Readers' Blog: ‘Go vegan’ adverts are misleading
The go vegan advert advertising a cow and calf on posters is, I think as a dairy farmer, very misleading.
Friesian cows have large volumes of milk and if calves get too much milk they can get sick and die.
The go vegan campaigns are probably fuelling eating disorder when people don’t get the nourishment their bodies need. Their adverts showing calves being removed from their mothers are incorrect in many cases.
As a farmer, there is nothing more satisfying as seeing baby calves hopping and playing around in a field for the first time in the spring. I rear them until they are fit for sale to other farmers or finish them to the factory requirements.
After a good life the many products that they are turned into which benefit us humans are too many to mention. The slurry which animals produce is spread out on the fields to feed plant life like trees which cleanse the air we breathe.
A farmer’s work involves producing high-quality safe products rich in vitamins for human consumption and all animals on our farms have to be healthy for us to achieve this.
As a farmer, I had two recent inspections, in one there were 200 boxes to be ticked by an inspector — so to say that we are heavily policed before products leave the farm is another guarantee for the consumers.
Agriculture Commentator
Carrick-on-Suir
Co Waterford
