More cows stored in UK ‘megafarms’, animal welfare campaigners warn

More cows may very well be stored indoors for the entire of their productive lives, animal welfare campaigners have warned, after the Daily News discovered an increase in “megafarms”.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the Daily News present the variety of larger-scale beef and dairy cattle farms in Britain has elevated from 756 to 802 in 5 years, now holding greater than 915,000 cows.

Campaign group Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) stated the rise in large-scale cattle farming was “deeply concerning” as many could be intensive megafarms housing cattle all 12 months spherical.

The NFU stated it was not farm dimension or whether or not cattle had been stored outdoor or indoors that dictated welfare however how livestock had been managed.

The Daily News submitted an FOI request to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) which revealed that there have been at the moment 802 farm operations in England, Wales and Scotland that held greater than 700 dairy or beef cattle.

One farm enterprise has a recorded capability of as much as 12,000 cows, though anybody farm could maintain its cattle in smaller herds over a variety of completely different websites.

In Northern Ireland, there are 141 farms with greater than 700 cattle, holding a complete of greater than 141,000 cows, in accordance with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera).

None of the UK’s devolved administrations may present the precise variety of large-scale farms utilizing constantly housed cattle programs, which animal welfare campaigners usually confer with as “megafarms”.

The UK authorities’s most up-to-date Cattle Farm Practices Survey, printed in 2019, discovered that 8% of bigger farms in England with at the least 150 cows stored their herds indoors all 12 months spherical.

The survey discovered that as much as 3% of smaller farms with fewer than 150 cattle used no-graze programs.

One farmer, who constantly homes as much as 1,000 dairy cattle on one web site, instructed the Daily News he believed the present estimate of the variety of farms utilizing such ‘no-graze’ systems was “too low”.

Fraser Jones, a third-generation farmer in Powys, Wales, who has 5,000 cattle in total across seven sites, said: “A lot of people are doing it but they don’t at all times say it as a result of they realize it causes a backlash.”

Mr Jones stated increasingly farmers had been turning to such indoor programs as a result of they protected cattle from the impacts of maximum climate and allowed higher monitoring and management of their well being and dietary consumption, producing a greater milk yield.

Mr Jones stated the important thing to making sure excessive animal welfare requirements centred on the workers a farm employed, the coaching they acquired and the way livestock was managed.

“If you are not treating your animals right they are not going to perform. They are not going to produce enough milk. It’s as simple as that,” he stated.

CIWF stated the rise in cattle “megafarms” had “gone unnoticed” as many had been hidden from public view.

Anthony Field, CIWF’s UK head, stated of the figures obtained by the Daily News’s FOI request: “This deeply concerning data clearly illustrates their sheer scale and the desperate, broken, and unsustainable food system we have created.”

Critics say intensive no-graze programs can result in poor well being circumstances, with illness spreading in crowded sheds and the routine overuse of antibiotics, resulting in the potential development of antimicrobial resistance.

The RSPCA stated it was against a “move towards permanently housing cattle, whether beef or dairy”.

However, the NFU said that continuously housed cattle “megafarms” were still not common in the UK.

It said there were less than 20 farms with more than 5,000 beef cattle and just a “few farms” with greater than 1,000 milking cows.

The NFU’s Vice-President, Rachel Hallos, stated: “Animal husbandry, health, welfare and adherence to established biosecurity protocols are the most important factors for good on-farm practice, not the size or type of farm system.”

Liam Sinclair, professor of animal science at Harper Adams University, stated financial pressures had been forcing dairy farms to extend herd dimension for the previous 50 years.

That, he stated, usually got here with the issue of lack of obtainable land for grazing.

“As herds increase in size and grazing becomes more difficult to manage it is more likely that cows will remain inside continuously – and from birth,” he stated.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) stated it couldn’t touch upon the enterprise choices of farms that selected to develop and function large-scale models.

All the UK’s devolved governments stated they had been dedicated to upholding the very best requirements when it got here to farm animal welfare.