If the current row over dairy farming was solely about a small pressure group, using language so emotive that it is almost combustible, putting out an advertisement claiming that the practice is inherently inhumane, the whole thing would surely have petered out by now. It has become the norm for the intolerant to scream their opponents into submission before moving swiftly on to the next target.

Yet the internet is awash and the airwaves resonating with this debate. Either a single vegan pressure group, Go Vegan World, set up in memory of a dead hen, has exposed a deep ethical divide throughout our nation, or this is the thin end of the wedge, wherein a minority view is being passed off as that of the majority, in which those of us who are meat and dairy eaters or, God help us all, dairy farmers, are depicted as cruel and exploitative.

The advertisement, which the Advertising Standards Agency has ruled acceptable, uses language little different to that you would find after a quick Google search on dairy farming, with references to “babies” and “crying” when talking about calves and cows. What it describes bears little relation to what really goes on. Some seem not to realise that we farmers care passionately about our animals, and that our livelihoods depend on their health and happiness. It is no wonder a woman rang me, some months ago, to see if her daughter (considering veganism) could come and talk to us, on our small dairy farm, to be reassured that our farm animals actually have a decent life.