We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.‘We’re not the bad guys’ - Nocton Dairies farmer speaks out
ONE of the farmers behind plans to build Europe’s largest dairy farm near the village of Nocton in Lincolnshire has spoken out about the welfare campaigns and media coverage which, he claims, is demonising British dairy farmers.
Peter Willes, one of four farmers behind the £50 million development, told Farmers Guardian the unfair and ‘inaccurate’ claims made about Nocton Dairies was threatening to turn the public against them.
It comes as the group prepares to resubmit plans to build the 8,100-cow dairy amid strong opposition from local residents and animal welfare campaigners.
“There are definitely attempts being made by the antis and by the media to portray us as the bad guys,” he said. “It is a real concern because we genuinely believe that what we are doing is the right thing - for us as dairy farmers, and for the cows.
“But the campaigns against us are stirring up emotions and a lot of the concerns people have are unfounded.”
The campaigns against the plans have taken two approaches – one on grounds of animal welfare and the other from residents concerned about its effect on surrounding villages.
“When we first started out, there was a lot of talk about animal welfare because you had groups like Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (Viva!) creating a real storm about it.
“But having spoken to some of those residents what they are mainly concerned with now, it seems, has gone away from concerns over animal welfare. They understand that we know how to look after cows, and that is not the main objection.
“They are concerned with issues like the effect on house prices, increased traffic at the site, noise, smell and flies – but these are all things we are addressing in our planning application and I am confident they won’t even notice the dairy is there.”
Open to the public
In the face of those concerns he is determined to ensure Nocton Dairies engages with the local community and says the group will be completely open with the public if and when the development gets the go-ahead.
“We have nothing to hide,” he said. “A visitor’s centre is something we want to do and that would cost an additional £1.2 to £2 million to get in place. We have applied to East Midlands Rural Development for a grant fund for that.
“But even without that we will be open and honest and we will open it up to the public and invite local people to come and visit the farm and see what we do.”
He admits they haven’t been forthcoming in getting their message across to the public, but with the mainstream media now jumping on the back of the animal welfare campaigns, the group faces an uphill struggle to win the public over.
An article in the Daily Mail last week is a prime example and has stoked the fires after it brandished the farm a ‘cattle factory where 8,100 ‘battery cows’ will be milked around the clock’.
Along with groups such as Viva! the media coverage to date has likened the farm to US systems where intensive dairying is commonplace. But those comparisons are unfair, says Mr Willes.
“People are being fired up by the antis and it is difficult to get the reality across to people if they are being swayed by the emotive arguments they read in the Daily Mail or hear from the protestors,” he said.
“We have been to some of the biggest units in the US and the idea that so-called ‘intensive dairying’ is inherently bad for the welfare of the cows is not right. It depends on how you look after those cows and the welfare standards at some of these places is higher than on many farms much smaller in size.
“We are not saying that all the units in the US are brilliant but the very best units are looking after their cows so much better and we want to learn form them and improve what we do.”
Improvements
In fact, Mr Willes believes the farm at Nocton will actually provide improved welfare for the cattle.
“Unless we thought we could build a dairy that is good for cows we wouldn’t be doing it. This is an improvement on what we have been doing before, I firmly believe that,” he said.
Under the plans, cows will be bedded on sand, and will be given access to loafing areas in the summer allowing them to go outside. Meanwhile a vet will be on hand 24 hours a day and the plans will also see the inclusion of a foot trimming parlour and a ‘hospital’ for cows requiring treatment.
Residents concerns are also being addressed before the plans are re-submitted, with the buildings moved some 200m further away from the villages and plans for an anaerobic digestor will see slurry recycled, reducing pollution and smell as well as generating renewable energy.
The debate over Nocton Dairies is likely to rage for many months to come, and its outcome could shape the future of the British dairy industry, opening the door to more large-scale units like this one, or potentially closing the door on the idea for the foreseeable future.
But with milk prices at a low, feed prices rocketing and dairy farmers leaving the industry in droves, Mr Willes says the idea of dairying on such a grand scale is not going to go away.
“The industry needs to secure its supply base and I think increasingly that is going to see farmers coming together in projects like this one where they can pool resources and expertise,” he said.
“At the end of the day if we as British dairy farmers think everybody is going to keep looking after us and make sure we stay in business then I think we are doomed to failure.
“We have to be proactive to make sure this industry remains viable. What we are doing, we believe, is one way of doing that and other farmers are making changes to their businesses to adapt, but we can’t go on as we are.
“We have to either invest to make us better or give up dairying, it is as simple as that.”
The proposed develoment
The plans
- The farm will be situated on heath land between the villages of Nocton and Dunston, just south of Lincoln.
- Expected to employ more than 80 staff.
- 8,100 cows in total.
