Despite films like Food Inc showing us the grim realities of industrialised farming in America, the same sort of thing is destined to hit here in the UK. What is being dubbed as ‘factory-farmed milk’ could hit supermarket shelves by this autumn.
English dairy company, Nocton Dairies Ltd, is planning to build an intensive 22 hectares (54 acres – a correction from our original report) farm in Lincolnshire housing 
8,100 cows in 8 sheds in the next few months. To put this in perspective, our yogurt maker Judith Freane keeps just 100 Guernsey cows on her 480-acre farm in Somerset, and our milk man Nick Gosling in Wiltshire has just a 110-strong Guernsey dairy herd on 220-acres. Both farms have land for growing cereals to feed their herds in the winter, when the grass is not sufficient enough to feed them.
To be fair, Nocton Dairies have purchased 21,000 acres from local farmers, who will help grow feed for the cows. Nick applauds this and says “at least they’re getting local farmers involved, but the downside here is that these cows will not be outside.”
However, if you see the scale of what Nocton are planning (click here to view the plans – and object to the planning permission if the idea of this farm upsets you) versus Nick (see our video of Berkeley Farm) and Judith’s (Brown Cow Organics) farms, it just leaves a sour feeling – or at least it does with us.
Judith was quite dismissive of Nocton’s plans. One of the things we discussed with her is the milking. Nocton plan to milk their cows three times a day, versus two – as both she and Nick do. “Milking the cows three times a day happens a lot. It’s about increasing the yields; they go up by about 15%,” she says. “This is very much an American system. I’m sure the farmers doing this would prefer to have their cows out in the fields but the buyers just aren’t paying them enough money.”
“You can’t just blame the supermarkets, that is pointless,” says small-scale Welsh dairy farmer (with a herd of 80 Friesians), and director of the Soil Association, Patrick Holden. “The choice is with us, the customers: it’s we who have to change the way we buy, and as a farmer, we must help the public to relearn where milk comes from, to value it and the animal and the land and the people that produced it.”
Over to you…
p.s. If you want to see another cynical American stab at intensive farming, Keith (Abel, - our founder) recommends checking out The Meatrix – http://www.meatrix.com.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
04 Mar 2010 at 12:58
Yipee,battery cow’s are they going to stand on top of one another like the chicken’s so they can poo all over each other.( Yummy )
It’s about time this goverment got a grip.(GET A GRIP GORDAN)
How on earth battery farms came to be in the first place is sheer lunacy.Feed the masses,yeh great, feed them what? Rubbish of course then gradually over time with poor nutritious food they will all become weak and diseased ridden just like the chickens. Then they will all die.That would solve a lot of problems the goverment have kill us all off.
Britain used to be Great, what are we now ?
Never mind contacting the council we should all stand together and get MR.GORDAN BROWN to stop these cruel un natural farming methods.They are not in the best interest of the animals or the people that would be consumimg their products.
05 Mar 2010 at 08:15
I just can’t believe they’re thinking of doing this….I dread to think of how many gallons of milk are poured down drains already before it gets to market let alone how many more will be when non-organic dairy farmers can’t sell their milk as its not as cheap as the liquid (I daren’t call it milk…. I find it hard enough to call the stuff on the shelves now that…) these monstrosities will produce…. can you imagine how much hormone based things they will have to give the animals to keep producing to their nightmare timetable when they are in such squalid miserable conditions??? What’s next… this kind of living hell warehouse for meat herds????
Anyone any idea if Compassion in World Farming is aware of this and doing any kind of coordinated campaign as they do with beak trimming/battery chicken changes etc? The single emails on the planning permission are in danger of being hidden in all the other planning stuff…..?
06 Mar 2010 at 12:20
I turned to organic milk because the milk on the shelves was making me seriously ill, along with tithe food from supermarket shelves.
If I was not made aware of what was making me ill. I would be living at the doctors, living on medication and obese. As soon as I changed my diet, (changed from un-organic to organic) the weight just fell off and I became well.
