Welsh Mega Dairies


Welsh Mega Dairies

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Indiana, USA.

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These H-blocks house 30,000 dairy cows.

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The sheds are half a kilometre long and the fields around them are empty.

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That's because cows here rarely step outside.

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To their promoters, they're a brave new world in dairy farming.

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To their critics, they're milk factories. What's certain

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is that mega-dairies are now established fixtures of American agriculture.

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And it's started to happen here in Wales.

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A mega-dairy farm housing 1,800 cattle

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has been operating in Carmarthenshire for over a year

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without full planning permission. And councillors in Powys

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are considering plans for a major dairy there.

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Is this the future for the Welsh dairy industry?

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We drink 700,000 litres of milk in Wales every day.

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But how many of us go beyond

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thinking whether to buy semi-skimmed or full-cream?

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And what do we really know about where our milk comes from?

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The truth is, behind the rosettes at the Royal Welsh Show,

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dairy farmers say their prospects are far from rosy.

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With the industry at a crossroads,

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talk away from the arena was more about losing profits than winning prizes.

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In this programme, we'll be meeting three Welsh dairy farmers,

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all concerned about the future of their industry.

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I think dairy farmers have got a number of choices.

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Obviously, the first is to get out of the industry, which a lot are.

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I think about two are leaving the industry every day.

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Some farmers are going back to grazing their herds on grass,

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the traditional method.

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I think it's special, family farms,

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because it involves all the family, sometimes.

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You know, you get the son taking over.

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On our farm, my wife does the milking.

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Other farmers are convinced that, if the dairy industry is to have a future,

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herds need to be big. Very big.

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We thought we'd go out to the States and meet the best people out there

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and I think we learned more in a week out there

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than I probably learned in 10 years of farming here.

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The average dairy herd in the UK currently numbers 112.

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Fraser Jones, who farms at Lower Leighton near Welshpool,

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has 200 cattle.

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His herd may be bigger than average,

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but the WAY he farms is typical of most dairy farmers in Wales.

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He lets his cows graze in the fields during summer

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but, to increase their milk yield, he feeds them processed food all year round.

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So this is a ration for the dairy cows.

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It's grass silage, maize silage and concentrate,

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a bit of yeast and minerals with some molasses on top

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and that's a typical dairy ration for mid-lactation cows.

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A high proportion of the feed in this diet is bought-in,

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leaving conventional dairy farmers exposed to volatile global markets.

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For the UK farmer, the raw materials that we need to feed our cows,

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such as wheat, barley, soya and rape, are going up in price

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and we can't control that, that's out of our control.

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You have to feed your cows. At the end of the day, they have to be fed.

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Throw in high fuel costs and a low milk price

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and dairy farmers like Fraser Jones are struggling to survive.

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The milk price is obviously a big issue.

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The milk price we are receiving at the moment isn't sustainable.

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Farmers are expected to invest in their business

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and the milk price we are receiving at the moment

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doesn't give you that extra to put back into the business.

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So dairy farmers have to further reduce their costs.

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One option is massively increasing

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the size of their herds to achieve economies of scale.

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It's a trail already blazed in the USA

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where herds can be tens of thousands-strong.

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Sheds like these can be half a kilometre long.

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They're home to cows who are used to living indoors

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and to whom grass is quite alien.

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Dozens of calves are born every day and housed in hutches.

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Eventually, they'll be old enough to take their place on the milk carousel.

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Howell Richards, owner of the biggest single dairy unit in Wales,

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is an evangelist for this big is beautiful approach.

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We hear time and time again, "Large herds, there must be welfare issues,

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"you can't keep a lot of cows and not have problems."

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What shocked me when I first went to the States was

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how well their animal welfare was.

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He's installed a large rotary parlour

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like those in American mega-dairies.

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He's also chosen a type of high-yield cow,

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first bred in the United States, to produce more milk.

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I think the Holstein cow is a cow

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that has the potential to give a lot of milk.

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There's no question they have been bred to give more milk than,

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let's say, the New Zealand Jersey or the British Friesian.

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Howell Richards feeds his cows a diet of high-energy processed food.

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It boosts their milk output so much

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that they need to be milked more often than conventional cows.

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The parlour is currently milking about 350 cows per hour.

