THERE is nothing worse than a row and that is what we have been witnessing since last week when the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, announced the ring fencing of Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan, from Russian beef contracts.
The Irish Farmers' Association is essentially a Fine Gael organisation in its permanent government, i.e., the full time officials who run the organisation are of the same political persuasion, no matter who is elected to office.
From its beginnings what was then the National Farmers' Association has been controlled by the larger Irish farmers, mainly from Munster and the east coast. The foot soldiers, as in any army, came from diverse political backgrounds.
The control of the organisation by the larger farmers, who had traditionally voted Fine Gael or to be more precise, anti Fianna Fail, became complete under the presidency of Joe Rea, who had to trim the finances of an ailing organisation when he took over.
He cut the travelling expenses for delegates to the national executive. This meant that only resourced people could travel to its offices on Bluebell Road, Dublin, for meetings. The takeover by the rich farmer was at that stage complete, with a few little quirks here and there.
John Donnelly, the current president of IFA, is the son of an east Galway political "mixed marriage", and plays his political cards very close to his chest.
But last week, Donnelly was really irate when he heard in the United States that Ivan Yates had "partitioned" some IFA country by allowing Russian beef exclusion orders without consulting the premier farming organisation.
Donnelly's anger paled compared to the head of the IFA permanent government, general secretary, Michael Berkery, who was more incensed because his own native Tipperary was one of the locked out counties.
"The Berk" as he is known a highly intelligent man from a strong FG background put the IFA troops on full alert and he and Donnelly flew back to Ireland to do battle with the Department.
The country listened to Donnelly in full flight on radio and television, castigating the Minister for what he had done, while meetings were organised in the affected counties, so members could let off some steam.
But while Donnelly vented his anger at what had happened, Fine Gael was miles ahead of him and, according to insiders, the game was already over by the time he was back in the State.
Mr Yates knew for nearly two months that the Russian contracts were in danger. As we now know, the document stating that Ireland faced a total ban on November 1st was presented to the Minister of State for Agriculture, Jimmy Deenihan, over two months ago.
The Minister was forced to concede at 1 p.m. last Saturday week. However, it was not until the following Tuesday that he summoned the agricultural press to tell them that "the gun was put to my head" and he had no option but to sign.
But Mr Yates had identified the source from which the most opposition would come and last Sunday week, key Fine Gael personnel in the constituencies involved were aware of the arrival of the bad news.
By Monday evening Mount Street had applied a local political "whip" which was so successful that by the time Donnelly got to address a meeting of Monaghan farmers in the Four Seasons Hotel on Tuesday night, the proceedings went with a whimper rather than a bang.
A prominent Fine Gael source boasted during the week that only 300 farmers attended the session. There should have been 1,000 farmers there if the groundwork had not already been done.
Donnelly found himself talking to a low key meeting which was dominated by local politicians, most of whom had already been to Dublin to consult the Minister or were preparing for a trip there on Thursday.
He had to reject Yates's allegation that the land organisation was behaving "hysterically" and ended up having a row with the only available target, Senator Ann Gallagher, over a Dick Spring visit to Iran.
On Wednesday the IFA face was something totally different and new. IFA wanted to put all the history behind it and work with the Government on a new quality assurance scheme to reassure Irish and overseas consumers about Irish beef.
It will also go down in history as the day that IFA discovered consumers and decided, no matter how misguided, the consumer is always right.
Challenged about his attitude to natural hormone growth promoters if they were made legal again, Mr Donnelly replied: "My attitude is that of the consumer."
The Minister, the Department and the IFA have now decided that traceability and transparency are the way forward and at last, the consumer is important.
Running up to the weekend it has become clear that the rather public row between Mr Yates and the IFA is over. The greater good will be better served by a common approach to a problem which will not go away.
But, there is also the lingering feeling that the family row will continue to simmer under the surface.