It’s how we look at things. It’s a decision that every writer faces when they sit down before a blank sheet of paper to write. It’s also something that farmers occasionally are faced with.
A few years ago, animal rights people took a drive up Pontiac County and observed at a distance what they thought were animals being abused. Some cattle were out in a field with no barn close by to go in out of the weather. They also noticed some of those little white calf hutches outside with calves either standing and running outside or resting inside. Without either talking to the farm owner to get educated about why those animals were outside and not in a barn, or even taking a closer look at how they were being looked after, they just returned to the city and launched a complaint to the health board. One complaint was about how poorly the little Hereford calves were being looked after, left out in those cold little huts with no bedding and no coat on during January days and nights.
I don’t know how many farms were investigated the next week, but we received an unannounced visit from the health inspector that week at our farm. It is the same health inspector that regularly inspects restaurants, wineries, and milk barns. All farms are inspected at least every year, but after doing the regular milk house and dairy barn inspection, we were asked if we minded if they looked at the calves. We thought this was great, that they were interested in the little calves too. The inspector asked where the Hereford calves were. We explained that in the past 120 years, there had never been a Hereford animal on our farm.
The inspector smiled and told us about our farm being singled out as one that had left little Hereford calves out in cold huts with no bed or coat on. The inspector noticed that there was a foot of fresh bedding of both straw and shavings in each hutch. She also noticed the long, clean hair on the calves and that each hutch was turned facing the sun. We told her that all animals grow a long coat of hair if they get any sunshine. Sunshine triggers hair growth. A cow that never is outside, does not grow long hair. We also explained that the calf hutches are turned with the door facing the sun in winter and turned away from the hot sun in the summer. We also mentioned that the hutches are put in a different location after each calf has been moved to prevent the spread of disease.
The inspector explained that their department had received several complaints about animal abuse, and she had not found one farm that did not look after their animals very well. The cows in the field on another farm were out in a wintering site, had a heavy clean coat of hair, were well fed, had water close by and had adequate portable windbreaks to get behind, out of the wind and with direct sunshine. This had been a very good information day for the inspector, and it’s a pity that all students don’t get visits to look at real, working farms as part of their general education.
During the second week of January, I also read a story on social media, written by another animal rights person, about how dirty dairy cattle are. That person wrote that it was impossible to get clean milk from a dirty cow that lays in the mud and is filthy from head to foot. Obviously, that person had never visited a modern dairy farm, or ever looked at the rules for keeping cattle clean, or ever read the rules about producing and shipping only clean, antibiotic-free milk that is kept cold (4°C or colder) on the farm all the time. Many homes, restaurants, and even hospitals don’t serve milk that cold.
Today, in 2025, most animals are raised under either a federal or provincial code of practice that clearly stipulates how animals must be treated, milked, trucked, and even killed in an abattoir. Those rules are enforced by both fines and risk of the operation being shut down indefinitely.
Twenty years ago, at a production seminar at a university, farmers were taught how simple it is to get animals to produce most efficiently, whether it’s milk, eggs or meat: just remove all stress from their lives. This includes the absence of noise, correct temperature, adequate clean water, a feed ration that is balanced to meet the requirement of the animal based on production, stage of lactation and gestation, clean air, soft footing, a properly maintained milking system with trained operators, a clean and comfortable bed for each animal, no animal abuse, and time to socialize and groom (a challenge all farmers have).
Imagine if all humans were treated that well. Often the choice of intimidation or inspiration is an individual decision.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
