How do farmers reconcile themselves to the volumes of animals they send to slaughter over the course of their lifetimes?

[Empanadas]

Hi, this is something I’ve always wondered. However, I was watching that Netflix series about Prince Charles and the Duchy of Cornwall and there was a farmer showing a whole barn of cattle he has obviously reared from birth, but quite blithely saying, “oh they'll all be off next week.”

AIBU to think being a cattle / sheep / chicken farmer takes a certain type of person and to wonder how they deal with their conscience in this depressing business?

*No mention of inheritance tax
*
So actually the heart of your issue sits with a chip on your shoulder - he's got X and I haven't.

I posted because I watched a documentary about Prince Charles

Please OP, I will say for the third time Get Off Netflix!

I grew up rurally and around lots of farms. Virtually all farmers I knew were the kindest most hard working people and took huge care of all the animals on their farms.

@rachelstriffle no farmers pay any inheritance tax on their farms, Duke or not.

Trusts make a payment every six years of around 6% of the funds held. It’s more sustainable than the way it was done in the 50s when lots of historic estates were bulldozed because families couldn’t afford the inheritance tax.

Newgirls

Maybe you want to let Covid run its course, or let a more efficient one wipe most of the population.

You can preach as much as you want, you won't turn us into robots, we need to eat. What we don't need so much but won't ever stop using, it's all the plastic and polluting crap we produce.

THAT would be a much better field to research, instead of the ridiculous attacks against farmers.

I totally agree with your OP, and it seems you've touched a nerve with some of the rabid carnivores on here. What we do to animals on a daily basis is unforgivable.

21Flora

interesting, thank you.
I trust the super rich to protect their assets carefully, I don't know much about farmers and farmland specific rules.

@rachelstriffle For what it is worth, the late Duke of Westminster was an incredibly kind man as the ultra rich go. Have a look at the rehabilitation hospital for wounded soldiers he donated to the nation.

@AnyOldPrion - thank you for what you do. We owe animals in our care a humane death, and I'm glad there are people like you around to help provide that.

I love eating good meat, had a lovely steak this evening. I am very grateful for the farmers’ hard work, it’s a tough job but much appreciated. I should think they are very proud of what they do, giving animals a good life and feeding people, much more rewarding than most jobs.

As for the opinions of vegans or vegetarians I really don’t give a stuff what they think, so many of them are tedious bores anyway.

I have nothing against the Duke of Westminster himself, but it's interesting to see how trusts and caps and all sorts protect the very highest inheritance while the lower end is charged full rate.

Especially on MN where the so-called "higher incomes" or "high tax payer" are hated, while the genuinely rich people are a league of their own.

Bet they keep the nicest cuts of meat for themselves

@rachelstriffle if you think farmers are rich then you are very much mistaken. We're the only industry who buys at retail, sells at wholesale and pays the haulage both ways. We are asset rich and cash poor and most of us have the guilt of a third generation farm to try and keep going.

Yes, I have an agenda where nonhuman animals are treated with respect and dignity, and not exploited or enslaved for human desires. Good catch, you got me there ;)

Ah the luxury beliefs of vegans! Where one has such easy access to such an abundance of food that they can take moral high ground about 'not exploiting animals for human desires'.

Humans have 'exploited' animals for millenia - it's how you came to be on Mumsnet in 2021, talking about how awful it is to exploit animals

I presume that they see it as them feeding the people. That if they didn't kill the animals nobody would get to eat meat. They have no ethical issue with eating meat. Ergo, don't see it as a moral issue.

I'm vegetarian, but I think it's rather obvious. Farmers see birth and death more than most other people. They see it as part of life. Nature taking its course. Death comes to all that wait. Etc.

@Newgirls

If people want to read about protein plant alternatives in uk take a look at Hodmedods. They are growing more pulses to cope with demand though it’s a drop in the ocean to what the uk need.

We import 50% of all our food still whatever it is.

Where is the land going to come from to grow all of the crops to feed everyone if we all give up meat? You can fill a field with cows and it's going to fill a lot more bellies than filling it with cauliflowers.

[quote vulpesfoxtrot]@rachelstriffle if you think farmers are rich then you are very much mistaken. We're the only industry who buys at retail, sells at wholesale and pays the haulage both ways. We are asset rich and cash poor and most of us have the guilt of a third generation farm to try and keep going. [/quote]
You forgot that it's all often done on the back of virtually free labour if you account for the actual amount of hours put in.

It’s funny how people see their meat eating under attack and then will start attacking those that oppose it by calling them ‘tedious bores!’ Says everything I need to know about them.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=LUllIT8rCj4

Joaquin Phoenix has it to a ‘T’. Vegan and lifelong animal lover.

[quote Throckmorton]@AnyOldPrion - thank you for what you do. We owe animals in our care a humane death, and I'm glad there are people like you around to help provide that.[/quote]
Thank you.

@Femme99

It’s funny how people see their meat eating under attack and then will start attacking those that oppose it by calling them ‘tedious bores!’ Says everything I need to know about them.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=LUllIT8rCj4

Joaquin Phoenix has it to a ‘T’. Vegan and lifelong animal lover.

Wonder when he last spent a day working on a farm.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on similar threads before but whilst I love eating meat I could also happily eat a mostly vegetarian/ meat free diet.

I'm incredibly strict about the meat we eat, no Danish bacon (no non British free range pork full stop actually) no cheap chicken, no MRM, all red meat must be British.

In things like pizzas and ready meals this is impossible to do so we don't eat them. Another poster mentioned this and it's so right, in my mind the issue isn't the cows and sheep I raise it's all the cheap industrially produced stuff that is the problem.

That's how I reconcile it, we give them good life while we are here. I show the, respect by not eating large volumes cheaply produced meat.

We eat smaller portions of good quality meat bulked out with lots of potatoes and veg (which through summer is home grown too).

I'm still waiting for the OP to tell me what happens to the cows, pigs, sheep, ducks, geese, chickens, mink etc when we stop eating them - and if that's a 'kinder' option.

Where is the land going to come from to grow all of the crops to feed everyone if we all give up meat? You can fill a field with cows and it's going to fill a lot more bellies than filling it with cauliflowers

You need a lot of fields to feed all those cows. A LOT of fields. Which is why a non-meat diet requires significantly less land than one that includes meat.

@Femme99

It’s funny how people see their meat eating under attack and then will start attacking those that oppose it by calling them ‘tedious bores!’ Says everything I need to know about them.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=LUllIT8rCj4

Joaquin Phoenix has it to a ‘T’. Vegan and lifelong animal lover.

They didn't really start it, though - the OP did, along with the other people pretending they knew the inner thoughts and motivations of farmers.

I worked in mental health, and at one point had a caseload with a lot of farmers in a rural area. They were some of my favourite people to work with, uniformly lovely, kind, considerate and thoughtful. They all cared deeply the welfare of their livestock, but with the understanding that they were livestock, and their purpose was to be part of the food chain. One of the local abattoirs was the subject of an published investigation about mistreatment of animals - it was in the papers and on the news - and I had so many who were in tears about it. I am so grateful to the people who farm.

"They" (farmers) only kill the animals because "we" (meat eaters) want to eat them. This doesn't make your regular meat eater morally superior to your average cattle farmer. We want the end product (meat) without getting our own hands dirty (slaughtering). In fact, I would argue that we are even worse because the meat is much cheaper than it should be, in my opinion, so we don't even pay a worthy amount for the animals we eat.