Livestock have a green role

October was a busy month here on our family farm. Climate change kept us on our toes with more dreary weather (our last dry week was in May), there was a QMS routine farm inspection, three farm visits and our big organic compliance inspection to prepare for in just a few days’ time.

In the middle of the month we had groups from Auchinleck Academy, University West of Scotland and the NFU Scotland.

I really enjoy our farm visits – it’s a chance to show others what we do and, most importantly, to hear the questions and opinions of people who otherwise would never have the chance to see a working dairy farm.

And I’m always intrigued and surprised by the reactions. Most visitors just love to pet the baby calves, others get excited when they see a cow up close for the first time, but the biggest reaction we got (while mid-way through talking about our goal of sustainability) was when Futoro, the stock bull, and Cherub, a rather excitable cow, chose the perfect time to practice reproduction. My chat of sustainability was over at once and the cowshed glowed with screen-light from dozens of smartphone cameras and the roar of teenage laughter.

There is an element of humour in being upstaged by an act not normally seen outside a David Attenborough feature, however sustainability is a serious word.

Speak to any self-respecting member of the current animal rights fashion group and they will tell you livestock agriculture is 110% to blame for climate change with its destructive approach to anything environmental and the ozone killer that is the burping cow.

However let’s not forget the interesting clue that during summer months in the northern hemisphere, when plants are broad-leafed and breathing in carbon, the global CO2 level drops. Add that in to how animal manure can be used as a rich, organic, natural fertilizer to grow these plants, which the animals eat, produce food from and turn into more manure fertilizer, and you start to see a truly sustainable cycle, using farm management to create carbon-absorption using animals eating the correct type of plant. This itself will not solve our problems, but in my view more research certainly needs to be done.

Cross-industry collaboration, reduction of fossil fuel use, removal of single-use plastics and grazing livestock to feed our greenhouse gas breathing allies – is that the way to a truly sustainable future?

Farm animals have a key part to play in the sustainable cycle.