Monaghan beef farmers are "outraged" over Russian deal

MONAGHAN beef farmers yesterday expressed outrage at the deal the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, has signed with the Russians. The deal has turned their beef into a "second class product", they said.

Referring to Mr Yates's comment that the Russians had put a gun to his head, giving him no choice, beef farmer Mr Donal McDaid said the Minister "has another gun to his head this morning, and that's the gun of the Monaghan farmers".

Mr McDaid said Mr Yates's deal has cost him around £100 per animal. The price of Monaghan beef will drop relative to beef from the rest of the country, he says.

"I'm farming 16 years and I've never seen farmers so angry in my life," he says. The whole county now fears that the deal will taint all of Monaghan's food products, he said.

Mr Gerry Casey, a dairy and beef farmer, from Scotshouse, said: "My reaction is total disbelief."

Farmers now have no confidence in the negotiating powers of the Minister for Agriculture, he said. "We don't want him to put one foot on a plane to Russia. We want the Taoiseach to go ... (Mr Yates) is not the Minister for Agriculture, he's the Minister for Wrack and Ruin."

Mr John Boylan, a beef farmer from Carrickmacross and member of the national council of the IFA, said the deal would damage the reputation of Monaghan beef. "Buyers from Iraq, Saudia Arabia and Dublin will be saying they don't want any second class product."

The Russians were using the BSE crisis to bargain for a better price but it had "backfired". Mr Yates "should have held the line and the boys would have come back to him", he said.

Monaghan farmers are to meet in the Four Seasons Hotel, Monaghan, next Tuesday.