The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has responded to concerns over beef factory grading and pricing systems.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) said questions had been raised after the publication of the department's Beef Carcase Classification and Price Reporting Annual Report for 2025.

The farm organisation claimed that the "failure" to supervise grading and data collection in some beef factories is "likely costing farmers millions".

The ICMSA Livestock Committee chair Michael O'Connell said six beef factories out of a total of 35 DAFM-approved factories are not reporting prices to the department on a weekly basis.

He also raised concerns about the number of inspections carried out and the number of carcasses checked in beef factories.

DAFM

In response, a spokesperson for DAFM told Agriland, that the obligations on processors and the controls regarding the classification of beef carcases and the price reporting obligations are laid down in EU legislation.

Under this legislation, the spokesperson said factories that slaughter more than 20,000 bovines per year are obliged to report prices to DAFM.

"In Ireland, price data was collected on 94.9% of all bovines slaughtered in 2025 and all plants that are obliged to report under the regulations are doing so.

"The 6 plants referred to are not obliged to report prices to DAFM under EU legislation, as they fall under the aforementioned slaughter limits," they said.

Based on 2025 total throughput, the ICMSA said the remaining 5.1% equates to about 81,000 cattle.

Beef factory

The department said that grading or classification is mandatory under EU legislation in all bovine factories that slaughter more than 150 bovines aged 8 months or more per week as an annual average.

"Grading may be conducted by either a mechanical grading machine or by a DAFM licenced manual grader.

"The EU legal requirement for monitoring classification is a minimum of 8 inspections per factory per year and must include a minimum of 40 carcasses at each inspection.

"The inspections are unannounced and ensure the accuracy of the manual grader and machine grading," the DAFM spokesperson said.

They noted that these inspections are in addition to the daily checks that are conducted in the licenced factories.

"For example, the machine must be calibrated every morning to ensure that the machine is operating to specification, while a licensed manual grader must also cross check a specified number of carcases graded by the machine throughput the day," the spokesperson said.

"Regarding the presentation or trim checks, it must be further noted that the inspections reported, on the Beef Carcase Classification Report as referenced, are in addition to the daily monitoring of carcase presentation which is carried out by the veterinary public health staff in the factories.

"These daily checks, are reported to the BCC team and ensure that the standards are maintained on all kill days," they added.