It is wrong what they are doing to the foods, it makes no sense.
07 Mar 2010 at 08:15
I find it absolutely unbelievable..
Disgusting only just sums it up
07 Mar 2010 at 09:26
After the campaigns by Compassion in World Farming, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie O to name a few, have the supermarkets and “dairies” learnt nothing?!!! Animals need real light, real air and real food to produce a top quality product. Don’t they also deserve these essentials as well?
08 Mar 2010 at 13:14
People are unaware of the link to what they eat and their health…I know it’s bonkers but people are dumb, really dumb. We can but educate and lead by example, I go out of my way to buy organic RAW dairy, it’s a premium but I am worth every penny.
Do a little everyday, have friends for coffee and tea and bring milk into the conversation, don’t convert anyone just throw them a thought!
Keep up the good work folks.
08 Mar 2010 at 15:16
unfortunately people want cheap food and they don’t think about where their food comes from, how it is grown and how the animals are treated. Unless there is education nothing will change.
09 Mar 2010 at 20:29
This plan is so revolting that it is almost unbelievable – except we all know that the driving force is greedy supermarkets, hungry (but not very aware) farmers and stupid (very unaware, for the most part) shoppers who have been brainwashed in to believing everything from a supermarket is cheap and good.
We deal with the public on a daily basis and it is alarming quite how unaware they are about what they are eating and where it has come from. Education is, of course, essential but while planners allow the seemingly unstoppable rise of supermarkets and they in turn are allowed to get away with paying suppliers peanuts it is going to be an uphill battle. It is all very depressing but now it is essential that we find out who Nocton Dairies are supplying, then write to them to object. It may not make a scrap of difference but at least we can say we tried – unlike 99.5% of the population who couldn’t care less as long as it’s cheap!
10 Mar 2010 at 08:09
Reading the latest Able and Cole Newsletter made me angry enough to comment on the this blog, and hopefully angry enough to do more to help people to understand why buying local, mostly organic food is best. Before writing a complete rant, I decided to check out Nocton Dairies on the web (http://noctondairies.co.uk/). They come across relatively as well-meaning, writing about how they have incorporated a plan to generate electricity from the cows’ waste, they are contracting with local farmers to grow feed for the cows, and they will not give the cows hormones. However, I could not find how large their proposed farm would be. At one place they say there are 21,000 acres of crop land available. What exactly does this mean? I would be very surprised if 21,000 contiguous acres of land existed in Lincolnshire. Where did Able and Cole find the 22 acre number? Also, I was a bit disturbed that they will be raising their cattle on deep sand. What exactly is this? How can cattle graze on deep sand…and they write that the cows will have access to open pasture (this is definitely the same kind of code used by those chicken farms that have one tiny door in the barn that leads to a small outside area where theoretically a few chickens could run around, but in reality none of the chickens even know about the door).
We need to realize that this large, non-organic agribusiness-like farm could be the death knell for smaller farmers. Perhaps the milk and other products from Nocton Dairies will be a few pennies cheaper in the supermarket, but there are many hidden, indirect costs that we don’t appreciate. We talk a lot about education, but what is really being done? How are practices like this approved in the first place? Books like “Fast Food Nation” and “In Defense of Food” should be required reading. People need to remember that food should come from plants and animals not a factory. So many of us live in busy cities, isolated from the land, that we don’t really appreciate (or even think about) where food actually comes from.
Who can we write? Where can we protest? Who will listen to logical, reasonable, scientifically-sound arguments that bigger does not always mean better?
10 Mar 2010 at 10:12
I have lived next to one of these intensive farms in North Wiltshire. At night all you could see were the bright lights 24/7 keeping the cows feeding and milking, all you could hear were the constant banging of the doors as the cows took themselves off to do their stuff. If you looked at them they had the air of a spiritualy beaten creature. I wont go into anymore detail because it is too upsetting. The whole place was a monument to mans greed. Luckily the farm has changed hands, and the cows have gone to happier places. I hope.
