Dairy, pig factory farms meeting fierce resistance

Photo / Sarah Ivey

A battle is under way in the British countryside to fight off plans for massive factory farms that would house thousands of animals in industrialised units without access to grazing or foraging.

Plans for three large-scale units in England have encountered fierce resistance from campaigners who say they would cause extra noise, smell and disruption and cause more stress and disease for animals.

Animal welfare organisations fear the proposals are signs that intensive agriculture could soon replace Britain's patchwork of small livestock farms.

In the past three months, plans have been brought forward for an 8000-cow dairy farm at Nocton and a 3000-cow unit at South Witham, both in Lincolnshire. Both were withdrawn following fierce opposition. The Independent has learnt of another factory farm proposal, for a 2500-sow unit at Foston in Derbyshire.

The proposals dwarf the size of current livestock farms. The Nocton dairy farm would have been the largest dairy farm in western Europe, 66 times larger than the average UK herd of 120 animals - and four times the size of the largest existing herd of 2000. Likewise, the South Witham farm would have been 50 per cent larger than the largest dairy herd, if it had been adopted.

The animal welfare group Viva believes the Foston pig farm would be the largest in the UK. When taking into account the litters of the sows which would be raised to maturity before slaughter, the unit would contain about 20,000 pigs at any one time.

Farming groups behind all three plans said they would minimise smells, noise and disruption and that modern stockmanship would mean the animals were well looked after. However, the animals would be kept inside for all or almost all of the year, compared with more traditional forms of agriculture. Compassion in World Farming and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) believe new plans for large dairy units will emerge as farmers seek to survive ultra-thin margins.

Suzi Morris, UK director of WSPA, said: 'It's all being driven by economies of scale. We believe that animals should be farmed for food but we don't agree there can be any justification, economic or otherwise, for the commoditisation of animals and their housing in such large units."

The National Farmers' Union rejected claims that large dairy farms would compromise welfare.

Chief dairy adviser Hayley Campbell-Gibbons, who has just returned from a fact-finding tour of US farms, including one which keeps 40,000 cows, said: "I think even the welfare groups would agree that big does not always mean bad. You can have good and bad welfare in any system.

"If you don't have cows that are contented and healthy they don't produce enough milk," she said.

- Independent