NEC Livestock Event - an Archers Writer's take

My first impressions were pretty overwhelming: high tech gadgetry, expensive machinery and big industry. Over the course of a few hours I met some inspirational women, caught a persuasive demo of robotic milking and took away plenty of information.

Four things I learned at the NEC Livestock event:

1 - Even cows need a Pedicure!

At the Healthy Feet zone I was treated to a fascinating demonstration involving a cow flipped on its side in an electronically controlled crush, having her hooves trimmed by what looked like an industrial sand blaster and being told about the dangers of white-line disease (a condition rather than an actual disease, apparently). It looked brutal, but the cow walked out happily enough at the end and so I moved on…

2 - Farmers get useful leaflets at shows too:

I stocked up on leaflets that might come in handy when writing future episodes, and picked up several on paddock and grassland weed control - plus innovations in livestock housing and milking parlour technology…

3 - Women Farmers Rock (well, I knew this already of course):

I went along to the launch of an initiative called ‘Women In Dairy’ – just the sort of thing Pip and Ruth would be interested in becoming part of, one suspects. Their aim is to support women involved in dairy to achieve and celebrate success, raising awareness of the huge role women play in the industry and promoting their future involvement with a raised profile.

A key element of this is increasing awareness of how critical resolving inheritance issues can be to the continued survival and success of family-owned dairy farms – something the Archer family knows only too well.

The passion and commitment shown by Sarah, Becky and the others about the role of women in dairy farming (and in the Archers too!) was truly inspirational.

Here's a clip from an interview we gave for The Archers:

4 - Cows kind of have their own beauty pageant:

Cuddly Charolais, gorgeous Guernseys and heavenly Herefords in the livestock show section – they were all there. Beautiful, and another reason why I come to these shows to see such magnificent animals.