A report from Teagasc advising farmers they will need to receive €2.50 a kilo for animals they sell next spring, to make a profit of €70, has fuelled rising tension between beef farmers and beef factories.
This weekend the IFA is to step up its protest at meat factories owned by the AIBP and the Dawn group in a row over prices farmers are receiving for their cattle.
The figures, which are released annually, came with a warning from the Agriculture and Food Development Authority, that profit prospects for beef over the coming winter will "continue to be tight".
Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Laois, Mr Bernard Smyth, beef adviser with Teagasc, said farmers paying €800 for a 500 kg Continental steer will be "operating on a financial tightrope."
He said for 500 kg Friesian steers, currently costing €650 in the marts, the factory prices next spring would need to be in the order of €2.35 a kilo to leave a profit of €70 per animal.
Lower quality silage on many farms this winter would add to feeding costs, he said, and on all beef farms the daily feed costs would exceed the value of the weight gained by the animal.
He said that given current beef prices and expectations for beef markets over the next 12 to 18 months, young stock were currently overpriced in the marts.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association said a survey it conducted at the ploughing championships confirmed the depressed state of farm incomes, with virtually all farmers, 97 per cent, suffering an income decline this year.
It said that 56 per cent of farmers surveyed expressed pessimism about their future in farming.
Some 63 per cent expected their incomes to decline by 15 to 20 per cent this year and a further 20 per cent expected to see their income to fall by over 20 per cent.
The high cost of insurance was driving machinery salespeople out of the business, the president of the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association, Mr Edwin Pratt, claimed yesterday.
He said the 125 per cent increases in public liability and other insurance costs would force many in the trade to cut back on their operations or to close down.
The increased costs were having a serious effect on the viability of some of the dealerships, especially in relation to covering young apprentice mechanics, he said.