- Cows will be milked in circular, 80-point milking parlours.
- Expected to produce around 220,000 litres of milk a day.
- Eight sheds, 288m long where the cattle will be housed.
- Pens will be built on a sand base and will be six metres wide.
- Sheds will have loafing areas for the cattle to go outside.
- Separate buildings will include a hospital and a maternity unit.
- An anaerobic digestor will be installed to convert slurry into energy. It is expected to generate 2 megawatts of energy – enough to power 2,000 homes. This energy will be used to power the farm with the potential to sell the remainder back to the National Grid, while the digestate will be spread on the surrounding fields.
- A vet will be on the farm 24 hours a day.
Costs
Farm: £18 million
Anaerobic digestor: £5 million
Build and development: £27 million
Total: £50 million
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Readers' comments (77)
Anonymous | 13 August 2010 8:01 am
Mr Willes STILL hasnt grasped the fact that evidence from his Devon setup confirms that he has a blatant disregard for the environment and the communities his farms are set up in - he makes the residents sound like we are just making trouble for fun. We are not, we have facts and evidence to prove the damage these factory farms cause to the environment, peoples quality of lives, property prices - you name it, the evidence is there. if his factory was located out in the country at least 4-6 miles from residents there would probably not be such an issue (apart from the fact cows are indoors so long and the intensive milking programme along with feed, which produces milk thats not so healthy to drink). The pollution issues; slurry carries numerous diseases that could get into the ground water & kill animals and humans. I believe you've been fined for pollution in Devon. The transport issues cannot be resolved - traffic WILL go through small historical villages whilst SAT navs are in use, & youve proven that you do not adhere to routing regulations down in Devon, so probably will not here either. You call residents that complain "obessive" so is that what hundreds of residents will become when we raise legitimate concerns? Mr Willes, get a grip and acknowledge that you are NOT addressing residents concerns and that moving it 200mtrs is not good at all. What about all the other issues, transport, access, smell, the slurry lagoons located nearby - are you going to move all that as well? The best thing you can do is clear off. The resident's are intelligent people and have done much research into factory farms and in fact you! we know about you and residents in Devon know about you and continue to live in the hell you've made just on a 2000 dairy setup there!
get real, the location is not the right one. the AD unit you say will be built isnt planned for 18 months & thats if it gets built at all! you appear to have no regard for planning regulations either - and in all probability the AD unit wont be built at all! & additional power created, you will sell back to the national grid and the locals will not benefit at all. The 80 jobs? no, equates to about 5 by the time you've brought in your specialists and foreign workers! (and those 5 will get written off by smaller dairies going out of business) I note you didnt mention that either! Are you going to move into the village and live right next door to it as well and then you can enjoy the so called "benefits" along with the rest of us.
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Geoff Hall | 13 August 2010 8:28 am
If Mr Willes and Co had chosen a site many miles away from local habitation... not decided to put this development on a major fragile aquifer... and made sure there were adequate 'A' road links to his agri-industrial site, then I suspect many 'antis' would not even be objecting to his plans.
The attempts made at public consultation have been poor and the publicity campaign ineffective. Mixed messages have been imparted during what little consultation there has been and in my opinion an element of arrogance displayed, with little regard to resident's concerns.
This development is only a very small part of a much wider socio-economic discussion that needs to take place about UK farming in general. Producing low quality milk for large supermarkets to sell at an unrealistic price, whilst producers depend on public subsidies to make a profit is a bad model to follow. If one then takes into account that many good small family dairy farmers will be put out of business and that good arable land is being used up for this development, it is clearly not an acceptable way forward.
Let's have a proper debate about the wider implications. This is not just about Nocton Dairies!
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Valerie Egans | 13 August 2010 8:41 am
I could not have put it better - Anon and Geoff Hall - in fact you covered everything I was about to say... no point in repeating it
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Steve Marshall | 13 August 2010 9:52 am
The comments above seem to be fairly representative of the sentiment in the villages surrounding this proposed development. An exit poll held after a Nocton Dairies meeting to discuss the installation indicated that more than 90% of the residents objected to the plans.
In my view the objectors are very well informed, have up-todate information from a variety of well-researched sources and have justifiable concerns which are consistently ignored. The recent meetings were very poorly conducted in an out of the way location where the address was given incorrectly. The consistent attitude of the dairy lobby is to label local concerns ridiculous, even to the extent when an ex NFU executive called the local 'ignorant and misguided' on local radio.
