Blogs

The joy of grazing
I think an important dimension of debates about the future of livestock farming, and farming more widely, is what give people’s lives meaning, purpose and joy. I wrote previously about how grazing was seen in Ireland and the UK in terms of economics, environmental sustainability and animal welfare... Read more ...
Posted on: Thursday, 20 January, 2022

Is it ‘natural’ for cows to graze?
This last while, I've been chewing over the value of the word 'natural' in debates about agriculture. In farmer and stakeholder interviews about the ethics of cows staying indoors all year round, the word 'natural' has been coming up again and again. It is however a notoriously complicated and... Read more ...
Posted on: Friday, 5 February, 2021

What does inside and outside mean on a dairy farm?

This morning I cycled to my friend’s house to work there as part of her extended household. At the roundabout I used to pass every day on the way to work, it suddenly felt odd to be outside. The familiar location made me think of pre-pandemic times so my mind automatically questioned whether this... Read more ...
Posted on: Wednesday, 7 October, 2020

The grass-based system and work life balance in Ireland
The ‘Cows eat grass, don’t they?’ project is a social sciences project exploring the future of grass-based, higher input and indoor dairy systems in the UK and Ireland. The project runs from 2018-2021 and is funded by the British Academy. 19 interviews were carried out with people working in the... Read more ...
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 July, 2020

January interviews in Ireland
January is a good time to interview Irish dairy farmers: the majority calve in spring so they’re in the middle of a relative lull when milking has stopped before the cows calve. (There are also lingering tins of Christmas biscuits for sit down interviews.) The weather was mercifully mild and I... Read more ...
Posted on: Tuesday, 4 February, 2020

What role for grazing in the UK and Ireland?
The first academic paper from the ‘Cows eat grass, don’t they?’ project was published this week. You can read an open access version of the paper here. One of the reasons I started this project was because I was coming across such different views about what the dairy sectors in Ireland and the UK... Read more ...
Posted on: Friday, 18 October, 2019

"You shouldn't be embarrassed about having 30 cows" Interview poem.

The following is a "poem" about the future of dairy farm size and ownership structure in the UK and Ireland. It's comprised of direct quotes from interviews with key stakeholders and document analysis in both countries. You can read more details about the data collection at the end. The country of... Read more ...
Posted on: Wednesday, 31 July, 2019

Vegan pie or rose veal? Catering to a broad church at the Ethical Farming conference
It’s not often you see a vegan lunch option at a farming conference on a dairy farm. But that was part of the ‘broad church’ approach at the Ethical Farming Conference: a farming conference about agricultural sustainability organised by four farms in Scotland, taking place on the Ethical Dairy in... Read more ...
Posted on: Friday, 17 May, 2019

Thanks to the farmers who took part in the survey
A sincere thank you to everyone who took part in the farmer survey. One of the most satisfying parts of being a social science researcher is people engaging with the questions you’re posing and taking the time to respond. Without that engagement we’d just be sitting in a room wondering what farmers... Read more ...
Posted on: Friday, 29 March, 2019

What does grass fed milk mean?

A man in California is suing Ornua: the organisation that markets and sells Irish dairy products abroad over claims that Kerrygold butter is “grass-fed”. The man is claiming false advertising because Irish cows do not subsist on grass alone but their diet is supplemented by grain and meal which may... Read more ...
Posted on: Thursday, 13 December, 2018