Clarkson’s Farm season 5

[Soubriquet]

apologies is there is another thread, I did look but couldn’t see.

Anyway, season 5 has dropped today, and whether you like Jeremy or not, he does highlight most how difficult it is to be a farmer in this day and age

I have learned a lot watching this programme but don’t like the emphasis on buying huge expensive machinery. I find it depressing that animals are viewed purely in terms of profit. Jeremy does get attached to some of them but they are breeding intensively to provide meat for the pub. It’s quite obscene. For Lisa to buy a flock of geese for one meal at the pub disgusted me. It’s made me want to stop eating meat. Even their dog produces puppies for profit. The flock of cute sheep which cost a fortune. Again a profit making exercise.

I know farms are there to be productive and make a profit but the hugely mechanised approach to animals and their quality of life is revolting.

I would love to watch a programme about an organic farm run with respect for wildlife and the intrinsic quality of the soil without using chemical fertilisers. Smalller numbers of animals who are not just bred primarily to make burgers in a pub .

What you describe isn’t farming. It’s a wildlife park

But this is the way of life.

Farmers get their animals, they breed them and then they are slaughtered for the meat and then life goes on.

You can’t bury your head in the sand and think meat comes from fairy’s

I too have learnt so much and I am glad it shows the nitty gritty life of farming. When the dairy cows are walked across the road near me I have seen the farmer giving one of the cows who stopped near him a lovely ear scratch just like I do to my dog 😁

If you want to see a mechanised approach, have a look at factory farms. From what I've seen on the programme, these animals have a pretty reasonable quality of life, being left to graze outdoors most of the time. The pigs in particular clearly had a very happy life snuffling around in the woods.

The reality is that if cows, pigs, sheep etc were not farmed they probably wouldn't exist at all in the wild, or would only survive in massively reduced numbers.

I did think Clarkson had a point about TB vaccination. Is there a reason why we can successfully vaccinate humans against it, but not animals?

I googled it, and it said that a vaccine would give false positives in cattle, so it was abandoned

I agree there should definitely be vaccine PLUS a better way of diagnosing TB

He has a point about TB, they should be doing biopsies instead that stupid test. Its also stupid to shut down a farm if it’s negative.

I remember reading the James Herriot books when I was about 9 or 10 and TB was mentioned a lot then and foot and mouth. Farming seems to be one battle after another.

I think he’s a very big animal lover, don’t think he would send of any them to slaughter if he didn’t have too.

Most UK food producers don’t like the major supermarkets and their practices yet this show is sponsored by Morrisons ( as well as Amazon)
Which I find ironic.
I was watching a show about farmers many years ago and one was on the phone to a supermarket having a rant and moaning that they were exploiting him with their profit margins, how dreadful they were.
A lot of Clarkson’s farm animals are used for the pub and apart from him meeting with the miller producer you don’t see that side of it here. Do the major supermarkets sponsor certain farms ?
The major supermarkets seem to make huge annual profits , makes you wonder how much they hinder farm production as well as all the other challenges they face.

The one thing Clarkson is 100% correct about is the need to modernise and change what is being done. Farming is a business and an industry. Not something we have to preserve in aspic for nostalgia.

I cannot express the hard stare "because that's how we have always done it" gets from me.

I will say, some of the old methods work better than modern methods, but yes, a lot of things need modernising

I thought that when I saw the agbot etc in action. Like harvesters you'd pay to hire the machine. The first year would be more expensive, plotting out your land. But to know where to fertilise where not was an eye opener. To have your field seeded, weeds removed sounds amazing.

Of course you still can't control the weather.

The knock on effects of all this would be using less fertiliser and making better use of what water you have. Meaning less need for resources and energy for the same output. And maybe better for the long term quality of the soil ?

To be fair, Kaleb isn't the only farm worker who has no idea who most of the celebrities that Jeremy Clarkson mentions are! Quite a few of us aren't up to date on the latest celebrity gossip, and/or aren't of the same generation as Jeremy. Most of the farmers that I know tend to watch farming programmes and read farming magazines, where celebrities do not necessarily feature! When I needed supermodel names for some very tall, willowy cows, a friend and I came up with a grand total of three names of famous supermodels, and couldn't think of any others!

Around here, they are trialling vaccinating badgers for TB, as they are considered to be the most likely carrier of it.

@ChickenStuffing I do that with my cows, too! I have a few that are more like pet cows (and one that has accidentally scared some unsuspecting members of the public when she wanted a stroke off them as she crossed the road...).

That’s left me feeling properly upset. It was a hard watch, that’s for sure.

I saw a local food manufacturer get taken out by the credit terms the supermarkets were able to impose. Say you need to buy ingredients and pay within 30 days, staff paid weekly, and the supermarkets pay you on 60 day terms, but never on time. The cash flow fails.
One of the big names bought a veg packing plant too so they own the supply chain, shoring up more profit. I would imagine they lock down farmers to very small margins too but I’m no expert.
As for the final two episodes, I loved Hannah the bird genius; well done for raising awareness on endangered species. I had no idea.
I loved Lisa smashing it on the tractor training too.

Hannah the bird lady was beautifully bonkers. Had to leave the room re the calf 😭

Yes Lisa and Hannah, both brilliant. I loved Lisa doing so well driving that tractor, and Hannah, was amazing. Credit to Clarkson for raising the issue of these beautiful birds.

We can't successfully vaccinate humans against it. The vaccine has a low success rate (circa 40%).

A quarter of the world's population has TB or latent TB.

It was the best moment ever watching both farmer and cow as the other cows crossed the road. The cow was clearly enjoying it as it was vigorously licking the farmers stomach as he scratched its ear for several minutes. Best day ever to have witnessed that and I feel disappointed every time I pass the farm and don’t see them.

Are you a vegan now then?

dairy milk is horrendous if you think about how cows and newborn calves are separated.

I was vegetarian for many years and feel I now want to go back to it. Yes, the dairy industry is very cruel too. I need to cut it out as well.

‘What manner of death is this??!!’ 😂😂😂🐑 💀

I genuinely laughed for about 5 minutes.