Battery Style Dairy Farms to Come to the UK

A controversial proposal for a massive cattle farm has been met an angry response from some sectors who are calling it cruel. The proposal would see around 8000 cows housed in one huge building and milked three times a day. Aside from the animal welfare issues, with the cows rarely being let outside to graze or see the sun, there are of course concerns about the spread of disease with so many cows confined in one area.

The idea for the battery style dairy farm came to light through a planning proposal by a farmer in Nocton, Lincolnshire, who wanted permission for a 8000 strong dairy farm. The farm would cost in the region of £40 million and would consist of one enormous building with eight hangars to house over 8,000 cows. There would be two milking parlous operating 24 hours a day. The cows would be kept on sand beds and spend the majority of their days inside being fed on fodder and in a continuing milking cycle to produce close to half a million pints of milk a day. The cows would of course produce a vast amount of waste and this slurry would be fed into a special generator and via anaerobic processes produce electric to power around 2000 homes.

In an effort to combat animal welfare issues the proposed farm would allow the cows out into pastures when they were not producing milk and the hangars would have open sides to allow fresh air to circulate. A vet would always be on site and all the staff would be specially trained and a visitors centre is planned.

The proposal is expected to get the go ahead shortly and the farm hopes to be operational by the autumn.

But such an idea, while new to the UK, is already operated in places like America and New Zealand. In New Zealand dairy farms with thousands of cows are already common place and there are plans to expand the industry to  have farms with close to 20,000 animals in one facility. In these set ups the cows are all kept in cubicles inside for around 8 months a year and the farms have faced many cruelty claims with videos on youtube apparently showing calves starving to death and issues with waste discharge. Yet others argue that the cows are actually far healthy and happier as they are protected from extreme weather conditions and fed the best of fodder available and more regular milking is more natural than the usual twice daily milking employed. And if cows were unhealthy and unhappy the first thing to suffer would be milk yields.

In America large dairy farms are common and one farm in Oregon claims to be the largest with 40,000 cattle. There have been no shortage of undercover films made by societies promoting the vegan life style and for animal welfare charities, showing apparent cruelty.

But with milk prices being constantly pushed down and consumers always looking for cheaper milk and meat, farmers are having to turn to highly efficient processes and mass production lines.