Drystock farmers involved in beef production have begun an intensive round of lobbying to protect their incomes in the next round of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Irish MEPs were told by the farmers at a meeting in Tullamore that they had lost £600 million over the last six years as a result of the last reform of the CAP.
The chairman of the ICSA, Mr Albert Thompson, told a meeting attended by MEPs that drystock farming accounted for 48 per cent of total agricultural output.
He warned that unless corrective and decisive action was taken by negotiators in the run-up to CAP negotiations, the consequences for rural Ireland and the drystock farmer, the poorest in the agri-sector, would be extremely serious.