Isle of Man Meats will hold 45 cattle in the lairage area until at least Tuesday next week.
The holding of the animals is due to yet another machinery breakdown in the plant. The cattle hoist encountered an “unexpected” malfunction during Tuesday’s (March 5) cattle processing.
In a letter to producers the Meat Plant claims that it has a “comprehensive plan” where it will see the hoist repaired this week.
However this will then have to be inspected by Vulcan suspension specialists on Monday (March 11) next week to restart production on Tuesday (March 12).
Isle of Man Meats says “this critical piece of machinery is currently unusable, which has disrupted our operations”.
Lairage
The Meat Plant confirmed to producers that due to this breakdown “the 45 cattle currently in the lairage will need to be retained until next week”, however it added that the lamb kill remains unaffected.
It says it is “reviewing if this situation will impact next week’s intake but if possible will double our kill to ensure no impact on producers”.
The plant says it will “honour the price from due in date, and monitor for any weight loss” of the animals.
Lairage is the holding of livestock at abattoirs prior to slaughter.
Failing Plant
Only last month, local producers informed Manx.News another machinery failure at the Government owned Isle of Man Meats in Tromode.
Sources told us the breakdown had resulted in ten cattle being held for over a week in the lairage area at the plant.
The Minister for Agriculture told the House of Keys on February 13, that the new operational team at the Meat Plant was improving producer confidence.
The latest failure at the plant follows on from a mass of problems Isle of Man Meats has had over the winter period.
Earlier in the year, the company was re-calling a bunch of beef products after a breakdown over the festive period.
A source told Manx.News that this was avoidable and the cattle shouldn’t have been killed at the time due to operational issues at the plant.
The ongoing cancelled kills and delays at the plant are leading to further issues for producers.
Not only are the cancelled kills and delays a severe issue regarding cash flow for farmers, but yet again added cost to the farmer for extra feed and bedding for the held stock when there is a national shortage of product.
Many farmers are having to import these products at an eye-watering cost due to them being unavailable on Island, and sparse in the UK.
DEFA, who own Isle of Man Meats, has declined our invitation for an interview.
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