By unlocking the export potential China offers the pig industry, not to mention the red meat sector as a whole, we could gain entry into a marketplace which comprises a fifth of the world’s population.Nocton unveils changes to planning application
NOCTON Dairies has insisted its plans for an 8,100-cow dairy unit in Lincolnshire are still on track, despite the decision by a local farming company to back out of the project.
The directors behind the planned development revealed this week that they have made a number of revisions to their proposals they say go a long way to addressing public concerns over the project (see panel below).
Changes include an immediate start for the anaerobic digestion (AD) plant and the provision of loafing areas to provide outside access for cows for some of the year.
The company’s plans appeared to have suffered a blow when it emerged that local pig farming company Patrick Dean had pulled out of an arrangement to spread digestate from the proposed dairy unit’s AD plant on 2,000 acres of its land.
In a letter to Nocton directors, Patrick Dean’s managing director David Knott said company directors were ‘extremely concerned that the unwelcome public attention which is being drawn to this project will have a negative effect’ on the company’s business.
One of the organisations campaigning against the Nocton development is actively seeking to shame individuals and companies supporting the project into pulling out.
‘38 Degrees’, which has over 21,000 signatures on its online petition opposing ‘cow factory farms’, announced this week it has raised £5,000 in donations to run full page adverts in local papers to ‘expose their involvement with the controversial factory farm’.
It claimed victory in forcing Patrick Dean to pull out and claimed ‘all the businesses involved were now wondering if the public criticism is worth it’. It predicted the factory farm project would ‘collapse’ if more ‘cave in’.
However, Nocton Dairies director David Barnes said the pig company’s decision to pull out of the agreement ‘changes nothing’ as far as the application is concerned.
He said it was important to have a ‘robust plan’ for the local spreading of digestate and that the company was ‘continuing to investigate a number of options’.
“The path we decided to take will be clearly outlined in the planning application when it is submitted. We’d like to stress that the plan has changed significantly and we hope that rather than speculating, everyone waits to see the contents of the application before jumping to conclusions.”
The changes to the planning application are intended to address concerns raised by North Kesteven District Council, the Environment Agency and local residents after the initial application was submitted earlier this year.
The application was withdrawn in June but the revised application is expected to be submitted to imminently.
Nocton planning changes
A number of changes have been made to Nocton’s planning application for an 8,100-cow dairy unit in Lincolnshire since the original application was withdrawn earlier this year. These include:
· The Anaerobic Digestion plant will be operational from the start, rather than after two years as initially planned. It will use crops to prime it until sufficient slurry is available.
· This means only ‘low-odour, cured’ digestate – and no ‘raw slurry’ - will be spread on the fields. It will only be spread once or twice on any piece of land during the year.
· Digestate will be stored only in a purpose built lagoon to the west of cattle housing – not on any other local farms. The store will have a clay base with double lining and hi-tech leak detection to prevent pollution of the aquifer.
· Digestate will be piped underground through molecularly-welded polyethylene pipes guaranteed for at least 50 years – not old irrigation pipes.
· Outside loafing paddocks will be provided in the summer, allowing dry cows to be outside for a period before calving.
· No additional water will be extracted from the aquifer in the summer. Winter abstraction from the Witham may be used to help alleviate flooding.
· All HGVs will be routed away from villages and properties and electronically monitored to ensure routes are strictly adhered to.
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Readers' comments (11)
Trev! | 7 October 2010 12:54 pm
I tried to post this on another Nocton article however it did not work so I am dumping it here having taken the effot to write it.......... Nocton is not a big village, why not buy the houses in it to house the workers for the farm? The houses were probably used this way historically when Nocton Estate was a functioning country estate. May be more expensive than building new houses however may help to get the project through. Also the biggest local opposition is likely to come from people trying to sell houses, well if Mr Willes buys, they will be happy and go away!
Also why not put some webcams in place on a farm which is run using a similar system. This would help the general public gain an insight into this system. May be also place some webcams on a farm using alternative systems so people can compare. Social media sites could be very helpful for Mr Willes in getting his message across more successfully. I really hope that this project goes ahead and would love to visit it one day however I appreciate that those not from the industry and less well informed may jump to extreme conclusions. Mr Willes even as a go ahead progressive farmer is compounding the fact that farmers are pretty awful at PR.
Whether is has 500 cows or 8000 is pretty irrelevant from an animal welfare point of view it is all about the system, the management and the attention to detail. After all a 8000 cow farm would have more buildings than a 500 cow farm the farmer would not simply stack the cows on top of each other to get them in which seems to be some people understanding. I can see no difference between one 8000 cow farm and x16 500 cow farms other than visually..... and that maybe a positive for the bigger farm!
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paula west | 7 October 2010 2:29 pm
Mr Willes asks that comments are restricted until planning has been re-submitted.
