Milk has long been associated with images of cows gently chewing the cud in fields of grass. Not for much longer it seems. If given the go-ahead, a proposed new dairy enterprise in Lincolnshire could see 8,100 high-yielding dairy cows kept, for much of the time, indoors. This American-style “super dairy”, as it’s been described in the media, would represent a serious leap in the industrialisation of dairy farming in the UK.
It’s a proposal that raises many questions. Speaking to a group of dairy farmers near Oxford recently, I asked what they saw as the benefit of a “super-dairy”. The room fell silent. Not surprising as the proposal could well increase competition in an already crowded and commoditised market. And putting things into perspective, the average dairy farm in the UK has a herd size of less than 130 cows, so says the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC). The scale of this proposal therefore represents the equivalent of 60 or more average-sized farms entering a sector subject to long term economic pressure.
According to FAWC, the low profitability of dairy farming has led to a lack of investment which may have hindered progress on animal welfare. The last decade or so has seen the number of dairy farms decline by 43% whilst UK cow numbers are down by 20%. Over the same period, milk yield per cow has increased by 28%. So the national picture is of fewer farms, fewer cows overall, with individual cows being worked harder to produce more milk.
What are the likely impacts of the proposed super-dairy for the cows? Well, it could well increase the pressure toward even greater milk yield per cow. And in taking the animals off the land and indoors for most of the year, it will separate the cows from the pasture for which they are adapted.
All this comes against the backdrop of serious welfare issues already in the dairy sector. Whilst most cows are kept seasonally outdoors, modern breeds of dairy cow often produce so much milk that many suffer lameness and mastitis. Indeed, the UK is said to have the worst incidence of dairy cattle lameness in the world. About 55% of dairy cows go lame in any one year, compared with a worldwide level of 26%. Contributory factors include poor housing and diets combined with breeding regimes that often push milk production beyond natural limits causing inevitable suffering. Mastitis, a painful inflammatory disease of the udder, is also rife in the UK dairy herd with over 1 million cases per annum.
Here at Compassion, we are campaigning hard against the industrialisation of dairy. We are opposed to this mega-dairy proposal. We believe that it flies in the face of welfare-friendly farming and the wishes of consumers for more ethical food. If you agree, please join our campaign and keep up-to-date with how you can get involved. Let’s help keep cows on grass where they belong, and help end the overzealous industrialisation of food and farming. Thank you for your support.
What is needed is a systematic review of the industrialisation of farming.
What would be the environmental impact of such a large scale proposal?
In addition, with traditional farming dairy cows would lie out in May. Since it is cruel to divorce an animal from its natural environment in season, this point must be enshrined in law. That the dairy cow must be allowed to graze pasture in season 24 hours a day unless ill or due to calve. That calves should be kept on the cow for a minimium set standard of time and not the one day that currently happens in some places. This will reduce the onset of scour in calves and enhance calf welfare practises.
When companies get hold of farms they are divorced from good farming practises. Companies simply look at spreadsheets.
Dairy cows and dairy cow welfare must be the concern of all who drink milk and eat dairy products.
Welfare friendly foods must be labelled.
I agree with all this, and have asked my MP to back the campaign, but as a consumer, I want to know which "brands" or supermarkets to avoid. It may not make a huge difference, but at least I'll know I haven't inadvertently supported this inhumane system.
You can't make laws about how much time an animal spends outside. It would be impossible to enforce. Surely what is needed is a campaign to force the price of milk up and to pass on that increase to the farmers. I know many farmers who are struggling, waiting desperately for the milk prices to get somewhere realistic so that they are not just breaking even but making a living like any other businessman. Encourage these small farmers and we wouldn't need a super dairy. We are quite capable of being self-sufficient in milk in this country if we would only look after the resources we have. I know I'm preaching to the converted here but I was so disheartened to read about this proposal when the tide seemed to be turning in favour of small, high welfare units like the beef unit we run here in Hampshire. I know that I would be happy to pay double for my milk knowing how hard these producers work and I know that you would too. It's just trying to convince the supermarkets which seems so hard.
This kind of intensive dairy farming (ie fed almost constantly and milked thrice daily) was practised in Israel in the early 1970s and was one of the main reasons for my leaving the kibbutz that I worked on. The cows were kept inside 24hours per day. They had to be forced into crushes where food that they were not hungry for, was doled out to them constantly to improve their milk yield. If they ever got out of the sheds, which happened once in a while, they went wild to be outside and just didn't really know what to do. I couldn't bear the effect that this had on the cows; their intelligence and their natural instincts were both being bred out and generally thwarted. In my opinion, cows make milk for their calves and generously overproduce enough for us to have some too but it is NOT their main function to produce milk for human beings. They deserve our respect and they deserve to be looked after with gratitude for the milk and cheese they produce for us.
Great stuff…
[...] Reception in London where over 50 MPs heard our concerns over the proposal to build an 8,000 cow industrial dairy farm in Lincolnshire. Neil spoke with such clarity, and from a position of undoubted knowledge, being a [...]