Animal rights campaigners target Leighton dairy

Animal rights campaigners have lodged an official objection to plans for Wales’s first super dairy to be built in Leighton.

The plans – submitted to Powys County Council by NFU Cymru’s milk board chairman Maurice Jones – would see his herd increase to 1,000 at his farm a mile from Welshpool.

But Vegetarian International Voice for Animals (Viva!) has vowed to fight the plans and has provided its supporters with a pre-written template and encouraged thousands of people to submit their concerns to Powys County Council.

The letter said: “Factory farming has been shown time and time again to cause extensive suffering to the animals involved. It is horrendous to think that British agriculture would follow the American style of farming where greed for profit is put first and animal welfare is overlooked.

“Dairy cows are over worked to produce high milk yields whilst kept in unnatural environments and denied the ability to exhibit natural behaviours.

“They endure a constant miserable cycle of being forcibly impregnated and having their new born calves taken from them. In groups these large animals often suffer overcrowding, and disease can spread rapidly.

“This will increase the risk of bovine TB as well as a number of other infectious illnesses. As cases of bovine TB are increasing in Powys it seems inappropriate to introduce more cattle into the area.”

It comes after the group launched a campaign against Nocton Dairies’ plans to build a 8,100-cow unit in Nocton, Lincolnshire.

It said while Mr Jones’ plans were not on the same scale, it still represented a shift towards battery farming dairy cattle.

Mr Jones recently defended his £3 million investment at a public meeting attended by hundreds of villagers in Leighton Community Centre, outlining that he was currently losing money on every single litre of milk produced.

Once given the go-ahead by planners, his intention is to install a 72-point rotary parlour, together with a three-span 1,000-cow cubicle building, and associated silage and slurry storage facilities.