Don’t tell dairy farmers that the customer is always right

Patrick Meagher
Farmers Forum

Ontario dairy farmers were lectured recently by a University of B.C. animal welfare research professor who told them that sometime in the future farmers will not separate calves from their mothers. It was a matter of animal health and of public perception, they were told. The jury is still out on the matter of animal health but what’s the deal about public perception?

There is a growing consumer perception that calves with their mothers are happier and “the customer is always right,” professor Marina von Keyserlingk said. There are so many reasons why that statement is wrong. For starters, how many customers are complaining about calf-raising, other than animal rights activists, who don’t buy milk products unless their friends aren’t looking?

Nobody is inquiring about how calves are raised before they go shopping for milk. If they want or need milk they are going to buy it. Demand is not elastic. No one buys orange juice when they want milk.

The pressure on farmers sounds a lot like government caving to the demands of animal rights groups. Nobody complains when babies are separated at birth from their mothers and put in incubators. There is no protest over mothers who separate their babies again for daycare.

And why should dairy farmers insist that the customer is always right if no one else does? Besides, sometimes the customer is wrong.

If the customer is always right, why can’t I get a plastic straw when I order a drink? I want a plastic straw. The lid is plastic. Why does my bank tell me my call is important to them but then I am put on hold for 20 minutes? Why is it so hard to get a refund from some companies? Why do some businesses tell me they’ll get back to me and don’t.

Notice that when you go into many businesses today, there are signs that read something like “Please be respectful of our staff. We will not tolerate abuse.”

I rarely see anyone raising their voice when I’m in line and the one time I did, the customer was right. But it didn’t matter. The clerk threatened to call security. As far as I can tell, those signs are code for “Shut up and be nice to me because I don’t have to serve you.”

So, the good professor will need to come up with some definitive research that frowns on cow-calf separation.

Meantime, the dairy farmer is right in saying the costs of re-fitting a barn for cow-calf families is too far out of reach to be practical or beneficial.