish cattle prices at the bottom of the EU price league.
Mr Dillon said that, despite all the Brussels support for the Egyptian and Russian trade, where export refunds amount to over €350 per animal, the meat factories and their spokesmen were "hell bent" on undermining market confidence and talking down cattle prices.