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The aim is that a cow is never away from her food,

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water or the ability to lie down

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for more than an hour at any one time.

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While the cows are being milked,

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their sheds are cleaned, new bedding is blown in

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and feed distributed.

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This is basically a cow's life,

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365 days a year.

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Having seen this vision of the future for himself,

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Howell Richards was inspired to expand his herd.

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Although he's had 1,800 cattle for over a year,

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he still doesn't have planning permission for his new sheds.

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The idea of bringing American-style mega-dairies to Wales

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-is not supported by everyone.

-Good girls.

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-Allan Rogers farms near Wrexham.

-Come on back to me. Good girls.

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Faced with rising production costs,

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he and his wife, Heather, have gone to the other extreme.

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Between March and November, they graze their 160 cows on grass.

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They also grow their own winter feed,

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so producing nearly all their cows' food on their own farm.

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This reduces their costs substantially.

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HE WHISTLES

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Good girls. Come on now!

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We try to produce as much as we can off grass, really.

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Come on, girls. Good girls. Come on.

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'Going for low-input, the cost of production was lower,'

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so we were gaining extra pence per litre we produced.

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'My father was born on a farm just up the road.'

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Come on, Jess.

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When he retired at 65, he sold us his cows

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so we were able to start up a dairy herd.

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We had 25 to start and we've built up to 160 now.

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Instead of the large Holstein cows that Howell Richards,

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Fraser Jones and many other dairy farmers favour,

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the Rogers have chosen a traditional type of cow.

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It's particularly suited to grazing grass...

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but produces a lot less milk.

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The cows are all bred from New Zealand Friesians

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and then they are crossed with a Jersey cross.

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You know, they're not big cows, they're quite little cows

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but they last a long time.

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And I like my little cows.

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'We don't expect big yields from our cows

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'and yet we can make quite a good living out of it.'

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Off you go. Go on, darling. Go on.

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Allan and Heather buy in very little feed.

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During the summer, they use some of their land

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to grow food for their herd to eat during the winter.

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These forage crops not only provide protein for the cows

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but also naturally replenish the soil,

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dramatically reducing the need for bought-in fertilizer.

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We've found that the best forage crop to grow is oats and peas.

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They feed the cows in the winter, cos they're full of protein,

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and the nitrogen goes back into the ground

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and this is the winter feed for the cows.

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High-input and high-yield or low-input and low-yield,

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the choices facing the dairy industry shared centre-stage at the Royal Welsh Show.

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In his quest to secure a profitable future in Montgomeryshire,

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Fraser Jones has researched both options.

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I think there's room in the UK for all types and size of farm,

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from a small family farm to a large farm,

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which is run more as a business with a lot more employees.

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With a low-input system, cattle are grazed for an extended time

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and therefore you haven't got the cost of buying your feed

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but your cows are only going to average 6,500, 7,000 litres of lactation per year.

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Obviously, on a high-input system,

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you've got a lot more costs with shedding and feed costs

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but your cows will be averaging, you know, 10,000 litres a year.

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The extra volume in litres is paying for the extra costs,

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so, in overall profitability, there probably isn't much difference between the two systems.

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The trouble is,

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you can't have an intensive grazing system on every farm.

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Every farm has got different soil types, different scenarios.

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So I was looking at intensive grazing,

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or a system which is more high-input,

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where the cows are housed slightly longer,

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and for this particular farm the high-input, high-output system, to me, is the most viable.

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And so Fraser Jones has opted to increase his herd five-fold

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and has applied to Powys County Council for permission

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to build a 1,000-cow dairy unit.

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To his critics, it's a mega-dairy

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and the application has created quite a stir.

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These are my plans of what I'm proposing to do

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at Lower Leighton Farm.

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I plan to put my parlour,

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which is going to go on this waste area just behind me.

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And then the cattle housing, which will be over there.

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The oak tree in the distance is the furthest point of the cattle sheds.

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So that's going to be my three sheds for cattle housing.

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And then at the bottom, down towards the road,

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is going to be the, um, fodder storage shed, so...

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silage clamps, maize clamps and my straw storage facilities.

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All the manure is going to be pumped from the existing lagoon,

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which is just the other side of this waste area,

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into these two new proposed slurry stores,

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which are going to be the bottom side of the road, behind that high hedge.