10 Mar 2010 at 12:51
Oh how I agree with all the above! But, we are all A&C customers – committed to organic; good farming practices; local producers/products etc etc – we are pushing against an open door here. Knowledge and education has to be the key – the general public are indeed ignorant of the facts and need to be shown the light! (Maybe shock tactics would do it?)
We seem to go round the same buoy time and again and end up proving that “old fashioned farming” is the best i.e. smaller scale, more in harmony with nature etc. I find it all very depressing although will continue to do my bit and also inform others when I can, but as Kara said, who do we write to, how do we protest, who can be the most effective in helping?
And by the way, I do get cross when supermarkets say “it’s what the customers want” – is it? I’ve never been asked?!
10 Mar 2010 at 19:20
Thank you A & C for bringing this to our attention. All rather depressing but sounds like we are doing what we can. I have taken up emailing my local MP – you never know……
11 Mar 2010 at 09:54
Dear Kara,
Thank you very much for your passionate response. News of this dairy is very stirring. We got our 22 acre figure from the Lincolnshire press and Farmer’s Weekly, however, you can see the exact dimensions outlined for the site on Nocton’s planning application: http://planningonline.n-kesteven.gov.uk/online-applications/files/5AF25105EA4572AB8D736BD36DF47A0C/pdf/09_1040_FUL-DESIGN_AND_ACCESS_STATEMENT-201685.pdf
The document says that there will be 8 cattle accommodation buildings, each measuring 348m x 31m. The two dairy parlours would be 53.9m x 33m. They do mention that the sides of the sheds would open out to grassland but if you look on the drawn plans: http://planningonline.n-kesteven.gov.uk/online-applications/files/9AF9CBA724F96C525479EEC1D09C7563/pdf/09_1040_FUL-SITE_PLAN__A1_-209172.pdf , there doesn’t appear to be a lot of outdoor grazing space. Though, there does seem to be a few additional cow accommodation buildings (though they look small), in addition to the eight ones noted in their planning summary.
There are loads of documents on North Kesteven’s planning website, including a supporting statement outlining why they think Britain needs this type of dairy and they’re quite upfront in saying that they are taking lead from American and Canadian systems.
That document can be seen here: http://planningonline.n-kesteven.gov.uk/online-applications/files/AF712D75D8444668B65791009DBCEDB1/pdf/09_1040_FUL-SUPPORTING_STATEMENT_APPENDICIES-201684.pdf
I spoke to the planning office this morning. Nocton’s planning application is now under review. They couldn’t tell me when a decision would be made. You could try to contact the planning office to voice your concern.
You could also contact Nocton Dairies Ltd. They don’t seem to have a phone number on their website but they do have an email address.
Lastly, you can do what I do, which is try to convert family and friends who are not aware of what they’re buying into when they purchase cheap food. I use the gentle approach of ‘Did you know…?’ and most of the time they say no and take action. More people ditching food produced badly will make a difference, more so, I think, than writing to your MP.
I was listening to a Radio 4 programme about diminishing mineral supplies (copper, helium, etc.) and ecologists were shouting ‘We’re running out’ while the economists on the programme basically said that ‘if there’s a demand, they’ll dig to the core of the earth to satisfy that demand’. So, what we need to do is stop demand for these products (though, I don’t think people really are demanding them… they’re just buying blindly – we need to open their eyes!).
I hope this helps.
Kindest regards,
Rachel (the Abel & Cole newsletter author)
11 Mar 2010 at 09:59
My heart sank when I read your article about ‘battery cows’. Like some of your other bloggers I would like to have more information about how we can start making our protests.I am a member of the Townswomen’s Guild, and would like to get a letter put into our quaterly magazine, but I want to make sure that sure that I have the right facts.
11 Mar 2010 at 10:01
Sorry about errors in my blog. I can spell quarterly, but am trying to get to grips it a new computer.
