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I’ve been farming full-time on my home farm in Co Tipperary, alongside my parents Trevor and Louise, since I finished college four years ago.
As well as my farming endeavours, one of my main passions in life is cattle photography, which inevitably led to a whole-hearted embrace of all things social media.
I post photos online of our cows and bulls, young stock that are for sale, newborn calves, spring turnout to grass and almost everything in between.
The response to my online posts is always vastly positive; a hefty 99% of the comments and engagements come from like-minded farmers and people passionate and interested in agriculture and cattle.
You always get the odd negative comment from time to time, but that’s par for the course on the internet.
Regular criticism
Over the last month or so, I started receiving regular criticism of my pedigree show cattle.
This negativity reached its peak last week when I posted a snap of a yearling pedigree Hereford bull that we had haltered for the first time.
It’s animal rights gone mad.
Within minutes of the post going live, I received a deluge of disapproving comments on the offending photo.
The bull was called “a poor abused enslaved animal” by one user, with another user calling the showing process “torture” and going on to state that farmers show “cruelty not love” to their charges and that farmers (yes, all farmers) see “animal abuse all the time and are desensitised to it at this point”, while another user branded the whole process “disgusting”.
It’s animal rights gone mad.
To my mind, the photo pictured here clearly shows a calm and healthy looking animal.
An animal in distress or discomfort or in pain would have its ears pinned back, be pulling from the halter or frothing from the mouth and doing all in its power to escape from its current predicament.
It’s doubtful that an animal feeling any of these negative emotions would pose with such elegance and poise for a photo.
It’s always disconcerting and upsetting to have complete strangers pass judgement on your work and your daily life, especially on an activity that I enjoy so much.
Having an opinion isn’t a crime, but filling my inbox and newsfeed with unwanted and unsolicited views and commentary was a bit of a nightmare.
It also left me feeling confused as to how someone could see so much badness in something that I’m so proud of.
Dairy
Not content with bashing the pedigree circuit, I also started to get nasty messages about dairy farming too.
“Dairy farming is unhealthy for humans” one wrote. This was followed up with “the distress and depression that follows a female cow from having her baby taken away is also extremely cruel” and lastly and perhaps most succinctly summed up by “everything about dairy is wrong and unnecessary”.
Talk about a slap in the face. To be perfectly honest, I was absolutely livid. The individual behind the comments didn’t bother me so much; it was the blatant inaccuracy of the content of these messages that really got my blood boiling.
As a farmer, I could list hundreds of daily examples of how we go above and beyond to look after the animals in our care.
I read these comments over breakfast on a Saturday morning, after having been up since 6.30am to milk the dairy cows.
The milk that was produced that day will be sold for human consumption and will play a very small part in servicing the need for a steady supply of high-quality fresh food. I don’t want thanks or validation from social media, but, at the very least, you’d expect a basic level of respect for the work we all do as farmers and the life we live.
As a farmer, I could list hundreds of daily examples of how we go above and beyond to look after the animals in our care
The midnight trips to the calving shed, the expensive antibiotics and vet bills, the worry over silage shortages or bad spells of weather, the pain over a lost calf or the concern over an ill cow, the stress and anxiety of a difficult calving or the sadness of culling an old cow who always milked or bred well for you are all typical examples of our love and care for our stock.
That’s not to mention the hard, physical labour in all weathers and at all times of day and night that show we always strive to do nothing but our absolute best for our animals.
Romanticised
It seems some people expect cattle to spend their entire lives in a lush green field of fresh grass with no human interference and without making any contribution to the cost of its upkeep or to the wider economy or the food industry.
Anything outside of this romanticised view of animal husbandry is deemed completely unacceptable. You could logically apply this same argument to a whole host of different animals.
From army horses to guide dogs (and lots in between), beef and dairy cattle are part of a long list of animals that contribute to society in a positive way.
Initially, the whole ordeal left me feeling wary of using social media as much in the future. Something which I had enjoyed and loved so much had been tainted by the actions of a few.
Despite the support and positivity shown to me by many of my fellow farmers online, it was a difficult experience to wrap my head around and one that I’ve definitely learned a lot from.
Going forward, I think my best defence is to actively try to show and convey the positive realities of farming life in order to help correct the falsehoods and challenge the misinformation that looks sets on becoming more and more popular.
The old adage “happy cattle are productive cattle” best sums up what farmers strive to achieve on a daily basis.
Whether your farm business is meat, milk, wool, eggs, breeding stock or even ribbons in the show ring, your returns will always be highest from happy, content and well looked after animals.
And whatever the anti-farming brigade says, farmers need no reminding of that.
Listen: vegan voices: ‘Time to shut down the bullshit’ - National Dairy Council
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