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And that's the basic outlay of the buildings I plan to put up.

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The dairy complex Fraser Jones plans

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has similarities with the large indoor herd which Howell Richards already runs near Carmarthen.

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The cows I envisage in this new system, she's literally walking

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from the shed to the parlour, on to a rotary platform.

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She goes round with the platform and then walks back to the shed,

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so she will only be out of that shed for about half an hour.

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Generally a cow, when she's finished milking, she goes back to the shed, she goes and eats.

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They'll eat, they'll fill their stomachs up

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and then go and they all go lie down in a cubicle.

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A basic cubicle is just over four foot wide and eight foot long.

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So she does spend a lot of time in that shed.

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I'd say, out of her day, she probably spends half of the day

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in a cubicle but, as I say, it is an environment which is very natural,

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with plenty of airflow and plenty of room to move about.

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Cows basically need lots of room.

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Cows should never be prisoners.

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The buildings that the cows are in

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are no different to what we would like to be in.

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I mean, we all like to live in airy, well-lit rooms,

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we like to be fed regularly, we don't like too much change in our lives.

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While Howell Richards is confident his animals

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are healthy and happy in their airy sheds,

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some animal welfare groups aren't so convinced.

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Mega-dairies are wrong for cows, they're wrong for consumers

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and they're wrong for the farming community.

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They are wrong for the cows because keeping cows permanently,

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or near-permanently, indoors will cause them health problems.

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It's likely to see their welfare suffer

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and, frankly, denies the fact that cows belong in fields.

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You know, in the press you read about these cows that are being

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forced to produce all this milk. You can't force cows.

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You know, it's total lunacy to say you can take a cow

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and force it, make it give a lot of milk.

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The harder you push a cow, the poorer the cow will be.

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The farmer wants the cow to be as happy as possible.

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You know, he wants it to be in perfect condition

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and you treat them right, they'll treat you right.

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And I don't think it matters how many cows you have,

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if you have 100 or 1,000 cows.

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Each animal is still as important as the next.

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The reason that these cows are being kept permanently indoors,

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or near-permanently, is that they are being pushed to their

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physical limits to produce ever more milk.

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They're being pushed to the degree that their over-producing udder

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means that their bodies can't keep up.

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These animals are no longer able to survive, no longer able to

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remain healthy on grass and that's a serious health and welfare issue.

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It's not only my view.

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The European Food Safety Authority has said that keeping cows

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permanently indoors will make them more likely to suffer

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from serious health problems.

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I think it's very sad that people... They should try to...

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I would be very happy for them to come and see if they want to,

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look around these new units and how things are designed around the cow.

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Fraser Jones believes he's done this with the designs he's submitted.

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Even so, his application has proved controversial.

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Powys County Council has received 833 responses to the plans.

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95% are against.

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I'd say the most negativity has been from campaign groups

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and it's quite daunting, if you like,

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and quite worrying that people don't understand dairy farming.

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I know with my particular application,

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we were having objections coming from America, New Zealand,

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Canada, Germany, France.

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Pretty much every country you can think of,

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we were having objections from.

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And they didn't have a clue where Leighton was,

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they hadn't got a clue what I was actually doing.

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You know, people, they're part of their campaign group and they

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just go on the internet, click a button and their objection is sent.

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Leighton residents know all too well

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where the mega-dairy would be built.

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Some of them have formed a pressure group,

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the Campaign Against Leighton Farm Extension, CALFE.

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Leighton is a small village, but this farm would be within

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a few hundred yards from something like 30-odd residences.

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You've also got the village hall here,

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which is the heart of the community. It's going to just smother it.

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It's far, far too large for where it's proposed.

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When you consider that the school is a tiny little square there

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and this is the size of the development.

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Should this farm be built, I think parents might be concerned

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about sending their children to a school right next to this

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huge factory farm.

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The sheer amount of slurry that's going to be produced

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by these cows is immense.

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There's two slurry tanks. Each of them will house this building

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and that's only four months' supply. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

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Moving feedstuffs into the place and moving slurry out of the place,

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this is going to create a lot of traffic movement and,

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no doubt, smell and problems on the road.

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I appreciate that this is a sensitive site.

