About 40 members of the IFA dairy committee have staged a protest at the office of the European Commission in Dublin over the price farmers are being paid for milk.
Committee chairman Richard Kennedy said some farmers had called for milk to be dumped because of low prices, but he said this kind of action is unlikely to happen.
The dairy farmers say they are currently producing milk at below the cost of production, with the average farm family losing €19,000.
Today’s demonstration coincided with a meeting of European farm ministers in Brussels.
Deputy President of the IFA Derek Deane told the protesters in Dublin the crisis was unprecedented and warned that many of them would not be able to survive.
Mr Deane said Europe had helped to create the problems, and he called on the Commission to urgently increase export subsidies.
Mary Sherry of the IFA Farm Family Committee said farm women have been under huge strain and are worried about where the next loaf of bread will come from.
The general secretary of the IFA, Pat Smith, said there is serious anger among dairy farmers and he hoped his group would not have to organise street demonstrations.
