Being A Farmers Daughter

So, many of my posts have been quite serious, however I wanted to produce something that was full of facts against the vegan protests instead of with opinions. I feel strongly about this as many others do as even though I have not chosen farming as a career choice I still see it through my father.

Working on the farm will stay with me the rest of my life.

It made me hard working, even when I didn’t want to and was dragged out the house in my pyjamas and wellies to help chase cattle, it taught me what work was. Never having a day off, cutting grass till 3 am and milking by 5am, was the best experience, it makes me a better worker in my other career choice.

It made me hugely sympathetic and caring as a person. If I had to miss a milking or was unable to feed the calves due to school or other commitments, I would not stopping thinking about that calf that needed extra help drinking or general jobs that needed done. Even though I was away I could not stop caring about the cattle. It made me love cows, like they are just amazing creatures and I had the honour of having them in my care, and enabling it to be amazing care- despite little conversation on their part. You would do anything in your power to ensure they were happy.

Working on the farm taught me how to appreciate. The freedom of land to play and work was something I took for granted in my childhood. 

I appreciate where my food comes from and all the hard work in my community to enjoy such amazing produce. It made me appreciate my father who has chosen to do this his whole life, to provide for me and my brothers and all the sacrifice’s he made for us, and the cows. Looking after the cows taught me how to appreciate my position, I was able to care for these amazing cows, I appreciated being able to do a job where I could work alongside them all day.

Working on the farm also gave me knowledge of farming practices. From dehorning to jagging cattle. From simply knowing how to handle cattle and understand them is something I didn’t realise wasn't common knowledge. As I did not realise how uneducated some people were about farming, as I was recently talking to a well educated adult who was surprised to discover that cows had to have a calf before being able to produce milk.

However I am not alone, many farmers children are choosing not to go into farming with these difficult times. But farmers can come together, with events such as The Royal Highland Show this gives a chance for farmers all over the U.K to take part in healthy competition for their cattle. With healthy competition it allows farmers to see what other farmers are doing to improve their own practices. This also gives farmers an opportunity to see other suppliers and machinery to improve their farms.

I am so proud to say I grew up on a farm and had the childhood I did, as it made me who I am, and I think the end result is fabulous!

All photos on this blog were taken by Heather Mackie from the cows at Belltrees 

Promotion and Purchases

 So trying to explain to a hateful community why farming is not cruel will always be a challenge when they have never experienced the farming lifestyle. In every farmer’s newspapers and magazines farmers are bombarded with advertisements on how to improve their farm. How to keep cows happy.

I have included some examples below.

From these examples you can see that all the advertisements are aimed at the quality, the improvement of care for the cattle, not priced focused or deals. Farmers are not like other businessmen, they make different decisions based on morals and values not on price and profit.

One story I would like to share is we had one calf that broke a leg during birth, now a cow with a broken leg is a dead cow, it’s extremely expensive to fix, they will never be worth the price to fix, and they will die from the broken leg as it rarely heals properly. Cows fart a lot, a lot of methane, a cow can never lie down for more than 12 hours or it’s a dead cow due to all the build-up of gas. So a cow must be able to walk and feed itself otherwise it is extremely uncomfortable and just ends up suffering extremely badly before eventually dying. Sad but very rare. We had a calf born with broken leg, a business man would shoot it, it’s not worth the time and care or cost. A business man would cut a lot of corners. We paid for it to be fixed. It lived in the house, it stank. It healed and was a brilliant cow, Charlie. He was an amazing cow and healed perfectly. Only a love of a farmer would make that financial and timely sacrifice for the care of every calf. And the only person who benefits from their sacrifice is the cow. Farmers are not evil. They never will be. Farmers care.

To emphasise this point, if a human has a urine infection, they go to hospital they get emergency treatment and then have to go to their GP and go through a lengthily process to get it fixed, for blood tests and urine tests, wait for them to come back referred to hospital which can take weeks, the whole process takes a lengthily amount of time having the disease. If a farmer has cattle which he knows have something as simple as a urine infection they can get done for animal cruelty. Cattle are literally looked after in some aspects better than humans especially when it comes to health. They are treated immediately for any health issue, humans are not.

However, animal welfare is something we are proud of and need to maintain especially with brexit just around the corner, read about it here;

http://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/16071216.Animal_welfare_protections_won__39_t_survive_post_Brexit/

Milk Prices

Dairy farmers have taken a massive hit for the past decade, dairy prices have plummeted. Farmers are getting paid next to nothing for the white goods they produce. Farming is a high cost business, it costs thousands to keep sheds well-kept and to keep calves healthy with quality cake (cow food). Farmers pay an arm and a leg to buy the highest quality cake and technology in order to allow their cattle to have the best quality of life. So when supermarkets dropped the price where farmers could never pass their break-even point, what is a farmer to do? They cant go on strike and not turn up to work, their cattle will die. They cant not sell the milk or they cant afford to feed their cattle. They cant buy worse cake and just never clean the sheds to save on straw costs, as that opens up so many avenues of problems from disease’s, to bad cattle , which no farmer would ever allow. Still to this day farmers are paid pennies for their milk. Supermarkets and producers see all the money. If farmers fail in providing a healthy lifestyle for their cattle, if they die, the farmer has to PAY to get it properly disposed of, it is in every interest of the farmer to keep their cattle alive and happy.

