New scheme attacked all round.......

Nocton Dairies: Animal welfare lobby slams plans

18 November 2010 | By Alistair Driver

ANIMAL welfare and environmental groups have attacked Nocton Dairies plans, despite the decision to cut cow numbers back by more than half.

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) condemned the revised plans as ‘an unwanted and unnecessary industrialisation of dairy farming’.

Despite the smaller numbers CIWF said its ‘overwhelming concern remains that this is still bad news for the animals and entirely the wrong direction for dairy farming’. 

It expressed fears that ‘this US-style factory farm could set a dangerous precedent for the future of dairy farming in the UK’. Producing milk on this scale would drive the price of a pint of milk down to levels most small farmers could not compete with, it claimed.

It said research had shown the ‘zero-grazing’ system Nocton would deploy is associated with increased risk of many health and welfare problems including lameness, mastitis, reproductive problems and a number of bacterial infections.

CIWF chief executive Philip Lymbery said: “The proposed Nocton development is still the wrong route for dairy farming in Britain. 

“It threatens animal welfare and the countryside, will put hard-pressed family farms under even more pressure, and will undermine the integrity of our milk.

“The proposal remains unwanted, unnecessary and unwelcome. The bottom line is that cows belong in fields not in industrial dairies.”

CIWF campaigns manager Pat Thomas pledged the organisation would be ‘throwing all of our weight behind the battle to stop factory farming coming to the UK’.

Viva! described the decision to halve cows numbers and allow cows outside access at Nocton as a ‘victory of sorts’ but insisted it will continue to fight the plans because of the link between intensive dairy farming and ‘bad cow welfare’.

 “We still object. It is not like we are going to throw up our hands and say it is wonderful what you are doing,” said Viva! campaigns manager, Justin Kerswell.

“The opposition to this project has sent out a very clear message to the dairy industry the British public are not ready for intensive dairy farming.”

The RSPCA said it would not comment directly on the application but stated it does ‘not approve or support systems which house dairy cows for 365 days a year, and they are prohibited by the Society’s welfare standards’.

But it added: “Just because a system is large, does not necessarily make it bad in terms of animal welfare.”

 Friends of the Earth’s food campaigner Sandra Bell said: “Nocton’s promoters have scaled down their plans for now but with a view to expanding them in the future - and they still plan to cram their cows into massive sheds, rather than graze them outdoors.

“The introduction of US-style mega dairies would force small farmers out of business and push the UK’s farming sector further towards crisis.”

Also in: Nocton Dairies: Farmers Plan To Press Ahead With 8,000-Cow Dairy

• Nocton Dairies: Is there a future for super dairies in the UK?

• Nocton Dairies: Will there be a market for milk from super dairies?

• Nocton Dairies: Super dairy could be a cow heaven - David Barnes

• Nocton Dairies: Minimum stress and good nutrition are key to large-scale herd

• Nocton Dairies: What the supermarkets said

• Nocton Dairies: Willes explains decision to cut cow numbers

• Nocton Dairies: The plans in full

• Nocton Dairies: Mixed reaction to 'super dairy' plans

• Nocton Dairies: Super dairies 'worse than organic farms'

Related Articles

• Nocton Dairies confident it can sell its milk

  22 November 2010
  
  

Now the debate really starts in earnest!

Image via Wikipedia

Nocton Dairies confident it can sell its milk

22 November 2010

NOCTON Dairies director Peter Willes has insisted the Lincolnshire ‘super dairy’ would have ‘no issues’ in marketing its milk, despite the public backlash against it.

A number of major supermarkets have already indicated their reluctance to source milk from the proposed 3,770-cow unit or any similar ones that follow because of consumer concerns over animal welfare.

But questioned on whether he feared retailers could boycott the milk during a live Farmers Guardian online debate last Friday, Mr Willes wrote: “We are already connected in the processing industry and believe we will have no issues in marketing the milk, whether it is in the liquid market or in other dairy products.

“While people want to be negative about this application, it brings very sustainable dairying in the form of high welfare, high efficiency, recycling and renewable energy.”

Nocton’s directors have already held informal talks with processors and supermarkets but have stressed no deals can be signed until planning permission is granted. They said there was ‘private interest’ but acknowledged retailers might wait until the unit is up and running before making any public commitments.

During the hour long debate, Mr Willes delivered a robust defence of the controversial development in the face of a barrage of questions and comments on the ethics and practicalities of the project from readers and co-panellist, Viva!’s Justin Kerswell.

Mr Kerswell described the plans as a ‘retrograde step, when extensive and organic farming remains popular’. He claimed intensive dairy farming was turning cows into ‘something, sadly, akin to Frankenstein’s monster’.

“Mega-dairies are bad for cows and they are bad for people. The British public is rejecting them - and I see no point in the future that they will be convinced otherwise,” Mr Kerswell wrote.

Mr Willes responded by emphasising the benefits the scale of units like Nocton can deliver in areas like animal welfare and the environment. .

 “Large dairy farms offer tremendous opportunities for efficiency making investments in specialist cow care, the best facilities, the most able staff and continual training and development possible. This, combined with the production of renewable energy, the lowest carbon footprint and the latest technology to protect the environment keeps the farm economically sustainable in turn,” he wrote.

The third panellist, veterinary scientist Jon Huxley, of Nottingham Veterinary School, argued that the unit should not be condemned because of its scale. “Any farm, no matter how big or small, should be judged on its individual merits,” he said.

Mr Willes also came under fire from local Nocton residents, who sought guarantees their quality would not be affected. He outlined changes made to the resubmitted planning application intended to address such concerns, including the halving of cow numbers, improved digestate storage facilities, higher standard effluent piping systems and provision for the anaerobic digester to be built before any cows arrive.

Related articles

• Company pulls out of 'super dairy' plans (telegraph.co.uk)