Plans for Britain’s biggest first super-dairy – a 3770-cow dairy herd in Lincolnshire – have split the industry.
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Britain's first super-dairy could be up and running within a year after plans were finally resubmitted to milk thousands of cows on a single farm in Lincolnshire.
The farmers behind the proposed super dairy at Nocton have sought to allay fears about issues such as cow welfare and the sustainability of such a business. Read their full briefing documents.
Plans to establish an 8100-cow dairy farm in Lincolnshire have been torn in half following protests from local residents and animal welfare campaigners.
Animal welfare campaigners have stepped up their fight against large scale dairies by rallying support among politicians.
Compassion in World Farming is launching the next stage of its campaign against the proposed super dairy at Nocton – messages on a fleet of buses.
Animal welfare campaigners have launched a scheme to raise money to "shame" the farmers behind plans to build an 8100-cow dairy in Nocton in Lincolnshire.
Plans for an 8100-cow dairy herd in Lincolnshire have been substantially revised, says the company behind the proposals.
Farmers Weekly's reporters Aly Balsom and Scott Casey took a trip to America to see how large-scale dairies work in practice. Below are reports pictures and videos from their US visits.
The backlash against super-dairies continues in the UK with another farm blocked by welfare campaigners and resdents. Across the Atlantic that situation is unthinkable. Scott Casey reports from a study tour of American dairies.
What can we learn from USA dairies? Aly Balsom speaks to a number of consultants and USA farmers to see what they think British farmers can learn from large scale units in the states.
Many large scale American dairy units are achieving more than 10,000 litres on somatic cell counts of less than 100,000 cells/ml.
Feeding a consistent diet is fundamental to achieving good body-condition score and high fertility rates in heifers, according to Bill Millenkamp of Millenkamp Cattle, Jerome, Idaho.
Many UK dairy producers use a contract heifer rearer who rears just one farm's calves - but what about one rearer for 37,000 calves from 42 different units?
The economies of scale dictate that large units have the resources to be hugely specialised in specific areas of cow management, and this is no more apparent than at Double A Dairy, Jerome.
As part of her Nuffield Scholarship, FWi deputy news editor, Caroline Stocks, visited a 4,000 head "super dairy" in Pennsylvania to see how similar businesses worked in America.
The supermarkets dont want really big dairy farms you think in a few years time they could be big enough for the bosses of these big farms to get together in a smoke filled room like the suppermarket...
henarar 28 Jan 2012
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