An advert in the 1980’s famously warned us that if we didn’t drink enough milk, we would be only good enough to play football for Accrington Stanley (who are they?). In 2011 the British milk industry could be on the verge of another such milestone in its history with the creation of the UK’s first ‘factory’ dairy farm.
As industrial dairy farming could soon be coming to Britain, it’s bringing with it an udder-full of contention and conflict. Already struggling dairy farmers up and down the country live in fear of such a project, while the factory farming of any animal is always a sore spot for animal welfare groups. However, it’s mainly the environmental impacts of such an intensification of dairy farming that are going to be examined here.
This article will explain what industrial dairy farming may mean for this country and its farms. It will highlight some of the non-environmental issues that surround the debate, as well as looking at the implications for the environment within which this farm may be built.
The planned dairy
The conflict currently doing the rounds in North Kesteven Council’s planning department is over Nocturn Dairies’ plans to construct a ‘super dairy’. This type of project has been likened more to a factory than a farm and would involve a construction large enough to hold 3770 cows, but this could be expanded in the future to perhaps as many as 8100 animals. While commonplace in the US, this type of farm would be the first of its kind in Western Europe.
What Nocturn Dairies say
It would be unfair to write this article without looking at the whole picture so Nocturn Dairies’ arguments have also been examined. Much as I would like to believe everything I read in their Sustainability Statement [1] and website FAQs [2], a few assertions don’t ring true. To save painting what I think is an unrealistic picture in favour of the farm (although it’s not all bad) I shall only cover the points briefly:
- The farm will cost £34 million.
- The planned dairy will produce 40 million litres of milk per year, which is 2.7 percent of the net UK import of 1.5 billion litres. Admittedly it comes as a surprise that we import so much.
- It will contribute to a thriving and prosperous local economy and provide a good quality of life for nearby residents (try telling them that!).
- It will provide local employment. Initially, however, this would come from outside the area.
- To protect smaller farms, the produce will be sold to different markets than that of the current UK dairy business.
- Outdoor loafing areas will be available in the summer but shall be limited and weather permitting.
- New hedgerows will be planted across the site.
- Flies and odour levels will be well within limits.
- All lorries will be routed away from the villages.
- The buildings and light sources will be virtually invisible from the road.
- It’s a misunderstanding that cows need to graze.
- The final point to add – one that I have saved because it involves renewable energy – is that of the construction of an on-site anaerobic digester. This could take large volumes of manure and slurry and turn them into biogas that would supply a combined heat and power plant. The heat would be used in the farm, while the electricity would be exported to the national grid.
So why all the fuss?
There are many reasons that the opposition to a factory dairy farm is so vehement. Many are not related to environmental concerns, but it seems prudent to cover them here:
Animal welfare – According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), the cows would suffer from little or no access to open fields, round-the-clock milking and generally lower welfare than is acceptable [3]. There is also a higher risk of: premature death; lameness due to the cows being kept indoors; diseases such as mastitis, which occurs more in intensively farmed animals and, of course, let us not forget that bovine TB and foot and mouth disease are also quicker to spread amongst cows that are kept so close together.
The cost to smaller farms – The diary farmer is steadily becoming a rare breed himself. In the last 12 months 461 (4.0%) dairy farmers have gone out of business, with a decline of around 8000 farms (19,000 to 11,000) since 2002 [4]. This is largely a result of the supermarkets drive to lower the cost of milk below what is sustainable for the small dairy farmer. In case you are wondering, this is how they do it: A supermarket negotiator will arrange a price with the larger diaries – which of course is based on mass-production milk costs. The negotiator will then call up the farmers to tell them they have to match this price or the supermarket won’t buy it, effectively forcing the other farmer to accept that price or see his yield go down the drain. The farmer understandably has no choice but to sell his milk at a loss. The point of this explanation is this: If a super-size dairy can bring the cost of milk down even further, we will see yet more small-scale farmers go the wall. It is estimated the Nocturn Dairies farm could put around 100 dairy farmers out of business straight away [5].
Community - The local community says it will be affected by increased traffic, noise, odours and that the buildings themselves will be so large they will blight the local landscape.
Nostalgia - If industrial dairies become the norm, then we will not see cows grazing in our fields anymore. That would be sad.
