Factory Farm

[RicW 67]

I have read today about a plan to build a "Factory Dairy Farm" in Lincolnshire. There will be 8000 cows kept in 4 giant sheds. They will stand on sawdust, be fed on a "controlled diet" and milked 3 times a day. They will never see daylight until they are too old to yield milk. The company applying say the cows will then be mercifully treated. That means they will be in supermarket "steak pies".

 

The beasts will be treated as production machines on a flow-line.

 

There is major opposition from "animal rights" groups, bunny huggers, and antis in general.

 

How do you guys feel about this?

 

Ric

[JohnGalway 1,043]

I have read today about a plan to build a "Factory Dairy Farm" in Lincolnshire. There will be 8000 cows kept in 4 giant sheds. They will stand on sawdust, be fed on a "controlled diet" and milked 3 times a day. They will never see daylight until they are too old to yield milk. The company applying say the cows will then be mercifully treated. That means they will be in supermarket "steak pies".

 

The beasts will be treated as production machines on a flow-line.

 

There is major opposition from "animal rights" groups, bunny huggers, and antis in general.

 

How do you guys feel about this?

 

Ric

 

I have corrected your post for you

 

Factory and Farm do not belong in the same sentance.

[bert69 5]

its supermarkets and consumers who force these things upon us, the need for a 47p pint rather than 57p. Its money orientated, animal welfare is an important issue for the majority of the british public until it starts costing money then it goes out the window.

[FightTheBan 1,147]

It isnt a 'factory farm', thats just a media name used to incite feelings in the general public.

 

What it is, is a commercial dairy enterprise that has arisen to meet the demand of the UK public (processed milk at an unrealistically low price) brought about by UK and EU regulations and further exagerated by the supermarket lifestyle that exists today.

 

The reason they will never see daylight (not actually true), is the issues that would arise with that level of pressure i.e compaction, pollution, disease etc.

 

Sadly this is the way farming has been 'forced'. The small family run farms will soon be no more, to the detriment of not only agriculture but to the environment as we know it.

 

FTB

[JohnGalway 1,043]

Yep, the more people shop at Tescos and such, then expect more things like this to pop up.

[MuttleMcTuttle 21]

I have read today about a plan to build a "Factory Dairy Farm" in Lincolnshire. There will be 8000 cows kept in 4 giant sheds. They will stand on sawdust, be fed on a "controlled diet" and milked 3 times a day. They will never see daylight until they are too old to yield milk. The company applying say the cows will then be mercifully treated. That means they will be in supermarket "steak pies".

 

The beasts will be treated as production machines on a flow-line.

 

There is major opposition from "animal rights" groups, bunny huggers, and antis in general.

 

How do you guys feel about this?

 

Ric

 

Well, you'd better put me in the "animal rights", bunny hugging, anti group then because I think it's a revolting concept and quite apart from the welfare angle, what will it do to the few remaining dairy farms in this country? I'm with this lot on this matter.

[FightTheBan 1,147]

Muttle, where do you buy your milk, out of interest?

FTB

[MuttleMcTuttle 21]

Muttle, where do you buy your milk, out of interest?

FTB

 

The milkman, and yes, I know it probably isn't British milk, good old Dairy Crest... It doesn't taste anything like the milk we used to get from our own dairy herd...

 

Yes, I probably am somewhat bitter about the way supermarkets force out the little guys... and yes, I do believe it is still possible to produce quality food at a reasonable price, just got to persuade the great British public to buy it instead of spending their ill-gotten on essentials like 4 foot wide TVs.

 

The dairy cows at the farm next door, and the beef cattle that roam our fields have a pretty good life they chomp on grass all summer, live in big straw yards all winter, and what else is there to do with marshes that are prone to flood. Grow rice maybe? Well, that would feed the world, but at what cost to the British countryside?

[JohnGalway 1,043]

instead of spending their ill-gotten on essentials like 4 foot wide TVs.

 

Amen to that. I have never quite understood the desire to have a TV as big as a wall in the room. Easily led or making up for something else.

[RicW 67]

I'm pleased that so many people with whom I share so many attitudes all find this a revolting idea. The irony is of course that we are on the same side as the bunny huggers on this one! (Me? Stir it up? As if!)

[bert69 5]

Animal cruelty is animal cruelty, bunny huggers or not.

[JohnGalway 1,043]

I'm pleased that so many people with whom I share so many attitudes all find this a revolting idea. The irony is of course that we are on the same side as the bunny huggers on this one! (Me? Stir it up? As if!)

 

Huh, no I'm not.

 

Think of it like a railway track, we're one rail, they're another, that way ya never have to meet the gits.

[poacher3161 1,766]

Wat pisses me off with this revolting idea of milk production the ordinary man in the street wont give a flying f--k as long as milks cheap and cows arnt fluffy little animals that are hunted with dogs

[DIDO.1 22,653]

I'm pleased that so many people with whom I share so many attitudes all find this a revolting idea. The irony is of course that we are on the same side as the bunny huggers on this one! (Me? Stir it up? As if!)

 

The animal right lot are against all dairy farming, after all even on a small family farm cows bred for milk with no muscle mass give difficult birth to beef calves which are then taken away the next day. At the end of their working life they all end up as steak pies! Did u think smaller farms sent them to retirement homes? If you dont like it dont drink milk! Animal rights groups are more vocal about big farms because its easier to stir up public feeling with 'big nasty factory farms'.

The only difference between this farm and an average sized one is the cows not going outside, but what you going to do? drink dutch milk? Out of sight out of mind? Just like how most of our pork is produced abroad cos its cheaper than here where we 'lov' animals so have tight welfare restrictions, but then cant resist cheap bacon.

 

For what its worth the big farms iv visited actually have healthier happier looking cows than the smaller ones. On small farms the cows are inside for a large piece of the year especially with the wet weather we seem to be getting more and more.

[FightTheBan 1,147]

"Animal cruelty is animal cruelty, bunny huggers or not."

 

Who said anything about animal cruelty?

 

It would be more cruel to make the cows crawl through the slop created by 8000 cows, 3 times a day to be milked - initiatink mastitis among multiple other things.

 

The fact of the matter is you cant have your cake and eat it.

As long as the general public demand cheap produce who are they to complain when the farmer has to alter his practice to earn a living.

 

A place like this would have a full time vet, multiple farm managers and modern equipment so may in fact be less inhumane than your average farmer with -100 cows struggling to make ends meet.

 

FTB