Over 700 beef farmers from all over the Republic came to the Midlands on Tuesday night to hear at first hand the damage which had been done to their businesses by the latest BSE crisis.
They packed the ballroom of the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel to hear the leader of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, outline the grim facts about the decline in markets, the fall in prices and the unpalatable things they might have to do to survive.
The last time I was in the same venue it was full of smiling, happy farmers who were celebrating the National Ploughing Championships, being held just a few miles away in Ballacolla.
On Tuesday night there were no smiles anywhere as the room, which was packed to capacity, mostly with middle-aged men, heard Tom Parlon say that it appeared they would have to opt for a slaughter-for-destruction scheme being proposed by the EU.
Speaker after speaker had told the IFA president it would break their hearts to see healthy animals over 30 months old being slaughtered and their carcasses destroyed.
Mr Parlon had to remind them on a few occasions that when they brought their animals to meat plants the animals would be killed anyway, and that once they received a cheque for their cattle, the animals no longer belonged to them.
One of the midlands' most prominent cattle farmers, Mr Richard Booth from Portlaoise, told the meeting that farmers had better forget about the past. It was time to move on and deal with the future.
Mr Booth said farmers had to seek compensation for the damage done to their livelihoods by the French and Germans, who had not established the controls the Irish had been living with for years.
"This is a European problem now. Let us seek European levels of compensation. At least let us start where the crisis began, at 90p per lb for our beef," he said.
The managements of every other part of their industry, the factories, the renderers, the cold room operators and transport people, were examining the EU proposals to see where they could profit from them.
"Why should we be the ones to take the hit? We should be looking for compensation for the damage which has been done to us by other countries. What has happened was beyond our control," he said.
The IFA, which organised the meeting, had professional advice for the farmers on what to do with the cattle they had on their lands which no one now seemed to want to buy.
They were told they should reduce the amount of feed they were giving to animals which were ready for sale, castrate young bulls in an effort to get a second premium, and try to hold animals until after January 1st next, when the EU slaughter-for-destruction scheme begins.
The bottom line, however, was that farmers should consider selling at the prices currently on offer, even if this meant taking a loss of between £100 and £150 per animal, and hope that compensation may be paid later.
The meeting agreed that all those in the room should lobby their local TDs in an effort to put pressure on the Government to compensate the farmers for their losses.
After the meeting, one Co Westmeath farmer said he stood to lose £200,000 this winter as he had borrowed heavily to buy animals, which he had planned to sell at an average of 92p per lb. On Tuesday he was offered 82p per lb on animals under 30 months and told to take the older animals home.
"This is my last year fattening cattle. It will not be my decision. The bank will make it for me and anyhow, none of my children are interested in the business and it looks as if I have nothing to pass on," he said.