Daisy Wood: The public rarely appreciate the ‘story of care’

No two livestock farms look the same – breeds, systems, scale, housing and grazing all vary.

But there is one striking constant: the level of care farmers give their animals.

It isn’t staged. It isn’t for a clipboard, a camera or a hashtag.

See also: Daisy Wood – inclusion means decision-making as well as work

About the author

Daisy Wood

Daisy Wood grew up in a farming family in Gloucestershire and studied an Environmental Science degree at the University of Exeter. After a spell with Leaf (Linking Environment and Farming), she now works as a knowledge transfer manager for Waitrose and the University of Reading. Her work focuses on applying scientific knowledge in regenerative agriculture.

Read more articles by Daisy Wood

It exists because farmers understand a simple truth that rarely makes the headlines: look after your livestock properly, and they will look after you in return.

That care is practical, not sentimental. It produces food, fibre and livelihoods.

It keeps families afloat and communities alive. Yet it is missing from how farming is portrayed to consumers.

Livestock farming is too often reduced to soundbites – emissions, prices or cruelty.

Spend a morning in a lambing shed or a milking parlour and you see responsibility made visible.

You see farmers who know their animals individually, who recognise that welfare isn’t an abstract concept, but a daily obligation.

They don’t care for animals because it looks good or because they’re told to; they do it because stewardship is the job.

And this stewardship doesn’t clock in at nine and head home at five. Stockmanship is a craft built over years.

Care, in farming, isn’t a slogan. It’s a skill, and a hard-earned one.

The problem is that most consumers never see this. They see a packet of meat or a pint of milk, not the constant responsibility behind it.

When media narratives and pricing structures ignore that lived reality, we misunderstand farming and undervalue the food system.

How did food, something fundamental to every household, become so easy to discount?

That misunderstanding is especially visible when milk sells for pennies and steaks are priced with little relation to the cost of producing them.

Behind those “bargains” is a farmer who has invested time, money and care to produce food responsibly.

If we want a food system that genuinely values quality and welfare, that story of care has to be part of the conversation and reflected in a fair price.

Because behind every farm gate is a farmer who knows one thing for certain: caring for animals isn’t optional. It’s the foundation of farming itself.