If stories going around are to be believed, dairy farmers are bringing cows to the factory by the hundred. Most people will by now have heard an account of how some 400-cow farmer brought 70 or perhaps 110 cows to the factory, painfully thin on arrival.

It’s understandable that people might give such stories credence. We have had pressure on fodder and grass availability for six months now, and dairy cows are struggling to maintain output while on a very expensive diet.

The only thing is, these stories aren’t true.

An examination of the evidence is revealing. Cow slaughter numbers for the year to date are up 3.5% on last year. The 8,309 cows killed last week is up 1,700 on last year, but is only 800 more than this week in 2016. The previous week, the figure was up 800 year-on-year. Hardly an exodus.

When you consider that this is the fourth year of post-quota dairying, we should expect cull numbers to be higher, reflecting the increase in the dairy herd.

Farmers do love a bit of gossip, wherever it comes from. Much like the snails in the silage story from the wet summer of 2012, the story is usually three parishes away, and is third-hand. Some of it may well be bias, even begrudgery, against larger dairy farms, especially rapid-expansion dairy farms. It could be TB depopulations fuelling the fire.

Every so often, conspiracy theories – rural myths if, you like – wander around the country. Sometimes they are harmless, but with farmers as stressed and exhausted as many currently are, stories like this with little basis in fact are not helpful.

That said, with scanning beginning, expect to see dairy farmers offloading empty cows, particularly if they aren’t milking well.

There might be a better market for them in the mart if they are underweight – let the specialists put a little flesh on them and keep the factories waiting for a while.