Were it not for the high profile campaign against Nocton Dairies, the people of Lincoln would have woken one morning to find - as the poor people of Devon did- that the development was in situ and retrospective planning was being put in place.
People have many objections, for some it is welfare, for others the disruption to their lives, many are aware of poor practice in the USA, and for others it is economic/ethics/environmental. I can only speak for myself when I say my greatest fear are the people involved, especially Peter Willes.
Comments have surfaced that Large scale dairy operations should be granted permission as an experiment. Well if an experiment is to be carried out in my county I would want the best practice people running it, not a man who has a conditional discharge for illegal drugs on his farm, and who has been charged and fined for polluting local water through poor farming husbandry. If he cannot run the smaller scale operation he has in Devon legally and ethically, God help us when he takes on an operation 800% larger.
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Anonymous | 7 October 2010 3:42 pm
Its good to see that the proposers of the dairies have listened to the local public and appear to be addressing many of their concerns over envionmental impact of the dairy. This debate requires everyone to be objective, and the bullying and shame tactics from the anyi-dairy lobby do them no credit. For any new development there is always strong local opposition whether its intensive farming, housing development, airports etc. When the developments go ahead the scare tactics of those who create such noise at the start nearly always appear exagerated and foolish. Hopefully the planners will look at the efforts put in by the company and ensure that a decision is made purely on planning grounds. Animal welfare is not an issue. With margins so small, poor husbandry will not give the profits the farmers need to make the enterprise pay. Lincolnshire is an agricultural county and needs agricultural businesses to support the countryside we all enjoy. I'd far rather have a dairy than suffer the stench of thousands of acres over rotting vegetables in south Lincolnshire as the picking season closes.
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Anonymous | 7 October 2010 6:37 pm
This is not a farm, this is a factory, which will be located yards a away from villagers.
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Deborah | 8 October 2010 9:59 am
".. the revised application is expected to be submitted to (sic) imminently." Give me a break - we've been hearing this since May - indeed, in this very publication. Numerous recent reports claimed the resubmission was definitely going to be in September ... so it's safe to assume the plans HAVE had to change because of Patrick Dean Ltd's withdrawal ... common sense dictates that they would have to amend plans or why involve Patrick Dean Ltd in the first place? There must have been something on the plans that didn't play right for Patrick Dean or they wouldn't have felt the need to pull out so publically.
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Julie | 8 October 2010 12:35 pm
". . . . bully tactics of the anti-dairy lobby". Where is the evidence for this, please? We are entitled to our opinions, entitled to protest, and entitled to object. Which we do - strongly. There are still too many unknowns, and too many risks. Why should we take this lying down? And why do you wish to remain anonymous . . . ?
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Julie | 8 October 2010 4:19 pm
Buy up Nocton . . . . . .?
When did you last take a trip here, Trev? You'd be surprised how big it is.
Are we proposing going back to the days when the landed gentry just bought up great swathes of the countryside - & to hell with everyone else?
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Kathryn | 8 October 2010 5:13 pm
Unfortunately Mr Willes has a track record of making promises to the planning authorities and delivering something very different to what was agreed. He has already admitted that without grant aid this project will be underfunded and yet he seemingly now can promise an anaerobic digester from day one and underground pipes; both very expensive items.
There is strong opposition to the factory dairy both from the environmental lobby and from those who worry about animal welfare and yet public funds may well be available to support it.
Before taking this giant unprecedented step towards industrialised agriculture we need a measured and serious debate about its long term consequences. A public inquiry is necessary.
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Trev! | 12 October 2010 5:51 pm
Julie..... Viva are a bit of a joke organisation if you look at what they have just undertaken with Channel five news into the egg industry. Nocton is not a particularly big village I do not live so far away however clearly with such unpleasant people being against this perfectly logical development I would not wish to place myself or my family in danger in stating where exactly. Also I am attempting to provide workable solutions instead of just problems which seems to be your approach.
I think you will also find that most estates are handed down which is not the case at Nocton. Anyway Mr Willes already owns a sizeable part of what was the Nocton Estate why not let it continue....
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Anonymous | 22 October 2010 10:47 pm
I find it difficult to understand the mentality of ever increasing farm sizes , in the light of global warming and climate change.
The loss of biodiversity in the flora above and below ground is tremendous when mono cropping of the land occurs with crops or animals, and it is this area of denuding the soil of carbon and its micro flora and general biodiversity on the landscape of trees and hedges and all that makes up a balanced environment for the planet.
The spreading of digestiate onto land in a repeated manor will also affect the aquafier and pollution will occur in the long term and will be difficult to amend at a later date .
Also the digestate may also have medicines from the animals treatments that may pollute the aquafier in the area,.
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