A farm leader has attacked as "unbalanced" RTÉ's latest top-ratings show Vets on Call, claiming it portrays a totally wrong image of Irish farming.
The complaint has come from Mr Pat O'Rourke, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, who said the programme, seen by nearly half a million viewers last week, did not reflect the reality on Irish farms.
"The programme highlights situations and practices which are not everyday occurrences on Irish farms involving vets or the treatment of animals," he said. The fly-on-the-wall style programme tracks two vets as they rush to the rescue of sick animals all over Mayo.
The vets, Paul McDermott and Eamonn O'Connor and their trainee, work up to 20 hours each day looking after the 800 animal clients on their books.
So far viewers have seen a calf being castrated and a caesarian being performed on a cow.
Mr O'Rourke said the documentaries to date did not show Irish farms in a very good light.
"The episodes of Vets on Call screened to date do not portray the reality of Irish farms and there are, in fact, incidents in the three programmes where the direct opposite is the case," said Mr O'Rourke.
"The association holds that the episodes to date have the potential to do harm to the important agriculture sector in this country."