When I first got wind of the cull of 51 cattle at a farm between Fivemiletown and Fintona, my initial thought was that it had the potential to be damaging for the farming industry in NI.

It is one of those stories where emotions are stirred and viewpoints become quickly entrenched, but unless you have first-hand knowledge, it is impossible to fully understand the facts in the case.

What we have now is an incident that has attracted a lot of media attention and commentary online.

Some of it is supportive towards farmers.

But there have also been many who question why we have no issue rounding up healthy cattle, loading them onto a lorry and taking them to a meat plant to be slaughtered, yet are aghast at cattle being shot in a field.

Do we really want to get into debates like that with the general public?

There are also those who are using the story for political gain and to further discredit Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir and last Monday’s farmer protest was very-much one-sided when it comes to politics in NI.

UFU stance

While the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) was not to the fore at that event, it has now aligned itself with protestors by calling for the head of Minister Muir, his permanent secretary, Katrina Godfrey, and chief vet, Brian Dooher.

We were shocked to see the UFU take that stance. It is one thing holding our political leaders to account and, as an organisation, the UFU does a fantastic job lobbying on behalf of members. But by calling on the minister to resign, the union has risked its political impartiality for very limited gain.

It is also wrong to call for the heads of civil servants – they are accountable to our political leaders, not lobby organisations likes the UFU, and they have no right of reply in this situation.