Countryfile viewers are up in arms over a feature on Sunday’s episode which highlighted intensive dairy farming.
Many of Britain’s dairy farmers are struggling to make ends meet because of falling milk prices.
Reporter Charlotte Smith asked if large indoor dairy herds were a more efficient way of making money from milk, and whether the British public would support them.
Many viewers were unhappy about a Countryfile feature (BBC)
She visited one farm where the cows rarely went outside to graze.
Farmer Neil Baker, one of the first to utilise intensive dairy farming, defended the practice. He said he has 1,700 cows who are mainly housed indoors.
“I personally think my cows are happy,” he told Charlotte. He stressed that the health of the cows, their veterinary care and their well-being are among his main concerns.
Countryfile presenter Matt Baker (Oliver Edwards/BBC)
The hugely successful BBC One show, presented by Matt Baker, Ellie Harrison, Adam Henson, Tom Heap and John Craven, regularly attracts seven million viewers.
However, some of those watching were upset and angry at this method of farming and they expressed their dismay on Twitter.
Countryfile viewers blast indoor farming
COUNTRYFILE- did you see the yearlings let out on the spring grass they went mad with enjoyment so why keep milking cows shut in not right.
— chris beer (@Chrisbeer7C) April 3, 2016
#countryfile intensive cow farming is atrocious back to the bad old days of battery egg farming, I will not drink any more cows milk
— Hayley Cooper (@HayleyC90366400) April 3, 2016
@sainsburys Please can we have better labelling on our milk? I don't want milk from intensively bred cows! #happycows #countryfile
— Mark Hadfield (@Markh200) April 3, 2016
@BBCCountryfile Had no idea cows were kept in such a way! #disgusted Never knew cows were battery farmed like that! #countryfile #shocked
— Leonie ☮ (@BertieSurf) April 3, 2016
Don't know how the farmer in #Countryfile could be proud of keeping thousands of cows confined indoors
— elornen (@SwindonVoice) April 3, 2016
Look at Jack's cows experiencing a field for the first time and question how cattle kept indoors can be happy. #countryfile
— Calum Andrew Morrell (@cmorrell) April 3, 2016
WATCH > the episode of Countryfile on BBC iPlayer here.