11 Mar 2010 at 12:59
This is a disturbing idea. Perhaps the local farmers who are being out priced should convert to organic? If the battery farmers are selfish enough to treat the animals so badly, I can’t see them dropping the price for the consumer. Personally, I think they should start putting health warnings on the “liquid.”
11 Mar 2010 at 16:02
Phillip Rowson, Principal Planning Officer, Development Control, North Kesteven District Council, sent me the following:
“The application site encompasses an area of approximately 19 hectares of Sub-Grade 3b, and 1 hectare of Grade 4 agricultural land adjacent to a wooded area known as Top Plantation. There is an established avenue of trees along the track which runs along the northern edge of the site and an established hedge running between the proposed accommodation buildings and feed storage area (see Figure 2.3). To the east of Top Plantation is an existing hardstanding which would become the main entrance to the site, with administrative office, reception, weighbridge, dwellings and dormitory all located close by. The site can also be accessed by a number of existing tracks which join all of the surrounding local roads; use of these accesses would be limited to farm-traffic. There are no services running close to the site. It is also proposed to construct a new water storage lagoon on a 2 hectare site to the south of Nocton Village.”
11 Mar 2010 at 16:11
p.s. I’ve just spotted the error in my original post. N. Kesteven is quoting 22-hectares, which is roughly 54 acres (have now given correct figure in orignal blog post). All other media reports have indeed said 22-acres. Nonetheless, 54 acres is still a very small space for 8,100 cows!
11 Mar 2010 at 23:32
It is depressing that some of the people who justify buying cheap milk by saying they cannot afford to buy organic are also the ones who spend their supposedly scarce cash on junk food and cigarettes. I am disappointed that the welfare of the animal providing the food is the bottom of many people’s priorities. They deserve to be respected and allowed to live in a way as close to their natural instincts as possible, in groups small enough that any problem is picked up quickly and treated. \time for some Berkeley Farm milk hot chocolate before bed!
12 Mar 2010 at 15:47
I heard about this project a week or so ago on Farming Today on Radio 4. I was quite shocked with the number of cows and that they were to be housed all the year round. Cows are ruminants who eat grass not maize – what a sad life for them.
I try to alter the mindset of friends who cannot see the point of buying organic because of the expense. We have to keep plugging away if only to try to improve standards of animal husbandry.
15 Mar 2010 at 09:24
Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay in posting, but yes, Jacqui, Compassion in World Farming is responding to the Battery dairy farm development.
It is the main feature on our home page at the moment (http://www.ciwf.org.uk), we have been fielding questions from the media and our supporters in the Lincolnshire area near to the proposed ‘farm’ have been given the information they are asking for to help them campaign against the planning permission decision.
More website content is due this week…
Cheers,
Dave
15 Mar 2010 at 20:59
I’m baffled by the move to battery farming. Prices currently for milk are rock bottom as they are for a market that is (excuse the pun) saturated with milk and dairy stuff for dairy products. So how exactly will producing lakes of the stuff be profitable?
I’m not exactly sure this venture will even get very far and as someone said they’ll probably end up dumping half of the milk down the drain!
18 Mar 2010 at 09:10
An uncontrolled market for anything without regulation will automatically lead to innovations to reduce costs as much as possible and hence gain an advantage in the market. It will however also encourage small producers like Berkeley Farm to look for particular market sectors to boost their income.
The only way forward in this situation is to educate the buying public about how the product is produced and what they are missing out on in terms of taste, texture and health benefits. Only then will a higher number be willing to pay a premium for better quality products.
My wife has just made an egg custard with Berkeley Farm semi skimmed milk, the taste and texture were a revelation the best we have ever tasted even when compared with supermarket organic milk.
More people need to know about and experience the difference it makes to convince them.
20 Mar 2010 at 22:35
If Ghandi was right and the measure of a society’s true strength is how we treat our animals then the Nocten proposal is yet another example of how low we have sunk. We need to stop worrying so much about our own trivial issues and more about the most fundamental betrayals that we are visiting on animals.