Naturally Nocturn Dairy’s aforementioned sustainability report puts all of these worries to bed, but then these types of report always do. However, because I like to think my articles are fair and objective, I feel I should mention that on a recent BBC Panorama programme [6] a dairy farmer who had recently gone out of business was taken to see a US intensive dairy farm. He was very surprised by what he saw and his most surprising comment was that the cows all looked very calm and happy. I would imagine that this is not the reaction the reporter was after and it definitely doesn’t fit in with the notion that factory farmed animals are always mistreated.
The environmental impacts
There is no evidence to support the fact that a change in the type of dairy farming will increase greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are more environmental concerns than simply climate change.
If cows are not allowed to graze on pastureland, then they will need to be fed exclusively on something else, such as grain. This will need to grown and will contribute to the already substantial problem of land clearance to grow livestock feed. Of course most dairy herds, even organic ones, are given dietary substitutes but they are usually sourced close to the farm and are sustainable due to their limited numbers and the fact that the cows are allowed out to graze as much as possible. Nocturn claim they will use feed grown in this country and, if required, will bring in extra only from as far away as Europe. Nonetheless, if we see more of these industrial farms opening they will not be able to source enough feed from this country alone.
Grazing cattle also provides a means and a necessity to conserve the land they are using. This conservation can help to preserve biodiversity in this green and pleasant land in which we live. Conversely though, if land not used for pasture is turned over to creating habitats such as woodland, this could go to actually increasing biodiversity.
The transport implications for a farm of this size cannot be ignored. Not only will there be a steady stream of heavy tankers transporting the milk, but also the infrastructure needed to support this will be huge. As the farm has relatively little land on which to spread its slurry, this will also have to be transported out of the area, whereas small farms spread their slurry on their own fields.
Water pollution is also a worry as the vast amounts of slurry created by the farm may run off into the surrounding watercourses. The high amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous required to produce milk in such high quantities may also have a negative impact [7].
The debate over Noctrun Dairies aside, an EU report on dairy farming in general states that, “negative environmental issues increase with increasing intensity of production” [8] and highlights impacts on landscape and habitat, biodiversity, soil condition, water and air.
Just to put things in context: In terms of agriculture’s contribution to climate change, currently 22 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to agriculture, with 80 percent of those from livestock production. [10]
What can concerned consumers do?
If you are concerned about this type of farming entering the UK, then there are a number of things you can do:
- Voice your support by joining the campaign to stop the factory and write to your MP; over 172 MPs have already signed an Early Day Motion to oppose the super dairy [9].
- Support smaller farms by buying organic milk, which would never gain approval from the Soil Association if it were produced in a large-scale dairy.
- Stop buying milk at the supermarket and get it from your local farm shop or, even easier, have your milkman deliver it.
In summary then…
In the introduction I said that this article was about the environmental impacts of a super dairy, but honestly, the jury is still out on this so it’s difficult to say if industrial dairy farming is bad for the planet. However, I carried on and wrote this piece anyway as some other issues still bothered me. Additionally, I believe that somebody concerned with our environment is also conscientious enough to care about animal welfare and also the social issues raised within this article.
If you don’t agree with what may be happening to our already struggling dairy industry then make a stand. If you don’t do so already, challenge the supermarkets, fight the campaign and source your milk responsibly. Even if Nocturn’s claims do all prove to be correct, this is not about feeding a growing population; it’s about cheaper and cheaper milk for the supermarkets,
The fact is that our countryside could be forever altered if this – and inevitably more – super dairies are constructed. At a time when we are trying to save small independent farms and preserve our rural heritage, this could prove to be a killer blow. I keep finding myself asking the questions: Are we currently undergoing a milk famine? Do we actually need this super dairy? I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me that the answer is no.
References
[1] http://noctondairies.co.uk/PDFs/Sustainability-Statement.pdf
[2] http://noctondairies.co.uk/faqs.html
[3] http://notinmycuppa.com/category/thefacts
[4] http://www.dairyco.org.uk/datum/on-farm-data/producer-numbers/uk-producer-numbers.aspx
[5] http://www.thecattlesite.com/news/32497/intensive-dairy-farming-debate-continues
[6] BBC Panorama. Supermarkets: What Price Cheap Food? Broadcast on 22/12/10 at 21:00
[8] The Environmental Impact of Dairy Farming in the EU. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/agriculture/pdf/dairy_xs.pdf
[9] Eating the Planet. (2009) Compassion in World Farming and Friends of the Earth. Available at http://www.ciwf.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2009/e/eating_the_planet_press_briefing_nov_2009.pdf
[10] http://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/beef_and_dairy_farming/not_so_super_dairy_feature.aspx
