Britse dierenactivisten protesteren tegen koeien'fabriek' met 8000 koeien en 24-uurs melkproductie in Nocton - Dieren zullen nauwelijks daglicht zien

‘Battery’ dairy of 8,000 cows sparks protests

27-02-2010 Jon Ungoed-Thomas, The Times, UK


A GIANT factory farm for “battery cows” is being planned for the British countryside with an 8,000-strong herd, a 24-hour milking operation and cubicles covered with sand instead of fresh pasture.

The Lincolnshire herd will be the biggest in Britain but rarely see sunshine. It will produce more than 430,000 pints of milk every day. Slurry from the cows will be used to produce power and may be sold to the national grid.

Farmers behind the scheme say the intensive production methods are needed to ensure Britain’s dairy industry remains competitive.

Animal rights supporters, however, will mount strong opposition. “It’s absolutely atrocious,” said Linda Wardle, who walks in the countryside where the dairy will be built. “It’s wrong that so many cattle will be kept inside.”

Justin Kerswell, the campaigns manager for Viva, an animal rights organisation, said: “This is factory farming and blows out of the water the pastoral image the dairy industry likes to portray.”

Robert Howard, an arable farmer in Lincolnshire who is involved in the project, said welfare standards would be among the best in the country. “Campaigners think that cows should be like in the Anchor butter advert with 50-100 cows dancing in a field,” he said. “It is a lovely idea, but it is not the reality.”

The dairy, near Nocton, will have eight hangars for cattle and two round-the-clock milking parlours. Cows will be mostly kept inside, fed with a special diet and milked three times a day. Traditional dairy farms typically milk cows twice a day.

The £40m scheme is four times bigger than any dairy operating in Britain, although similar operations exist in eastern Europe, the Middle East and America.

The dairy will have an anaerobic digester to produce a biogas from the slurry. This will generate enough electricity for the dairy and more than 2,000 homes.

Nocton Dairies said the project will be a flagship for the industry and help it compete against imports. It warned many dairy farmers were quitting the business and the scheme would show “how milk can be produced economically”.

North Keveston council has had dozens of objections on animal welfare grounds but said they were not a valid reason for refusing the application. “There is no need for this mass production and incarceration of these poor animals,” said one of the comments posted last weekend on the planning department’s website.

The council said that any objections on animal welfare grounds could not be considered as valid reasons for refusing the application. Residents have also raised concerns about extra traffic and the impact on the local environment.

Peter Willes, one of the two dairy farmers behind the project, said the cows would have access to some pasture when not producing milk and the sheds would have open sides.

“The theory that cows should be out all the time is a myth,” he said. “We will have a visitor centre to show the public around. We are aiming to have exceptional standards.”

(Bron: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/)