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I fully appreciate that, but I also feel I have done everything to

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mitigate every possible scenario.

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It does cover quite a large area, I don't dispute that,

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so it is going to be visual,

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but I've screened it by having a bund and lots of plantations.

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I have a commitment to slurry-inject all my slurry,

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so all my slurry produced on the farm will be injected into the ground.

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I feel that we have got a proposal here that will not affect

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the local community in any way whatsoever.

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You see, that's where it's going to come to, all that area,

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it's too out of proportion.

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A number of national organisations have also voiced their concerns.

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If this application is approved, then what we're talking about is

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a really completely stark industrial-scale building,

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huge sheds, great silo-type arrangements,

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a great carousel on which cattle will industriously walk in

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and out of it without even, probably, seeing a blade of grass.

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It really is completely alien in terms of the traditional

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approach and the traditional feeling

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that a farm in this part of Montgomeryshire

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and any part of rural Wales in the dairy sector would think of.

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I disagree with the Campaign to Protect the Rural Wales.

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I really do feel that what I am proposing is not industrialisation.

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I totally disagree with them saying it's industrialisation.

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I feel it's a family farm which employs a lot more people.

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When you have an industrial-scale development of any sort,

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be it a farm, be it a business park, whether it's a prison...

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whatever you want to call it... it's an imposition in this landscape

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and that's where our concerns are

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in respect of this particular application.

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I feel that Wales needs farming, and it needs dairy farming.

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And it needs to support these sort of applications. I really do.

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While Fraser Jones waits to hear whether planners will let him

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erect his mega-dairy, Howell Richards is wondering if planners

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in Carmarthenshire will make him tear his two new sheds down.

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When we were building these sheds we weren't looking at the risks

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from the planning side of things.

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We had lost so much stock to TB and the idea was to build the

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shed to house the cows 365 days, to take the animals away from

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the wildlife and then, if we could stop the link between

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the animal and the badger then, hopefully, we would be free of TB.

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Howell Richards' decision to expand his dairy massively and only then

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apply for planning permission has upset some of his neighbours.

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The property I live in now overlooks Cwrt Malle Farm...

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And it's a blot on the landscape.

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I have lived in the village for 26 years and the last three years

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have been quite unbearable because of the slurry coming from Cwrt Malle.

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Eifion Bowen has to advise the decision makers

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on the local authority.

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Cwrt Malle is an existing farm complex

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so you have the farmhouse and the traditional old stone buildings

0:21:200:21:25

which, given today's agricultural practices, are not suitable.

0:21:250:21:30

The two large proposed buildings... which are up...

0:21:300:21:33

are rectangular structures and they are located just south

0:21:330:21:38

of the farmhouse and the existing milking parlour.

0:21:380:21:42

The buildings, as I said,

0:21:420:21:47

are in situ and the construction proceeded even though the

0:21:470:21:51

developer had been made aware that planning permission was required.

0:21:510:21:55

How can people put up a building and then say, "Well, I've built it now.

0:21:550:22:01

"What are you going to do about it?" It's wrong, you know.

0:22:010:22:04

It is a difficult concept to grasp of course

0:22:040:22:07

but don't actually break the law when you build anything without

0:22:070:22:11

planning permission, you only break the law should you not fail

0:22:110:22:15

to comply with any subsequent enforcement notice.

0:22:150:22:17

So these buildings, yes, they've been built but we're now considering,

0:22:170:22:21

obviously, to their impact on the landscape, impact on

0:22:210:22:25

the local road network and impact on the local environment as well.

0:22:250:22:28

The problem Howell's got, he's got to transport all this feed in,

0:22:280:22:33

all of the slurry out

0:22:330:22:35

and that's what's us a great deal of problem in this community.

0:22:350:22:38

Some of the issues with farms of this size is smell

0:22:380:22:41

and it's certainly been an issue here to overcome that.

0:22:410:22:47

We're actually now injecting slurry

0:22:470:22:49

and we've been to see some of our neighbours who had issues

0:22:490:22:52

with smell and are now delighted with the results.

0:22:520:22:55

The next stage forward for this farm

0:22:570:22:59

would be to build an advanced anaerobic digester.

0:22:590:23:03

What we're planning to do here is to use 100% waste product,

0:23:030:23:07

take all the methane out of the slurry

0:23:070:23:09

and then recycle it again

0:23:090:23:12

and provide electricity for 1,200 homes.

