Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

I lolled at the calf lying down. Made sound like he was falling down due to over crowding when he was really doing a very careful sit down that you see calves doing. Seen another stressed calf chewing the cud.

A little selected editing. I genuinely thought the footage they had would be a lot worse.

I'll agree to disagree

I thought it would have been a lot worse with all the “build up” to it over the weekend.

Yes there’s definitely a few men that need reprimanding in it but you can be sure they didn’t just spend 10 minutes recording the footage. There was probably hours of footage from various different marts, and if them few short clips were the worst of what they found it hardly justified a trip to France and Spain for Fran and his team at the expense of the tax payer.

Record enough of hours of footage in any workplace dealing in the care of animals or people and I’m sure there’ll be incidents that shouldn’t happen but do.

It’s a bit strange to be making the assembly points and lairages out to be some sort of dirty secret. If anything the way to improve the transport situation is to have more lairages so the lorry’s can pull in and let the calves out for an hour along the way.

Showing a calf lying down chewing his cud in a straw bedded pen in a mart is great to see if you ask me, that pen of calves were under very minimal stress.

Very much pandering to the far left and the vegan wing

The footage from New Zealand had no place ….that was pure barbaric

programme was hard hitting and some of treatement seen at Marts not acceptable ….since quotas went there’s been huge expansion after been shackled for years …..kiwi style dairying was the model main advisory bodies shoved us twoards despite highly questionable welfare and enviro standards ….that was the start of the position we are now in ….Tegasc got away very very lightly last night don’t think they got a mention …..roofless cubicles …kiwi genetics …high fertiliser usage ,second,third units ….load on the cows worry about slurry storage later etc etc and only one has the balls to admit they forgot to think about all the extra calves

export needs to stay as I feel bigger welfare issues will crop up if we don’t ….whole thing from calves leaving our farm to arriving at a veal farm in Holland ,Spain Poland wherever needs serious thought put into it …calves on a truck over 17:18 hours without unloading and good feed is not acceptable

Normally in there dealing with export certs

Ya, I usually just pick them up off the ground and give them the VIP treatment. Never said you couldn't catch them like you say bogman.

Zero need for a stock around calves

Imo the vet was the only one that came across any way well. The tesgasc guy got away lightly as did the marts guy. My thoughts on the media attention seeking farming couple are best kept to my self.

The mother here almost 70 often feed the calves, she needs a stick to give them a little tip on the nose to get them off the feeder or keep back a hungry one to let a slower one drink..she is not a person I would describe as cruel to animals .but I agree in general no need for a stick loading or dosing etc.

I’m not a farmer and have no experience of farming. I’m very interested in what happens on farms, especially Irish ones. I’m surprised by the reactions on this thread. The attitude that the footage wasn’t so bad. It was horrific. Regardless of the hitting and throwing of calves, the fact that they’re taken from their mothers so young and packed into a truck for so many hours is extremely cruel.

I don’t know how anyone can support an industry that does this to animals. There must be a better way. More and more young people are concerned with animal rights and climate change so farmers really should be trying to address these issues, not just for the sake of the animals and environment but also for their livelihoods.

Hoping someone in the know can answer some of my questions:

The law states they must get a break after 9 hours. But what break? Does that mean that the truck must stop for an hour every 9 hours? Surely the driver can’t let the calves out of the truck every 9 hours so it’s not really a break is it?

Why don’t more farmers use the ‘sex semen’ to ensure that dairy cows only give birth to female calves? It seems to me that this is the only clear answer to this issue.

I’m not looking for an argument. I’m hoping to get answers and more insight into how dairy farmers operate. Thanks.