(Sayid, 2015)

“There are other supermarkets, however, that actually pay less for milk than it costs to produce. The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers insists that all supermarkets could pay dairy farmers a price for milk that would meet the cost of production without increasing the price charged to the consumer: all they would need to do is to accept a slightly lower profit on the milk they sell.” Quote from the telegraph.(link below)

One of the reasons milk prices went down is due to the vegan lifestyle which taken into trend, buying soya and almond milk which has nowhere near the health benefits as whole milk or even skimmed milk! A 2008 Harvard study showed that higher intakes of soy-based drink and foods caused fertility problems and lower sperm counts- so why are people filling themselves with something that will only damage their health when there’s fabulous cow’s milk which not only has so much testing that it will not cause harm, only benefit to bones, teeth, protein and overall health?

No form of other milk gives you any of the necessary goodness as whole cow’s milk does, so many milks, mostly almond, have to have artificial powder inserted in order for it to give you any health benefits.

I highly recommend the article below as a good read for those who are not in farming it’s easy to believe marketing masters but for anyone that knows their stuff knows that whole milk holds all the important nutrient’s and is so important for the health in so many aspects.

Tioraid!

http://butterbeliever.com/fat-free-dairy-skim-milk-secrets/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9399667/A-fair-price-for-a-farmers-milk.html

Image- Sayid, R. (2015). How the falling price of milk could wipe ICE-CREAM off the supermarket shelves. [online] mirror. Available at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/falling-price-milk-could-see-6230363

Laws and regulations- Comparing our rules to international ones

Before I continue to write about the amazing work of farmers and the hardships they face I feel I need to set the record straight of the false accusations that the vegan and vegetarian community are spreading. In this country we have extremely high welfare standards for cow’s, sheep, pigs and chickens etc.

Firstly…

IN THIS COUNTRY YOU CANNOT GIVE COWS DRUGS TO PRODUCE MORE MILK

 Other countries do.

It all has to be natural and just through careful breeding, to help produce healthy cattle. In America they can give their cows’ specific hormone growth drugs to make their udders massive, which has been proven to affect humans. In America they are allowed more than double the white cell count than the U.K, meaning their milk does not include the same health benefits as ours and cows are more likely to get bacterial infections. In the U.K cow’s milk is checked every milking and if there are any problems farmers aren’t paid and the milk goes down the drain, although this is extremely rare. If a cow is on paracetamol, in the U.K the milk cannot be sold to the U.K consumers. Even though it would have almost no effect on the consumer in order to protect consumers they are taking no medicines without their knowledge. In this country the British herd is tested for all major diseases on a regular basis to ensure the health of the British Herd.

American farmers can give their cows growth hormones, the milk quality is inferior and the drugs they give the cows are transferable to humans. With post Brexit approaching there is talks of lowering our “superior” milk to their standards. This is not okay for trade, for the economy or for the health of the British citizens. (link to further reading on this topic at the end)

Comparison of Global Food Traceability Regulations and Requirements in the traceability and regulations report, the United Kingdom compared to countries around the world including Australia and United States, we were ranked as superior and were perfect in every single aspect of the report. China, Canada and U.S were the lowest. Most European countries marked perfect in all tests due to the EU regulations.

Every cow in the U.K (not EU) must have a passport. A cow cannot be sold unless its whole life can be traced. Every cow has to be sold with its passport for the safety of the consumers and the knowledge of the quality of cow. So when the Tesco horse meat scandal arose, that was outside the U.K production line, our quality beef is being exported to top restaurants all over the world. Even when I went to Germany, a leading farming country, they were selling SCOTTISH beef in their 5 star restaurant as they said it was the best quality in the world (their opinion). Other countries know our quality of beef is so fantastic, so why does some of the British Public not consume it or appreciate their own produce? Because they would rather pay less, for poorer quality meat from countries with poorer welfare standards.

British beef and Dairy is not filled with anything other than the vital nutrients with no chemicals added and there are no cows which are in process of being treated can enter the food chain. In the EU laws and regulations we cannot feed the cows anything harmful or enhancing it’s all down to amazing farming practices and breeding from our skilled country workforce.

I recommend if you are at all unsure of the food we produce in the U.K from meat to dairy to sheep read the EU regulations (information below) it describes all the obstacles from the feed for the cows, to the farmers care, to the people in lab coats triple checking for citizens health, to the supermarkets to ensure it is all in the interest of the cows health, the people’s health and for overall care for the country.

Tioraid!


https://www.farminguk.com/News/Britain-could-weaken-regulations-to-allow-inferior-US-dairy-imports_48736.html

Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety

Charlebois, S., Sterling, B., Haratifar, S. and Naing, S. (2014). Comparison of Global Food Traceability Regulations and Requirements. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 13(5), pp.1104-1123.