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Ange | 13 August 2010 10:30 am
Let's face it, this exercise IS ALL ABOUT MONEY. You can bet that Peter Willes and his cronies don't care a JOT that small Dairy farms will be pushed out of business - ON THE CONTRARY!! The LESS Dairy Farms they need to compete with, the better!! COME ON FOR GOODNESS SAKE! SEE this for what it is! So - A Vet will be on hand 24 hours a day - I'd like to know whether this Vet has taken the Veterinary equivalent of the Hippocratic oath - if the answer is 'yes', then maybe he/she should consider their vocation as it's QUITE CLEAR that the welfare of the Cow is NOT at the forefront of this abomination = MONEY, and ONLY MONEY is!! These 'Super' Dairies are NOT WANTED here in the UK, if you REALLY want to develop one, it's simple. EMIGRATE TO THE U.S.A !! We won't miss you . . . .
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DaisyMae | 13 August 2010 11:14 am
Villagers "won't notice" his 8,100 cow unit?!
Hmm... ;-)
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Deborah | 13 August 2010 11:42 am
Having Mr Willes being open with us would be much welcomed, we've not experienced much honesty to date. This article does not mention that the Anaerobic Digestor won't be built for upto 2 years... that the majority of jobs won't go to local people... that local residents have just been flooded for the 3rd time in as many weeks by incompetent irrigation from the Nocton Dairies site - thank goodness that was just water and not run-off containing effluent. In Willes’ previous interviews there was the claim that Highways had advised the routing map (BBC Countryfile) - denied in writing by Highways Principal Planning Officer. His colleague Mr Howard’s claim that an earlier planned public meeting in Nocton had been cancelled on police advice – vehemently denied by the police themselves. More recently a claim that the nature of the recent 'public meeting' held in a semi derelict farm cottage was because the District Council had advised against full public meetings - we will be checking this, but again I believe it will be denied by planning officers. Then of course there were (3) inaccurate addresses and the wrong postcode given for the 'meeting' venue. A disdain for factual accuracy that reeks of incompetence or lack of sincerity about public consultation. Honesty and openness would be a most welcome development, but I won't be holding my breath (bad pun intended)..
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Geoff, Metheringham Resident | 13 August 2010 11:56 am
If you are reading this, Mr Willes, Mr. Barnes, and Mr. Howard, would you please tell me if you are going to compensate the local population for the inevitable slump in the value of their homes if your scheme gets the go-ahead? I live less than a mile from your proposed development, and from my window I can see the field upon which you plan to build. Not only will I have to put up with the smell, the slurry in the fields near my home, the noise, the flies, the increased road traffic past my house, the possible contamination of my water supply, and the constant reminder of the presence of this monstrous factory farm every time I look out of my window, but I shall have the added bonus of my bedroom being illuminated by your lights all through the night. (I can't help thinking that the "photo-montages" of the plant as seen at night, which were on display at your so-called public consultation last week, portrayed a certain amount of "artistic licence", and as I understand it, it will be at least fifteen years before the planted screens mature and hopefully hide the development from view.) So please tell me and everyone else, what are we supposed to do if your factory makes life so unpleasant for us all that we are forced to sell our homes? Or try to. We will get less than the current market value because the presence of a factory farm will obviously deter buyers. I suppose that's just tough, is it? The overwhelming majority of local residents oppose this scheme, and yet as you see it, they are wrong and you are right. We need a public enquiry, now.
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Kathryn Billings | 13 August 2010 12:19 pm
Mr Willes is planning to build a 22 acre industrial complex, with a footprint as big as Nocton itself ,in a rural area.There will be large toxic lagoons and slurry spreading areas near our attractive villages which will be blighted by pollutants,smell and traffic.
His track record at the factory dairy in Devon shows a blatant disregard for both the planning authorities and the welfare of his neighbours.
The Dairy will be sited over a sensitive aquifer which could easily be polluted and threaten our water supplies.
He has already been prosecuted for polluting a river in Devon and yet,despite all this. he still clings to the idea that "alot of the concerns people have are unfounded"!!!!
This project is so unprecedented in scale and the risks to the environment so great that we need a public enquiry before any plans are submitted.
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Sue | 13 August 2010 12:37 pm
For your information, Mr Willes, the reason why the 'local people' near you propsed super dairy (of which I am one), have reacted more to the increased transport, pollution, smell and total disgrace of this money making venture, is because we have been told categoraically by NKDC that we cannot fight you on the grounds of animal welfare. We DO care about animal welfare it is just that in the eyes of you and the local council they are not deemed to be important. I personally think that in the 'civilised' country we live in in the 21st century it is an absolute disgrace that opposition to planning on the grounds of animal welfare is irrelevant. DO NOT ASSUME WHAT I AM THINKING and do not insult my intelligence. The only thing you and your consortium are interested in, including I am sure local companies hungry to increase their coffers (funny how none of these or the local farmers supporting you have had the guts to make their names public), is making money - pure and simple! Nothing you have done so far has changed my mind on that!! If planning goes it will be a traversity but why should you care as long as you and your associates make money!
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