Nocton Dairies Ltd - facts and figures

Scoping review

[Source: All information from the Scoping Review document: 10_0831_EIASCO-Reading Agricultural Consultants-243916, unless shown otherwise.]

Site

Dunston/Nocton Heath, off the B1188 Lincoln/Sleaford Road.

Note: The Nocton Dairies development is scheduled to be constructed right on top of a sensitive Groundwater Source Protection Zone (Category 2). This means that any diffuse or direct pollution will take up to 400 days to reach the all important borehole. This Source Protection Zone is contained within a much larger catchment area which is required to replenish the borehole and its aquifer.

The aquifer is not like an underground lake, it is water that is found in the minute spaces between the particles of rock and soil... you might like to think of it similar to a sponge.  As you can see from this description, if this was to be accidentally polluted, it would be catastrophic, as the borehole is what supplies our drinking water in the local villages.

It is important to note that the water drawn from this borehole is already at its nitrate limit and therefore has to be mixed with other water before it is fed back to us as suitable drinking water. The potential for an environmental disaster arising from a huge intensive dairy, producing vast amounts of slurry on top of this aquifer is very real. Accidents do happen regardless of the best laid plans. [Source: My observation of data from the Environment Agency]

Number of cows

8,100

Water Requirement

For Holstein breed, estimated to be between 1,100,000 and 1,800,000 litres per day, for drinking and washing down the accommodation [Source: British Columbia Agric and Lands – Livestock Watering Factsheet].

Foodstuffs

Dairy cows that are lactating (producing milk) require about 23 kilograms of dry matter per day [Source: WikiAnswers].

For 8,100 cows that will be 184,000 kilograms of dry matter per day... but converting this to fed weight of the feed, depends on the moisture content of the feedstuff used [Source: WikiAnswers].

Assuming 50% moisture content, it would therefore be 368,000 kilograms of feed that these cows would consume per day [Source: WikiAnswers] – all of which have to be sourced from or delivered to site.

Food stuff deliveries - 40t 5 axle articulated lorry - 4 per week. [Source: 09/1040/FUL]

Forage deliveries - Tractor and trailer - 1,000 per year [Source: 09/1040/FUL]

Methane

Each cow emits between 80 – 110 kgs of methane per day. Estimated to be about 891,000 kgs per day for the 8,100 cow herd [Source: http://www.epa.gov/rlep/faq.html ].

Estimated in litres to be between 100 – 200 litres per day... therefore up to 1,620,000 litres of methane per day for the 8,100 cow herd [Source: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/methane-cow.htm ].

Milk

Up to 225,000 litres per day for liquid milk market.
 [This equates to over 10,000 litres per annum for each cow... whereas the UK average yield per cow is only 7,000 litres per annum - Source: DEFRA 2010].

Bulk milk removal by 40t 5 axle articulated lorry - 10 per day. [Source: 09/1040/FUL]

Average gestation period for a cow is about 285 days or ~9 months, which is a similar length of time a woman is pregnant [Source: WikiAnswers].

Some breeds are pregnant a week or two longer than 285 days and others are shorter [Source: WikiAnswers].

Eventually the flow of milk that a cow gives will decrease to the point where it's not worth milking her anymore [Source: WikiAnswers].

This rest can ensure more milk, and the cow often produces more milk than she did in her last season [Source: WikiAnswers].

Operating Hours

24 hours per day / 7 days per week / 365 days per year

Buildings

Eight linked accommodation units (4 x 288m x 31m and 4 x 258m x 31m)

Portal design with 6 metre bays

Gable ends will be open

Sides will be protected to 1.5 metres and then open to eaves height

Separated by grassed areas and cropped for forage and farmed conventionally

Fitted with air-permeable screens to assist with cross-ventilation

Floor constructed of poured concrete and linked by paved areas to collecting yards and milking parlours

Each group of four buildings will be supported by an 80-point rotary parlour and associated collecting yard that will operate for 23 hours per day

Footprint of development... an area the size of 22 football pitches (circa 5 end-to-end and 4.5 side-by-side)
[Source: Basic calculation]

Cubicles

Deep sand beds (sealed to underlying bedrock)

Sand for bedding delivered by 32t 4 axle rigid lorry - 4 per week. [Source: 09/1040/FUL]

Separated by tubular steel partitions

Calf Units

Calves will be housed outdoors in portable hutches.

Livestock transfers - 40t 5 axle articulated lorry - 6 per month. [Source: 09/1040/FUL]

Welfare

‘Hospital’ accommodation will house mastitic or other cows requiring special care of treatment with antibiotics.

Cows get agitated with a long milk producing season [Source: WikiAnswers].

To replenish the amount of milk the cow makes she must have a calf, but to have that happen the cow must have a rest period in between, this is called ‘drying off’ a cow [Source: WikiAnswers].

