The Moo Man (2013)
Directed by Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier

Film Review

The release of The Moo Man in 2013 provided a salutary reminder of the parlous state of British farming at the start of the third millennium but its central message is a positive one - whilst there are challenges for small-scale farmers, there are also big opportunities for those willing to embrace them.  Presenting the experiences of a family-run dairy farm in the south-east of England the tone of this thoroughly engaging documentary is predominantly upbeat, although the bleaker subtext is felt throughout and you cannot help being moved by the slightly gloomier turn the film takes in its second half.

The titular 'Moo Man' is a congenial independent dairy farmer named Steve Hook, who runs his modest farm in picturesque Sussex with a likeable ebullience tempered by no-nonsense pragmatism.  He is a good-natured evangelist for ethical farming, a man who clearly loves every one of his dairy cows and treats them like some idealised rustic in a pastoral poem or classic fairytale.  Confronted with stubbornness or surly behaviour from his bovine charges, Mr Hook keeps his temper and, with the measureless patience of a sink estate schoolteacher, resorts to cunning and gentle persuasion to gain his animals' trust and compliance (think Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds).  His attempts to goad one particularly implacable cow into a van after a day out to Eastbourne or direct another stubborn so-and-so back towards the dairy parlour after a spot of outdoor grazing are side-splittingly funny but speak volumes of the farmer's compassionate bond with his livestock.

Yet, as we get to know Steve Hook through his honest reflections on his job and his daily tussles with his cows, it is apparent that he is just as much a practical modern businessman as a rigorously ethical old-school farmer.  As he points out, dairy farming is not an easy option these days, and half of England's family-run concerns like his have gone out of business within the last decade.  With supermarkets exerting every inch of their corporate muscle to extort ever lower prices to satisfy their customers (and shareholders), Mr Hook knows he is losing money on every pint of milk he delivers.  If it were not for the modest state benefits he claims to make up for the shortfall in his income he would have gone to the wall years ago.  How many people know that the British dairy farmer is being so heavily subsidised by the taxpayer to keep the price of milk so low?

With the industry increasingly geared towards mass-production, the only hope for small farms like Steve's is to sell direct to local consumers, offering a premium product at a price that will allow the farm to remain viable.  Mr Hook sees the mushrooming public interest in organic produce as a golden opportunity for him to begin a new venture, supplying raw unpasteurised milk as a healthy, less environmentally damaging alternative to ecologically concerned customers.  He has already had some success with his organic beef line.  Unlike most dairy farms - particularly the larger ones - Mr Hook does not slaughter his male calves at birth, but instead rears them for beef.  By respecting both animal welfare and the environment, by focussing more on quality than quantity, Hook Farm provides a template for small-scale ethical farming that is well-worth emulating - unquestionably the future direction the industry should be taking.  In its well-considered observations such as these the film accords with Raymond Depardon's excellent three-part French documentary Profils paysans (2001-2008), which matches The Moo Man in its intimacy, insights and charm.

Independent filmmaker Andy Heathcote delivers a low-key but engrossing film that is both informative and heart-warming - with more than a smattering of James Herriot-style life-on-the-farm hijinks to keep us amused.  Dairy cows can be troublesome beasts when they want to be and rarely do they seem to want to go along with their owner's wishes.  It is with a palpable sense of disappointment and frustration that Steve Hook watches his cows give birth to male calves rather than the precious heifers he had been hoping for.  At least he doesn't have to work too hard to get his herd out into the great outdoors after their period of over-winter confinement - he is lucky not to get trampled to death in the rush.

Steve clearly sees his close rapport with his animals as one of the main perks of his job, but in the film's devastating conclusion we see that this comes at a terrible price.  When Ida, the queen of his herd, suddenly succumbs to a mystery sickness, the farmer's anguish is more than evident, his casual bonhomie scarcely concealing the grief within.  Earlier in the film, he had looked forward to Ida spending her last few years in peaceful retirement, a well-deserved reward for her long years of service.  The vet shows up and the cause of Ida's crippling malaise is soon identified - the news is far from good.  Mr Hook tries to put on a brave face but we are left in no doubt how deeply the loss of Ida has affected him.  His livestock are not pets, he once informed us, but the passing of his treasured Ida reveals just how close a connection the farmer has with his cows.

The Moo Man is an utter delight of a film.  Not only does it offer a touching portrait of one committed farmer and his dairy herd, it also presents us with a vision of sustainable farming that should be embraced as widely as possible - for our own health and the health of the world.

Film Synopsis

In 2013, Steve Hook manages a small organic dairy farm on the Pevensey Levels in Sussex, England.  The small family business was started a few decades previously by Steve's father Phil, who still helps out on the farm, along with Steve's wife and their four children.  The farm has only 55 head of cattle, which is modest by today's standards and allows Steve to have a one-to-one relationship with each of his cows.  He is one of a dying breed of farmers who are prepared to put animal welfare before profit, his belief being that this results in a much better product for the consumer.  Steve is especially fond of his 12-year-old Friesian Ida, the pride of his herd.

The economics of dairy farming are become increasingly tough for small farmers struggling to compete with the bigger concerns.  Knowing that he will not be able to survive for much longer by selling exclusively to the supermarkets, Mr Hook has opted to focus his efforts on delivering premium products direct to customers - quality beef and unpasteurised organic milk.  To that end, he has invested in a new bottling plant to increase his straight-to-market raw milk output and begins touring the area to promote his products.  It is a seesaw way of life and the Hook family have grown accustomed to the ups and downs of small-scale farming.  There is one disaster that Steve hasn't foreseen, however - the sudden loss of his most treasured cow Ida...