Irish government urged to step up inspection of meat classification

Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has urged the Department of Agriculture to increase its levels of supervision in the meat plants to guarantee the accuracy of mechanical classification.

The association recently met with the senior department inspectors over classification and demanded that the levels of monitoring and inspection of mechanical classification and other areas such as carcass trim are significantly increased in order to guarantee farmers that they are receiving accurate returns under the system.

"Farmers are very concerned about recent reports about inaccuracies on mechanical classification and the Department of Agriculture must clarify the facts," said IFA National Livestock Chairman Michael Doran.

The department must also provide a proper appeals system under mechanical classification in circumstances where a farmer feels he has not received the appropriate grade, Doran added.

Meanwhile, prices for finished stock have hardened since last week because of the good weather, according to reports.

"With the improvement in the weather, many farmers have put a lot of store cattle out to grass and it has taken the pressure off their feed stocks. As a result, they are not under the same amount of pressure to sell finished and fat cattle and we should see a further improvement in beef prices in the future," said Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) National Beef Chairman Peter Fox.