21 Mar 2010 at 22:11
Not only is this totally cruel to the animals, but surely we have must have learned something from the BSE crisis to know that this will just lead to more problems getting into our foodchain. If this dairy factory is allowed to go ahead, it will open the flood gates for more of these factories to open all over the country. This will hasten the demise of the small dairy farms. The milk which will come out of the factory will be laden with anitbiotics, growth hormones, etc., as the animals will mostly be inside the sheds, milked 3 times a day! What does that say about the quality of the milk! This milk will be so cheap, that dairy farmers won’t be able to compete. Do we really need so much milk, I doubt it, this milk will be in direct cometition with similar factories in the middle east, eastern europe, and america. This milk will then end up being used in processed foods, and no doubt in formula baby milk as well. When we have another crisis on our hands like BSE (cattle), SARS (fowl), Swine flu (pigs), will we see Peter Willes (the farmer behind this project) or a local Lincolnshire councillor going in front of the press getting a small child to drink a glass of milk to show how safe it is, like John Gummer in 1990 during the BSE crisis when he showed the press that beef burgers were safe to eat as he fed it to his daughter.
The vast amount of manure that this will create is another disaster waiting to happen. At this moment in time I’m just thankful that I don’t live in Lincolnshire. Best thing to do is to log an objection on the Lincolnshire Council website, and to contact your local MP to log an objection that way as well, because if this goes ahead, then other areas throughout the country are likely to be next!
27 Mar 2010 at 17:14
Please, everybody, watch the television programme “Countryfile” on BBC1 this Sunday, which will feature this appalling venture. I have emailed Nocton Dairies Ltd and North Kesteven Council, and I urge everyone to do the same. Don’t be taken in by the honeyed words of Nocton Dairies. They might sound quite convincing in their desire that the health, well-being and happiness of every single cow is at the heart of what they do. They really must have got a professional psychologist/spin doctor to write their publicity.
06 Apr 2010 at 20:05
Is there not some petition we can sign?! I went onto the site suggested in the article above but the number of documents listed was overwhelming!
07 Apr 2010 at 21:48
800 Cows mean that 800 calves will have to be born every year as well in order to produce milk, what will happen to them? When will we ever learn surely, CJD, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, are they not bad enough diseases that pass from animals to humans. The thought of these creatures being under lights 24 hrs and not grazing is horrendous. I buy organic meat and use smaller amounts for a meal which works out cheaper. Scientists state that we were the healthiest during the war so surely we should go back to growing veg and baking ourselves and eating more veg and less meat again, pesticides were not used in abundance then. If we could get a newspaper on board to petition against these farms we would stand a better chance of no more popping up. Do you all remember the daily mails campaign not to use carrier bags? It really hit home for people all over.
14 Apr 2010 at 18:27
Look what we found…good news eh? Hope to find out further confirmation soon.
http://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/national/giant_dairy_farm_plans_withdrawn_1_471991
15 Apr 2010 at 15:06
And again… http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/13/animal-welfare-nocton-dairies-farming
15 Apr 2010 at 16:38
Fantastic news!
02 May 2010 at 13:19
yes fantastic news about the withdrawal of the dairy factory. I emailed the council and all due respects they emailed me about the withdrawal. The people behind the proposals are retreating under the revision of further technical research! Who cares as long as it does not go ahead. Interestingly enough an article in Private Eye No 1260 16-29 April is about Peter Willes a director of Parkham Farms Ltd. who were fined £6, 700 for polluting a tributary of the River torridge in north Devon by an overflowing underground storage tank with waste milk and polluting the stream with numerous colonies of blood worms. The article goes on to say that 5 years ago Peter Willes was himself given a 12 month conditional discharge after pleading guilty at Barnstaple magistrates court to “veterinary medicines offences.” The Veterinary Medicines Directorate and Irelands Department of agriculture investigation resulted in a number of illegal veterinary medicines being seized from Sedborough Farm Devon in Aug 2003. These were antibiotics for the cattle and are not authorised in the UK. Say no more.
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