This rest period ensure that the cow can prepare herself for birth and rest for a while. Call it a vacation if you will [Source: WikiAnswers].

Slurry Handling

8,100 cows are estimated to produce in the region of 558,000 kilograms of manure per day, of which 65 – 70% will be water [Source: WikiAnswers].

A 700kg cow produces about 70 litres of slurry per day, most of which will be deposited at feed stances and cubicle access passes... that’s about 567,000 litres per day for an 8,100 cow herd [Source: Farmers Guardian]

A cow will normally defecate and urinate three to five times a day but more frequently when excited, stressed or with changes to the routine. So cow housing must be as stress free as possible to keep it as clean as possible. [Source: Farmers Guardian]

The slurry will be removed from the cow accommodation using a scraper and ‘hoover’ underneath a vacuum tanker towed by a tractor.

Removed from the accommodation three times a day during milking.

Slurry will go to a sand separation facility consisting of three separators (1 x working; 2 x backup).

Once sand separated from slurry, the remaining slurry will be pumped over-ground to an AD unit (see Anaerobic Digester below).

Washed sand will be stored on a concrete pad adjacent to separator until required.

Wash-down from the dairy parlours and collecting yards will run under gravity through polyethylene pipes underground to an AD unit (see Anaerobic Digester below).

Slurry/Solids removal by tractor and trailer - 14 per day.

Land Availability/Requirement

Nocton Dairies Ltd - 2,760 acres

EM Howard Ltd – 1,580 acres [Letter of Intent - Application 09/1040/FUL]

Patrick Dean Ltd – 2,183 acres [Letter of Intent - Application 09/1040/FUL]

Blankney Estates – 11,117 acres [Letter of Intent - Application 09/1040/FUL]

Note: The offer of land mentioned in these ‘Letters of Intent’ is a critical requirement for the spreading of slurry before the Anaerobic Digester is built, otherwise why else would this availability have been sought. The land will also be required for the growing of lucerne as feed and to supply the substantial water requirement to the dairy. If these offers of access to land are not renewed when the new planning application is submitted, this could create a problem for the applicants. I did write to each of these companies enquiring whether or not the Letters of Intent would be honoured, considering the bad press Nocton Dairies was attracting. The only company that had the courtesy to reply was Blankney Estates who said ...'the company will be keeping the matter under review.' [Source: My observation/correspondence]

Slurry Lagoons and Drainage Reservoirs

Three lagoons will be constructed on-site. Two will provide storage for separated slurry, one for run-off from the unit.

Lagoons will be double-lined, with a high permeability drainage layer between and leakage detection equipment installed.

Further lagoons were shown in the original application 09/1040/FUL - see map on http://www.caffo.co.uk/

Anaerobic Digester

Will not be operational until Year 2

Will comprise of 2 x 24m x 6m primary fermenter vessels and 1 x 33m x 6m deep stabilisation vessel

Will produce about 4.5MW biogas and liquid digestate containing 5% solids

Liquid digestate will be further separated into 30% ‘dry matter’ solids and a 3% ‘dry matter’ liquid

Will not be emissions free

Will not remove chemical contaminants

Are known to emit nitrogen and sulfer oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ammonia [Source: www.energyjustice.net/digesters/ ]

CHP Plant

Capacity has yet to be confirmed

This will comprise of a tri-generation unit providing electricity for on-site.

It will also provide hot water and refrigeration for the dairy and heat for the digester

Digestate

The 30% ‘dry matter’ solids can either be returned to the AD or stored before being applied to the land

Remaining liquid digestate will be pumped over-ground via an umbilical effluent distribution pipes to portable nurse tanks and finally to standard agricultural mobile application equipment.

The over-land pipes will require culverts under roads to ensure these reach the places where the digestate is required.

The distribution system will also be used to spread run-off from hard-standings and separated slurry during the first year of operation.

New underground pipes will only be installed where absolutely necessary and will be welded polyethelene

Transport

HGV will deliver feedstuffs (4 per week) which will then be distributed via on-site machinery.

Milk tankers will collect and remove milk stocks.

Total expected number of vehicle movements per day as estimated by Nocton Dairies in their original planning application - 67.39 [Source: 09/1040/FUL]

Frequently Asked Questions - Nocton Dairies Ltd

[Source: Cached webpage of Nocton Dairies Ltd as it appeared on 1st September 2010 – courtesy of Google]

Lincolnshire Echo

 
22-acre super-dairy's 8,100 cows 'would need 2,500 acres to graze', say farmers
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/22-acre-super-dairy-s-8-100-cows-need-2-500-acres-graze/article-2604511-detail/article.html

Super-dairy is bad for us, tourists and farmers
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/letters/Super-dairy-bad-tourists-farmers/article-2600810-detail/article.html

The Independent

Jody Scheckter: From Formula One to life in the slow lane
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jody-scheckter-from-formula-one-to-life-in-the-slow-lane-2070839.html