On this week’s episode of FarmLand, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed gives us the inside track on what happened at the 12th Beef Roundtable discussion, as farmers flocked to the city streets in protest.

Eamon Corley, livestock chairman of Meath Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and one of the founding members of the newly-formed Beef Plan Group outlines why he believes farmers have “lost confidence” in farm unions and highlights how his new group aims to shake up the beef industry.

Des Morrison, livestock chairman of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), and Michael Fitzmaurice, independent TD for Roscommon Galway, go head-to-head in a compelling debate over the potential of contract rearing to boost farm incomes and labour efficiencies on drystock and dairy farms nationwide.

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Our reporter Siobhan Walsh gets the word on the street from the farmers that boycotted this week’s Beef Forum outside Agriculture House in Dublin.

Plus, reporter Conor Finnerty travelled to Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo to catch up with suckler farmer and contract rearer, Kevin Henry, who explains how diversifying his enterprise has brought it from strength to strength.

FarmLand, which airs every Thursday evening at 8:00pm, is supported by well-known agri retailer Homeland – the retail arm of Aurivo Co-operative Society Ltd.

Previous episodes are available here and here.