Dairy Factory Farm or Luxury Hotel for Cows?

In the U.K., there are plans for an intensive dairy farm with 8,000 cows that will run 23 hours a day, milking each cow three times every day. BBC News says the operation, which would be Europe's biggest dairy farm, is "based on similar super dairies in the United States."

Sound like a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation — a.k.a.  CAFO or factory farm — to you? Nah, says Peter Willes of Nocton Dairies, it's more like a luxury hotel for cows. The cows aren't being warehoused in industrial-sized barns — they're going to live in "accommodation buildings" with comfy sand floors. They'll be rotated to the "milking parlour" three times a day, but there's also a foot-trimming centre (I guess that's the "hotel" spa?). Part of the building even opens up to allow real air inside.

Since this is said to be an American-style dairy farm, let's look at the American definition for a CAFO. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, you're an Animal Feeding Operation if you "congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Feed is brought to the animals rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures, fields or on rangeland." Animals are confined for at least 45 days in a 12-month period and there's no natural vegetation in the confinement area.

To be fair, Willes points out that they'll have outdoor "loafing areas" where the cows will be rotated out in two shifts, except during the winter. But I'm pretty sure winter in the U.K. lasts longer than 45 days, that the morning and afternoon shifts during the summer are more like exercise time in a prison yard than grazing time, and that there's not much vegetation growing from the sand-based pens in the "accommodation buildings." Sorry, Mr. Willes, the Nocton Super Dairy is a factory farm, not a four-star hotel.

Despite Willes and his partners' insistence that the farm will be humane, create jobs and, of course, produce more milk at lower costs, not everyone in the U.K. is sold on the idea.

An exit poll of local residents who attended an exhibition meant to "win round the project's critics" showed that 153 of the visitors weren't convinced; only 8 left the exhibition won over by the plans. If that ratio is anywhere close to the general population of the area, then the locals won't be rolling out the welcome mat. While animal welfare issues are a concern for many, area residents also have traffic and environmental concerns, which anyone living within several miles of a CAFO in the U.S. can tell you are valid.

Several animal welfare groups are fighting the proposal, including Compassion in World Farming and the World Society for the Protection of Animals. An operation of this size is bad for the animals and for the future of dairy farming in the U.K. The round-the-clock milking parlour is also problematic. Simon Pope of WSPA said, "It is a pretty miserable life for a dairy cow that does nothing but produce milk three times a day for its entire life." A life, he says, that will be shortened by four to six years by the stress. At least.

It's not surprising that the National Farmers Union supports the proposal, but it's disappointing to see the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals getting behind the idea. The RSPCA's John Avizienius says "I've seen large herds and if you can satisfy the needs of the animals — size shouldn't matter." I'm not sure how he defines "needs," but if you refer back to that definition of a CAFO, we're not looking at a plan for satisfied cows here.

This latest plan is a resubmission after a proposal had been withdrawn earlier this year. A different firm who had proposed another super dairy with 3,000 cows dropped their plans in June after opposition from local residents.

Hopefully the Nocton Super Dairy proposal will flop again and, when it does, I don't see a future for Willes and his partners in hotel management.

Photo credit: Ellmist