The Irish Meat Association, which represents the beef factories, has rejected claims by the Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr Tom Parlon, that they broke the agreement on beef prices which ended the IFA sit-in at the Department of Agriculture headquarters in October.
The IMA statement was issued as the IFA mounted a lobby of factories across the State in support of their claim that they should be paid more for their beef.
In a statement issued after the lobby, which involved 18 meat plants, Mr Parlon said his organisation had put irrefutable facts to the factory managers, which proved that cattle prices should rise by a minimum of 6p immediately.
Mr Parlon said the factories had to accept that market prices in the UK had improved, EU markets remained buoyant and export refunds had improved by 9p since October.
He said the factories accepted that cattle farmers could not survive at the autumn's low price levels of 74-75p per lb and the factories also accepted that market returns had improved.
In addition to the improved market returns, cattle supplies were beginning to tighten this week and farmers needed to bargain with the meat plants on prices, he said.
Some producers had negotiated flat prices of 79-80p per lb this week and prices as high as 88p per lb had been paid for quality beef under specific group deals, he added.
But yesterday the IMA said that factories had been paying the price agreed with the IFA in the Department of Agriculture on October 15th.
The chief executive of the IMA, Mr John Smith, said farmers would be paid the full intervention price for eligible cattle and this commitment had been honoured in full.
He said the price being paid for R3 (good quality bullocks) was now 81.5p per lb and full intervention price, including the processing cost allowance of 5.1p per lb, was being paid for all intervention eligible cattle, irrespective of whether the cattle were sold into intervention.