Final details of today's mass tractor rally through the centre of Dublin were negotiated with gardaí last night as the build-up of vehicles continued well into the evening.
More than 1,500 tractors were on the move yesterday en route to the city as part of the planned protest in Dublin's Merrion Square at lunch-time.
At the rally, Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr John Dillon, will outline the key demands his organisation will make on the Government to reverse the decline in the farming sector.
Top of the list will be a call for an acknowledgment by the Government of the true income situation in farming, and a clear statement of Government strategy on the future of family farming.
They will be seeking delivery from the Minister of stronger market management at European level to raise Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) prices for milk, beef and grain.
A key demand of the organisation is a reversal of the 2003 Estimates/Budget cuts, including those which Mr Dillon claimed were a breach of earlier agreements with the organisation.
These were the doubling of disease levies, to €20 million, and the removal of rollover relief on lands which had been compulsorily purchased for road-building.
Mr Dillon said the IFA would also be seeking implementation of pre-election commitments by the Government, including those on disadvantaged area payments.
He also warned the Government not to tamper with the third-level education grant assessment system.
Two further key demands are the reduction of bureaucracy and an increase in computerisation to help minimise paperwork and inspections.
The IFA will also seek renegotiation of the Special Areas of Conservation designation procedures, compensation, and realistic stocking levels on commonage.
While this is a long shopping-list, there was a growing belief last night that the IFA might achieve some reversal of the Budget proposals. The thinking is that the Government will be forced to apply the same kind of political logic which allowed it to set aside monies for benchmarking, and do the same for the agriculture sector.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, yesterday repeated his assertion on radio that negotiation was the best way forward.
He said he believed the partnership programme would provide the best vehicle for finding a resolution to the difficulties, which had generated so much heat in the past week.
Speaking last night at Goff's in Co Kildare, where the main convoy from Cork, Kilkenny and Carlow has been parked for the night, Mr Dillon stressed that farmers had shown their anger and frustration in a measured and disciplined way over the past week.
However, he warned the Government that farmer patience with the level of neglect being heaped on the sector was "at breaking point".
Hundreds of farmers who were not driving their tractors turned up at Goff's to welcome the southern groups, and in an emotional address to them, Mr Dillon repeated that farmers were not going to curl up and die, but would fight for their future.
"We are not going to allow ourselves become extinct and I believe that we have shown that this week," he said.
The drive to the city centre will begin at 10 a.m. this morning. The organisers say they hope to be clear of the city centre by 2.30 p.m.
Many of the vehicles which travelled on the last legs of the convoys into Dublin headed back home last night and the IFA has asked farmers not taking part in the "tractorcade" not to come into the city centre.