Battery Farming Cows - I despair

[HayleyB]

For bleep bleep sake...
Opposition mounts to 'factory farm' plans that will house 8,100 cows | World news | The Guardian

[ginger ninger]

I have to agree with you on this one Hayley, what ever next???

[Creemteez]

I thought we were progressing with our attitude to intensive farming, but it seems there will always be people swayed by the thought profit over what is morally right.

[Alison]

I read a book called The Omnivore's Dilhema a few years ago which talks about corn growing in the US which is excessive therefore they have to find a market so feed it to the cows etc. It makes for depressing reading

[pdblake]

Glad I'm not the only one who finds this disgusting too. They're on the verge of banning battery hens but are happy to start putting cows in cages.

[HayleyB]

I just cannot understand how it can be allowed, I mean they banned sow farrowing cages donkeys years ago and welfare for pigs has gotten better and then they decide it's ok to put cows in similar environment to farrowing cages - it's mental..

[Brengirl]

I just wonder when people post such antisocial rubbish that they get paid for how many hits they get. Load of toffee

[bobleponge]

*Shakes head in disbelief

[jacob marley]

Surely the emotive issue is the number from what i read the cows would be kept in the same conditions as the cows on lots of farms and have been for years.
When i drove a milk tanker (30) years the size of the farms gradually got bigger as the smaller ones ceased production natural progress .
When i finished the largest farm i collected from produced 9000 litres a day (2000 gallons) a lorry load a bit different to going to 18 farms for a tanker load.
So do not get to upset about the cows before the big dairy farms came along the cows were tied up in the cow shed by a chain around the neck from November until March no body worried about factory farming then and in my opinion that was factory farming any as i said before the number is the emotive fact not the conditions ..jacob

[PAULW]

This isn't new, the first one I saw was in Essex 24 years ago big roundabout milking parlour cows enter get fed and milked and released at the other side three milkings a day, but it doesn't mean the animals are treated any worse than other systems,

[TEB]

Is this being done because the dairy farmer gets paid hardly anything by the supermarkets for the milk they provide, I have heard that farmers think that the price off milk as paid by the consumer is about the right price but its the supermarkets that aren't passing it on, they (supermarkets) say that the price of milk is set by an independant board. One farmer was saying that he gets 16p a litre and he needs about 21p to keep in business, he was in the process of sending his dairy herd to the auctioneers. Which means that even more milk will need to be imported - what a sorry state of affairs.

[HayleyB]

I have many farming friends and those with cattle keep in barns over winter then Spring through to November they are out on fields, even pre-EU rules a friend dairy farmer would have never treated his catle in this way, even my die hard uncle free ranges cattle.

Having read more than the above article, these cows will never go out and will be bedded on sand in pens and will not see a blade of grass as they will be corn fed for maximum production. That is no life for an animal...

[smallblueplanet]

For jacob & Paul who say this is no worse but only more numbers - well perhaps then its good that its the higher numbers that have alerted people to how animals are being 'factory farmed' to provide cheap milk/meat (nevermind the consequences to man nor beast!)...

How can anyone deny these animals feel pain?

[Seahorse]

I find the 'it's no worse than before' argument completely redundant. Would anyone agree child slavery or wife beating are ok because 'everyone' used to do it? Just nonsense

This place is actually very near me and there is a lot of local opposition. I'm far from well off (non working lone parent) but I'm more than happy to pay a few extra pence for my pinta if it means better animal welfare and a better deal for decent farmers.

[BUFFS]

im afraid it doesnt surprise me,after all these years of seeing what factory farming has done to chickens,pigs and veal,there will always be the ethically moronic element who never see anything wrong, as long as its lining their pockets, they wont bat an eyelid to any creatures miscomfort or pain,and with all the good folk about,they get some plummy double-barreled legal eagle to announce to everybody how,if they didnt do it this way,animals would be destroyed and jobs lost(always paying the legal minimum,or less if they can avoid it).would you do those jobs..i for one wouldnt!!!!