Picture-perfect livestock lead the way online

Comment Andrew Arbuckle

Mysocialmedia inboxes are a bit choked up just now. None of the usual stuff, spam and its like. Nor have I been too bothered by trolls although there is still the occasional nutter going on about genetic modification. Anonymous keyboard warriors expressing their views on landlords have also quietened down, possibly through the sheer volume of measures taken to deal with what few admit is a diminishing tenanted sector.

In political terms, the only sure-fire touchpaper for electronic explosions is the continuing saga of the government computer system although even there I detect a sense of weariness. The computer issue is beyond parody.

No, my admittedly dodgy broadband is struggling to cope with loads of photos of livestock. There are pictures of Bluefaced Leicester rams with their ears cocked well forward. If I blink for a second, other images pop up with Blackfaced rams out on the hillside, all sporting massive horns that will keep the crook-making job in business for years to come.

I have no sooner looked at these than some more photos or videos ping in from the ether. This time, they are pictures of bulls with big back ends and muscles rippling in the sun.

The dairy boys are not missing out on all this new source of publicity, as I get loads and loads of shots of cows with massive deep veined udders. The only bit I do not get with the dairy photos is how the photographers manage to get the animals to put their front legs on the divot that coups the whole beast backward.

There is much merriment

0 Breeders send photographs on social media to boost sales in the family at all these images coming in on my computer and I suffer remarks along the lines of “dad is away to look at his sheep” or “off to see the livestock then” as I slope off to the office.

The reason for all the electronic postings is because this is the sale season and putting photos online is a good free method for livestock breeders and auction companies to advertise these sales.

Livestock breeders generally and pedigree breeders especially are very focused and some will already be raging at me for pointing out some of their little foibles. But their focus is one reason why they are successful. Someone remarked pedigree breeders almost live in a little hermetically sealed environment such is their concentration on bringing out better livestock.

If so, they might have missed two events in the past week. The first was a meeting of Compassion in World Farming where this organisation seemed to go beyond its long term target of stamping out factory farming.

I have not seen a definition of factory farming. It is easy to think it uniquely applies to production systems for pigs and poultry but some within the organisation are none too keen on any commercial activity involving animals. Even sheep farmers who constitute the least intensive sector of agriculture were getting it in the neck from them this past week.

Then environmentalist George Monbiot decided that the world would be a better place without any grazing animals, other than wild ones. Yes, you did read that correctly – without grazing animals.

So much for thousands of years of pastoral farming in large areas of the globe. So much for the livelihoods of people whose wealth or poverty is decided by the number of cattle and sheep they might have. So much for industries built up on feeding the rest of the world from sheep and beef production.

Not only am I aware that he holds quite extreme views, I am also aware that he has a considerable following, so when he suggests removing farmed sheep and cattle from the landscape and allowing it to return to the wild, then some people are influenced by his thinking.

For those wondering about how they will feed themselves when all this comes to pass, the answer lies, according to Monbiot, either in artificial meat or in veganism.

So my livestock producing friends on social media, please be aware that while you are concentrating on producing perfect animals, there are those who not only do not value your efforts but who would willingly put a stop to them altogether.