As farmers lifted their blockade on the Natural Dairies plant at Convoy, Co Donegal, yesterday, they said the focus of their campaign will be Dunnes Stores to which the Donegal plant supplies milk.
The farmers shut down the plant from Tuesday to prevent what they claimed was the under-cost selling of milk by Dunnes at 86p for two litres.
They defied High Court injunctions forbidding the blockading of the plant and refused to lift their blockade until convinced to do so by the Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr Tom Parlon, yesterday.
On Saturday he gave an undertaking to a special sitting of the High Court to travel to Donegal to see what influence he could bring to bear to end the blockade.
Mr Parlon had been in the court with the 36 members of the IFA's Liquid Milk Committee who faced court sanctions for allegedly failing to obey orders preventing them blockading the plant. The IFA denied being involved in organising the protest.
Mr Parlon's discussions with the protesters brought about the dismantling of the barricades by the farmers at 5 p.m. yesterday. But a spokesman for the group, Mr Fred Revington, spoke of the action being "suspended".
"The reason we are lifting the blockade now is that we have no wish to be in conflict with the courts. We have decided to suspend our action and have taken the view that in future, our target will be Dunnes Stores," he said.
Mr Parlon, he said, had convinced them of the seriousness of being in conflict with the court and they decided they had completed a very successful campaign, he said.
The protest had united farmers from all over the country and had been the focus of the Irish and international media. "This is only the beginning," he said.
Mr Revington, who will be back in the High Court for the resumed hearing this morning, would not specify what kind of action the farmers intended to take against Dunnes Stores.
Natural Dairies, which gets its milk from Northern Ireland, gave its 25 workers protective notice when it was unable to supply milk to Dunnes. In the past four months, the company's output has risen from 30,000 litres a day to more than 80,000.