Visit to Withgill Farm - 23rd October 2010
Mr David Barnes, a director of Nocton Dairies, has kindly granted access to his farm in Clitheroe for any interested parties who wish to visit, so people can see his 2,000 cow dairy in operation first hand.
You will find a number of photographs here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kbprint
This will give you a good visual impression of the activity inside a cow 'accommodation' unit and the general posture, body language and behaviour of the dairy cattle. What it doesn't provide is the olfactory and audio impact, which of course can only be experienced by a personal visit.
Please bear in mind these photographs are giving you an internal view of just one of the four (500 cow) units that exist at Withgill (you can see other units in the background of one of the photos (IMGP 1465).
The cow accommodation units at Nocton, were originally planned to be twice the size of the barn at Withgill (shown in photograph IMGP 1490), with eight barns in total, each catering for 1,000 cows.
You will also see the carousel milking parlour in one of the photographs (IMGP 1527) and a large uncovered slurry pit on site (IMGP 1472).
Whether the size of the intensive dairy at Nocton is still planned to contain 8,100 cows, we will have to wait for the revised application, hopefully to be submitted shortly. Unfortunately, there is still no announcement from Nocton Dairies as to when this might be, continuing to reaffirm their poor publicity record to date.
MPs find out more about not in my cuppa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGDwYWbpGk
Thank you for posting these photos, Geoff. They are a really good representation of what we saw on our visit - however, I must say that they cannot convey the sense of resignation & hopelessness of these poor creatures. I was not prepared for what I saw - which is actually no reflection on Mr Barnes' animal husbandry, it is just "the way it is".
ReplyDeleteThe visit affected me deeply, despite my exposure to these methods of farming via articles, video clips etc.
I cannot believe that we have come to this - surely soon the tide must turn, and we must all take responsibility for the food on our plate.
Please let this be as bad as it gets & let's hope we can force Nocton Dairies to rethink their vision of the future of dairy farming.
Julie, Potterhanworth
If the plans for 8100 cows remain - does that mean that the slurry pit or pits will have to be about 5 times the size of the one pictured here ... I'm hoping we'll get one that blows bubbles that can be seen from space! (Sorry - you have to laugh or you'd cry..) - Read more here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thebigmoney.com/blogs/daily-bread/2010/03/25/giant-gas-bubbles-manure-lagoons
Plus, interesting comments from current and therefore smaller scale UK farmers on slurry, some worrying they may be poisoning their neighbours:
http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=493192
Deborah - it was interesting that when I asked Mr Barnes about the size of the slurry lagoon we would get, he replied that he "didn't know". I am amazed - surely he must know something as fundamental as this, after all - as he told us at one of the meetings - his house is on the line in order to finance the proposed Nocton Dairy.
ReplyDeleteThe lagoon was truly horrendous - to think of one 5x the size is beyond comprehension.
Julie, Potterhanworth
He doesn't know ???? .. yet again I'm staggeringly underwhelmed by their expertise ... To be frank I'm not exactly filled with confidence that these chaps know what they're doing.... we await their next attempt (how long has it taken them to 'amend' their original application) with interest as large as a methane bubbles ....
ReplyDelete