Actions taken on our farms cannot be shaped alone by the need to operate within the law. We must be conscious of consumer perception.

In the context of Irish agriculture, this is an international consumer base that often knows little about farming and even less about Ireland. In having confidence to purchase food produced on Irish farms, many rely on the brand image that has been created.

We can point to numerous examples of where brands have been damaged where the brand image sold to the consumer did not match the reality of the production system.

A simple question: does the brand image we have sold across the world of Irish dairy products reflect a production model that slaughters young calves? We can argue that such practices happen on an exceptionally small number of farms. But context, especially in relation to animal welfare, doesn’t exist on social media.

If 100 of our 18,000 dairy farmers wish to continue to adopt breeding polices that produce calves with no long-term commercial beef value, they should be forced to carry this cost burden. They should not be allowed to simply dispose of it in a way that puts the reputation of the entire industry at risk.

This is a thorny issue that dairy processors and the Department of Agriculture must deal with immediately.

Slaughtering of young calves should be restricted to potential welfare or disease issues.