The Beef Plan Movement has recently highlighted attempts to portray Irish beef farmers as hypocrites. Bord Bia Chairperson Larry Murrin has recently stated that Irish beef farmers have no objection to using South American grain in animal feed. This claim has been widely reported across major media outlets. However, we view it as a distraction, a red herring, designed to deflect attention from the ongoing controversies surrounding Mr. Murrin’s leadership at Bord Bia, particularly the conflict-of-interest concerns arising from his company’s importation of Brazilian beef while Bord Bia promotes Irish-origin food and quality assurance standards.
The counter-argument now being advanced is that beef farmers are content to import South American grain and feed ingredients while opposing South American beef imports. Some have even suggested that Bord Bia certification for Irish beef should mandate a minimum proportion of Irish grain in rations, with a premium paid to encourage this.
As beef farmers, we find this framing puzzling and misleading. Ireland’s domestic cereal production in 2024 was approximately 1.9 million tonnes (per Teagasc estimates), well below the country’s total needs. Even in stronger years (e.g., estimates around 2.23 million tonnes in some contexts), domestic output covers less than half of overall grain requirements. Roughly 80% of Irish-produced cereals go into animal feed, with the remainder used for malting, distilling, and human food.
Beef farmers have long supported Irish grain growers, but we cannot always rely solely on domestic supply due to variability in production, weather, and issues with undersupply. Past policies, such as the 2021 straw chopping incorporation measure, drove straw prices sharply higher and further squeezed beef farm margins. Mutual support across farming sectors is essential. We should not be pitted against one another.
The focus on grain imports distracts from the real issues at a time when beef farmers are fighting for survival against sub-standard imported beef. The majority of South American imports into Ireland are not cereals but soybean meal (soya), with approximately 676,572 tonnes imported in 2024 (primarily from Argentina at 419,000 tonnes, per CSO data). Ireland does not, and cannot produce soya due to our maritime climate. It is an essential imported protein source.
Importantly, the beef sector is not a major consumer of soya.The pig, poultry and dairy sectors are the predominant market for imported South American soya as they have a high protein requirement. Pig and poultry feeds require large volumes of high-protein ingredients like soybean meal (often 10-30% inclusion rates) to meet their non-ruminant animals’ needs for digestible protein and amino acids. In 2024, pig and poultry sectors together consumed an estimated 1-1.5 million tonnes of cereals (maize, wheat, barley) in compound feeds, with soya forming a significant portion of their protein component. Dairy rations may include 10-25% soya in concentrates for high-yielding cows, but beef finishing rations typically require only 12% crude protein, much of which can be met through Irish cereals (which are naturally lower in protein than some imports) supplemented as needed.
The key question is: Why, at a time when beef farmers are campaigning for proper labelling, stricter controls on sub-standard beef imports, and greater market transparency, is an issue that barely applies to our sector being amplified? Media coverage has emphasised South American grain imports, seemingly as a deflection.
Imposing minimum ration requirements for Irish-origin feed under Bord Bia certification could introduce additional regulatory compliance costs, which would ultimately be borne by farmers. These extra costs risk offsetting any premium payments received by tillage farmers for supplying such feed. While some advocates propose a €20 per tonne incentive, this amount could quickly be eroded by rising regulatory burdens and escalating input costs, the primary barriers to the economic viability of Irish grain production. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), now in effect, is already driving substantial increases in fertiliser prices in the coming months (with estimates ranging from 8–15% or more for key products like urea, depending on the scenario), further compounding these challenges. There is also the issue that bord bia is not obliged to return a premium to beef farmers. Their remit is to market Irish produce which may not necessarily benefit the producer.
The conclusion is clear: This is a deliberate distraction, designed to tarnish the reputation of beef farmers, label us as hypocrites, and preserve the status quo, allowing low-standard imports to continue unchecked.
Unfortunately Irish tillage farmers are in the same boat as Irish beef farmers, they operate in high cost, high standard jurisdictions and expected to compete with produce from low cost and low standards areas such as South America. The real problem is that while the chair of Bord Bia continues to raise standards higher for Irish producers, he also sees no issue with using produce from other jurisdictions and selling it on the reputation of the standards achieved by Irish producers. This is why he has to go.