Dom 'Furious' George: Why are dairy farmers' kids being bullied?

Children are being singled out and bullied because their parents are dairy farmers. Photo posed by a model

What is it about the perception of dairy farming that's causing children to be teased at school because of their parents' profession?

This issue was highlighted recently in a speech by DairyNZ CEO Dr Tim Mackle who told his audience at the industry body's Farmers Forum in Waikato he'd heard of incidents where children were being singled out because their parents were dairy farmers.

Quite clearly and obviously these children haven't come to the conclusion that dairying is bad all on their own. These little dears are simply echoing things they've heard at home and applied adolescent logic; dairy farming is bad, that kid's parents are dairy farmers, therefore his or her parents are bad and we must make fun of them of them because of it.

As we know, children are merciless when it comes to abusing their peers - there's an innate cruel streak that runs through the world's youth and they'll pick on the weakest and most vulnerable, as we all do.

Of course, the popular perception is dairy farming is bad for the environment and all dairy farmers are guilty by association. The truth or falsity of this is negligible as we're all aware that perception is reality. Results of a survey conducted by DairyNZ reveal over half the country have a favourable impression of dairy farmers, while much of the other half view them in neutral terms rather than in a strictly negative fashion.

But the numbers start to dip when the industry's environmental record comes into question; it's here we find the tolerance level for dairy farmers plummet, especially from those respondents in Southland and Canterbury, although that's hardly surprising.

If you combine these factors, it's perhaps easier to fathom why the children of dairy farmers are subject to a certain amount of bullying from their peers, notwithstanding the abhorrence of bullying in general.

I can't recall too many parental professions or jobs that led to bullying when I was at school, although for a bunch of pubescent lads we were amused to find out one of our mate's fathers was employed as an Extractor of Sheep Semen.

Despite his vain protestations that his old man was an agricultural scientist and simply doing his job, our mate had to endure a tidal wave of sheep semen jokes for most of his high school years.

Everything from his school lunch to their family outings received a dose of sheep semen humour, to the point where he completely lost it and resorted to physical violence.

So in retrospect, I am speaking from a position of knowledge (and guilt) here and we may have pushed the boat out a bit too far on this one. Besides, the life of a teenage boy already has a disproportionate amount of time dedicated to semen in one form or another, so to add more to the mix was quite uncalled for.

But in all seriousness, perhaps as parents we may at times need to be slightly more discerning about what fears and prejudices we subject our offspring to.

Whether you're employed as a dairy farmer or anything else you have the right to provide for your family and not have them bear the brunt of it.