Humane Claims of Plan for Huge UK Dairy Factory Farm Don't Add Up

by Heidi Stevenson

9 November 2009

A proposal for England's first American-style factory farmed milk paints a pretty picture of contented cows living in spacious quarters and treated humanely. However, the claims literally don't add up. Nocton Dairies' plans provide minimal space for the cows, crowding them obscenely and feeding an unnatural diet that will make them ill.

Cows' Welfare

Nocton Dairies is a consortium of large-scale cattle farmers. They call the plan a "flagship for the industry". It would hold 8,100 cows inside virtually their entire lives. The planned facility would be built on 22 acres. If every square inch of the land were used for the cows' living space, that would be 118.3 square feet per cow, approximately 11.8 X 10 feet (3.6 X 3.0 meters) for each cow.

That does not, though, include space for offices, milking, feed storage, veterinarian's office and hospital, business office, loading and unloading space, roads or parking space for employees and transportation vehicles, "digestion unit" (cow dung recycler), tanks, pond, or their planned visitors center.

The reality is, of course, far worse than a best-case scenario. A look at the proposed site plan, which can be found here, shows that only a small fraction of the land space will be allocated to housing the cattle. (To my eyes, it looks like less than 10% of the total space.)

In point of fact, Nocton's Planning Application Design and Access Statement says in the introduction:

The design and technology employed are based on those employed on similar-scale units in the USA and Canada.

They're basing the size of the cows' accommodations on factory farmed American cattle! Could it be worse? Unfortunately, yes—because the size of the stalls is not the only area in which they're planning to follow American-style factory farming.

The cattle would be fed a combination of lucerne (alfalfa) and corn, neither of which is part of a cow's natural diet. They plan to supplement their diet with by-products from a sugar beet factory and an ethanol and biofuel plant. It's far too rich for them, resulting in digestive misery. These are not cud-forming foods, so cattle cannot regurgitate and chew their cud. Though they may regurgitate the food, it isn't in the same state that it should be. The diet forces the cattle to produce far more milk than is natural, resulting in excessively swollen udders.

The diet, along with the crowding, stress, and an environment that is virtually impossible to keep clean,results in disease and mastitis. To counteract it, the cattle are given antibiotics, with the result that it ends up in the milk—and your children—and results in yet more antibiotic-resistant diseases.

These cattle live only about six years—six miserable years—compared to a normal ten-year life span.

Risks to the Environment

The UK government's Environment Agency has expressed concerns that a limestone aquifer could be polluted by the Nocton super-dairy. An agency spokesperson, Rita Penman, said;

It's up to anyone putting in an application to show their consultants have proved there isn't any type of risk.

Groundwater will travel and can affect a large area, so you have to ensure there won't be any contamination, period.

We need more information, and until then our objection stands.

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Conservation has expressed concern that ammonia output could destroy rare calcareous grasslands within a mile of the proposed factory dairy. Their conservation officer, Elizabeth Biott, says:

The grasslands are special because of the number and type of species found in just a square metre. But they grow best on nutrient poor soils, and if you get a development like this, within the project area, then it could increase the nutrients, which will have a major effect. It's not good.

The developers need to gather more information. At the moment, they aren't giving enough information to allow anyone to assess the environmental impact.

Risks to the Health of Local Residents

The chairperson of the Nocton Parish Council sent a letter to North Kesteven District Council planning officer, Philip Rowson, expressing "urgent concerns" over increases in traffic, nighttime noise, water and air quality, and light pollution. She further wrote:

The proposers now say many of the 85 jobs created will probably not be taken up by local people due to a shortage of dairy skills in this area, which effectively removes one positive factor of the application.

Such massive dairy units have been constructed and operated in the USA and have caused considerable problems to neighbours even two miles away with particularly strong smells, flies and ground and surface water pollution.

We are very concerned that the same problems should not be allowed to occur here.

Nocton Dairies' Claims

Nocton Dairies, of course, is trying to sell this disaster as good for the local people, good for the environment, and good for the cows. They have stated:

The dairy has been designed to a level beyond the highest environmental and animal welfare standards ever seen in the UK. The cow's health is the single most important factor in this or any other dairy. The Nocton Dairy has been designed with the health and welfare of the cow to be unparalleled in any dairy probably in the world.

That claim is absurd on its face. The welfare of the cattle cannot be their concern if they're willing to keep them enclosed in tiny stalls for months at a time, feed them a diet sure to cause them misery and make then sick, and force them to produce beyond their endurance. These are not the actions of people who care about the animals in their care. They're the actions of people who care for one thing only: profits.

Nocton is planning a visitors center and facilities for schools, which I can interpret only as propaganda. What are they going to tell children? That treating cows like milk-producing sacs produces healthy dairy products? That it's kind to treat animals this way? That it doesn't reflect on their own humanity? That destroying the earth, torturing animals, and sacrificing the health of the people is okay, if it provides profits?

Of 697 comments made by the public, only eight expressed support for the project. Obviously, I'm not the only person who believes that the Nocton Dairies are a representation of evil. If the Nocton Dairies plan is approved, it will be in spite of the public's outrage. A decision is due in early April.

What do you think? Click here to comment!

Search Gaia Health: