Plans for 3,000 dairy cow “battery” farm opposed
Local residents in Lincolnshire are again up in arms after a second proposal to build a massive ‘battery farm’ for dairy cows in the county was announced. The proposal for a 3,000 dairy cow ‘battery’ farm at South Witham near Grantham in Lincolnshire is the second in less than a year for this type of farm in Lincolnshire and the two applicants are not linked.
The proposal comes soon after the temporary withdrawal of the plans for the 8,000-cow Nocton Heath Dairy, following widespread local protest and requests for more information from statutory bodies including the Environment Agency. Promoters of the Nocton Heath plan say they will submit a revised plan.
WSPA (The World Society for the Protection of Animals) and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) said that plans for another massive dairy farm being proposed at South Witham, near Grantham in Lincolnshire would represent an enormous step in the wrong direction for British farming. If the reported plans went ahead they would result in nearly 3,000 high-yield dairy cows being housed in welfare conditions that are likely to be low. The resultant environmental impacts that this size herd would cause - through animal waste and additional transport - are hard to imagine.
Suzi Morris, Director of WSPA UK said: “These vast, industrial dairy proposals are a glimpse of an ugly future for British dairy farming, and a nail in the coffin of pasture-based dairy farming as we know it – and we don’t believe that British consumers want their milk from cows farmed in this intensive way.”
“It’s inconceivable that Britain can allow itself to sleepwalk into the same trap as the United States where gigantic intensive dairy systems are now the norm, the landscape is littered with enormous feedlots and dairy cows grazing in pasture is just a distant memory.”
“The emergence of a second and equally unacceptable scheme shows that the concerns of local protesters are entirely justified,” said Stuart Northolt, Director at Compassion in World Farming. “The intensive farming industry is desperate to promote massive ‘battery’ style projects regardless of their damage to animal welfare, to smaller dairy farmers or to the local environment.”
“We know from speaking to many dairy farmers that this doesn’t have to be the way forward,” said Stuart. “They share our concern that this could cause irreversible damage to a farming system that millions of British consumers value and cherish.”
There is to be a public meeting at South Witham Village Hall on 7 June where the applicants, Velmur Ltd., will give a presentation on their plan.
Note:
1. A 2009 EFSA Report has revealed the extent to which dairy cows farmed under an intensive ‘battery’ style system, its use of high yield dairy cows and the proposed management of the herd could seriously compromise the welfare of the individual animals. It has also found evidence that selection for high milk yields reduce levels of vitamins and antioxidants in milk.
2. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW), which advises the European Commission, recently conducted a major review of dairy cow welfare in Europe. The AHAW Panel concludes (AHAW, 2009a):
“Long term genetic selection for high milk yield is the major factor causing poor `welfare, in particular health problems, in dairy cows.”
3. The Nocton Dairies proposal seeks to emulate the US industrial farming model. Nocton Dairies state (Reading Agricultural Consultants, 2010a):
“The design and technology used in the proposal are based on those employed on similar scale units in the USA and Canada”.
This industrial farming model has been condemned as unsustainable. The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production examined industrial livestock systems in the US and concluded (Pew Commission, 2008):
“The present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and presents an unacceptable level of risk to public health and damage to the environment, as well as unnecessary harm to the animals we raise for food.”
For further information or to arrange interviews contact Lisa Bronstein at WSPA on 0207 239 0634 or Simon Pope on 07811 404 874 (out of office hours) simonpope@wspa.org.uk or Caroline Burkie at CIWF on 01483 521952 or 07771 926005 (out of office hours) or email caroline.burkie@ciwf.org
About WSPA:
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is the world’s largest alliance of animal welfare organisations, currently representing more than 1000 member societies in over 156 countries. WSPA strives to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty ends. We bring about change at both grassroots and governmental levels, to benefit animals.
Source: newsroom - meattradenewsdaily.co.uk
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