I am sure that all readers of Mailbox will be aware that Elizabeth Allison cares deeply about animals (good for her).

But in her latest letter (Mailbox July 11), as she very often does, she goes way over the top. This last letter was all about the welfare of dairy cows.

She wrote mastitis is an inflammation of the udder which occurs in 50 per cent of UK dairy cows.

On the farms I worked on we didn't have some of the big herds they have today. Our average was about 40 cows in milk at the same time. If we had four cases of mastitis in a year, that was the most we had.

She then wrote it is excruciatingly painful and antibiotics have failed to control it. We used to have a supply of medicament in our livestock medicine chest.

At the first sign of trouble we started treatment. This was generally my job. I would milk the affected quarter out by hand and then squeeze a tube of this medication up the teat. I would do this morning and night for about three days and – job done. I would continue to milk that quarter out for another three days and throw that milk away. Problem solved.

The secret is to spot trouble straight away and treat at once.

Ms Allison went on to say 50 per cent of dairy cows suffer crippling leg and foot disorders. Although our cows were housed in cow byres and tied up in winter, unless it was too icy to be safe, we made a point of turning them out for an hour or so every day.

Even if they only had the yard and hard track up to the field for a walk it seemed to work and we didn't have any of Ms Allison's cows' trouble.

I know that the dairy farmers have a job to survive after being held to ransom by the supermarkets.

But if the picture Ms Allison paints of 50 per cent of their cows with mastitis and 50 per cent unable to walk is true, I am sure that we would have no dairy cows at all. So please, Ms Allison, stick to facts now and again.

G A Wright, Leicester.