Countryfile viewers were left furious when the BBC show aired a segment about battery farming cows, with a guest labelling the process "a five star hotel for cows" in spite of cruelty concerns when compared with other dairy farms.
The latest episode, which aired on Sunday, featured clips from a variety of older episodes, including the 2021 instalment in which host Matt Baker visited the Lilburn family in County Down, where husband and wife Richard and Pamela operate a zero grazing system.
The system means the cows remain inside for most of their lives and are kept in confined spaces.
Richard told Baker: "They have fresh beds, comfortable mattresses. They have food on tap, they have scratchers and foot baths," before labelling the farm a "five star hotel for cows".
Matt Baker visited the 'zero grazing' farm system
BBC
Plenty of fans didn't agree with notion, and took to social media in floods to criticise the "cruel" system.
X, formerly Twitter, became awash with complaints about the episode.
One wrote: "'It’s a 5 star hotel for cows' ahh the old cliche. 'Fresh grass' only in summer. Cows don’t want to be locked in 24 hours a day and milked multiple times per day on rotation.
"They also don’t want to be impregnated and separated from their young calves constantly."
Richard told Matt Baker the system was like 'a five star hotel for cows'
BBC
A second penned:" It's bad enough having battery hens but keeping those poor cows inside for the majority of the year is downright abuse. #countryfile."
"So, battery farming for cows?? Sick, deranged people who care only for the coin in their pocket and don't give a damn about animals. Even the usual BBC agenda and spin can't help this one. Just awful," a third shared.
"Absolutely disgusting, how cruel. Why is Countryfile celebrating factory farming?" another asked.
"I actually can’t believe what I’m watching! Battery farming cows!! This is so cruel surely..?" someone else echoed.
Another viewer posted: "#Countryfile Today it wasn't the usual wokery that put me off but the sacrifice of animal welfare (cows in Northern Ireland) on the altar of making money.
"If you can't give animals a good life do something else with your land."
"Here’s an idea, instead of cutting the grass 3 times a day, let the cows out to graze and exercise. Countryfile have shown this vile farm 3 times now. It’s still not acceptable for the cows no matter how you big it up #countryfile," one more added.
As he watched grass being delivered to the cows, Baker remarked: "Oh my word, there's plenty here for you girls!"
The cows at the zero grazing farm remained inside for most of their lives
BBC
Narrating the episode, he acknowledged: "This way of doing things does have its critics, who feel cows should be mainly outdoors.
"Although it's used on a minority of farms, research suggests interest in it is increasing."
The County Down farm kept cows inside without periods of grazing
BBC
"We have 100 cows on either side," Richard explained, with Baker asking: "But they are in here the whole time, then?"
"While they're milking," Richard replied, explaining the farm averages around 30 to 32 litres of milk per cow each day.
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