Mega sheds of Continuously-housed cows

[Deleted User]

Did you know that DEFRA have just OKed a three year project 'to investigate the management and welfare of continuously-housed cows ?
So not only will our cows be given rubbish food and antibiotics and other nasties, separated form their calves almost immediately etc, now they will have privilege of doing it imprisoned with four walls for their entire miserable lives.

I only hope organic milk will always be available where I live

Sorry to rant. I'm expect some others might think continuously-housed cows could be a good idea, but I just felt so upset about it, I had to have a rant

I emailed my MP (which is so easy with a Google search) That's all I can think of to do, except keep buying the organic milk

Penelope_Penguin

Have you a link, please? I thought the mega-dairy plan had been withdrawn

Auntie-Dolly

There is a website called 'not in my cuppa' that protests againt battery cows. Nocton Dairies recently decided not to proceed with a plan to build an enormous intensive dairy in this country but if you want cheap milk this is probably the way it will go - it's very big in the USA.

[Deleted User]

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Have you a link, please? I thought the mega-dairy plan had been withdrawn

No link , but this was part of an email from my MP . Despite our differences of opinion, he was very respectful and spent time addressing my concerns. He is, in fact a very good MP

(Defra) is currently funding a three year project to investigate the management and welfare of continuously housed cows. The Government welcomes innovative and entrepreneurial efforts by dairy farmers to improve their global competitiveness,

Penelope_Penguin

Auntie-Dolly wrote: »

Nocton Dairies recently decided not to proceed with a plan to build an enormous intensive dairy in this country

That's the one I was thinking of.

[Deleted User]

Auntie-Dolly wrote: »

There is a website called 'not in my cuppa' that protests againt battery cows. Nocton Dairies recently decided not to proceed with a plan to build an enormous intensive dairy in this country but if you want cheap milk this is probably the way it will go - it's very big in the USA.

Thank you. I'll check out the website.

zcrat41

Nocton withdrew their application as they were informed they wouldn't get planning due to the issues with removing the waste from the site. Something to do with the water table underground I think.

There is lots of evidence that housing cows like this is not detrimental to their health. Now I'm not saying its ideal, I would rather my cows gambol about outside for sure.

However, it is most certainly the way that farming is going in this country. Until consumers (often not the ones on this board I know) and supermarkets are prepared to pay what food is worth in this country we will be going down the american route for sure. Supermarkets are already implicity encouraging it.

Sorry, will get off my high horse now!!

[Deleted User]

zcrat41 wrote: »

Nocton withdrew their application as they were informed they wouldn't get planning due to the issues with removing the waste from the site. Something to do with the water table underground I think.

There is lots of evidence that housing cows like this is not detrimental to their health. Now I'm not saying its ideal, I would rather my cows gambol about outside for sure.

However, it is most certainly the way that farming is going in this country. Until consumers (often not the ones on this board I know) and supermarkets are prepared to pay what food is worth in this country we will be going down the american route for sure. Supermarkets are already implicity encouraging it.

Sorry, will get off my high horse now!!

Supermarkets would certainly wish to go this way and you're right that they, and a majority of UK consumers are not at present prepared to pay what food is actually worth. It's a pity more haven't seen the film 'food inc '. When it comes to 'health' mmm. Lots of drugs and intervention might keep them technically alive and able to function. I suppose it depends on your interpretation of health

One dictionary defines health as
1. the state of being bodily and mentally vigorous and free from disease 2. the general condition of body and mind:
Maybe that just means 'human health' and 'animal health has another meaning that doesn't include what they feel and think.
'Welfare' is another issue too and interpretation of that seem to vary considerably.

furball

Saw this on TV a few weeks ago, think it was on countryfile. It showed cows being farmed this way, it also showed the huge lake of cow poo. Absolutely horrible for the cows and for the countryside. This makes me so angry. People have started caring about where their food comes from eg battery farmed eggs and processed foods. I think this is a huge step backwards and i am sick of having the supermarkets run our farming industry, so much so that i have gone back to having a milkman. For years i have been using farmshops for veg and meat.

zcrat41

Go furball! I stopped at a butchers last night where the butcher has worked in the shop for 45 yrs. Wish there were more like him and I'm lucky to be able to use him. I have a milkman too but will confess I go to Tesco's for other stuff purely for convinience. Oh -and a free supply of eggs helps as boyf is an egg producer!

In terms of cow health I'm not an expert so wouldnt want to comment any further. I just know how much time effort and money most farmers put into their herd and they normally have a pretty soft spot for their cows!

Penelope_Penguin

As this is more of an ethical thread, I'll move it to the Green Board later.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email f[EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]orumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].