0:23:120:23:15

We've got to give Cwrt Malle Farms Limited credit

0:23:150:23:19

because since we've started the campaign, he has started to inject

0:23:190:23:25

his slurry which has lessened the smells the village is getting.

0:23:250:23:31

Howell Richards might face planning problems,

0:23:310:23:34

but the vet who visits his farm twice a week has no concerns

0:23:340:23:38

about the welfare of his 1,800-strong herd.

0:23:380:23:41

Cows are naturally inquisitive.

0:23:410:23:44

As you can see, cows are that happy, they are inquisitive.

0:23:450:23:48

These cows are not, have no problems with lameness, you know,

0:23:480:23:53

they look healthy, they're in good condition.

0:23:530:23:56

But good animal husbandry isn't a matter for the planners.

0:23:560:24:00

If they won't approve the shed's construction retrospectively,

0:24:000:24:04

Howell Richards could be forced to demolish them.

0:24:040:24:08

Removing the only mega-dairy operating in Wales.

0:24:080:24:11

But what's the future of the Welsh dairy industry?

0:24:120:24:15

Low-input grazing or a high-input industrial approach?

0:24:150:24:19

Pint-sized or super-sized?

0:24:190:24:21

Alun Davies has the task of shaping the future agricultural policy of Wales.

0:24:240:24:28

When I look at the Welsh dairy industry,

0:24:280:24:30

what I see is an industry with absolutely enormous potential.

0:24:300:24:34

When you look at the amount of milk that's actually produced in Wales,

0:24:340:24:38

what you see is a great success story.

0:24:380:24:40

Farming is a very diverse industry and we see that in Wales

0:24:400:24:43

perhaps more so than in other parts of the United Kingdom

0:24:430:24:46

and other parts of Europe.

0:24:460:24:48

We're always going to see, I hope, a central role for the family farm.

0:24:480:24:52

I think that's the backbone of rural life in Wales in many different ways.

0:24:520:24:56

We will see other farms which are different in scale

0:24:560:24:59

and different in nature

0:24:590:25:01

but I don't see my role as a minister to make value judgments

0:25:010:25:06

about what is good, what is bad, which way the industry should go.

0:25:060:25:10

Also attending the Royal Welsh Show

0:25:100:25:13

and prepared to voice strong views on the right future for the industry

0:25:130:25:17

was the author and broadcaster, Graham Harvey.

0:25:170:25:20

Basically these intensive systems are unsustainable because

0:25:200:25:23

to grow the feeds, the cereal crops to feed the animals on,

0:25:230:25:26

you have to have lots of fertilisers, pesticides

0:25:260:25:29

and these need oil.

0:25:290:25:30

Which makes the whole system very oil dependent.

0:25:320:25:35

Grass-based systems are much more self-sustained,

0:25:350:25:39

much more sustainable.

0:25:390:25:40

Farmers who produce milk on lower output systems,

0:25:400:25:44

the inputs in terms of fertilisers and pesticides are much lower

0:25:440:25:47

which means that farms can be profitable year after year.

0:25:470:25:51

Unless farmers embrace technology and move with the times,

0:25:530:25:58

then there won't be farming in Wales, simple as that,

0:25:580:26:00

because we'll just import everything from Europe or wherever.

0:26:000:26:06

The worrying thing for UK dairy, I feel,

0:26:080:26:13

is that 40% of all dairy products now are imported.

0:26:130:26:18

Which is a horrific figure

0:26:180:26:20

when you think about a country like the UK with 70 million people.

0:26:200:26:25

In Wales grass is the great natural resource.

0:26:250:26:28

Something like 90% of the land is under grass

0:26:280:26:31

and it's a no-brainer to feed grass to cows.

0:26:310:26:34

It's the cheapest feed for cows, it produces the healthiest animals

0:26:340:26:38

and it actually produces the most nutritious milk.

0:26:380:26:41

So why would we not use grass?

0:26:410:26:43

There's nothing as more pleasing to the eye than seeing a herd of cows

0:26:430:26:49

coming out of the milking parlour,

0:26:490:26:51

being let out into the field and frisking like young ponies.

0:26:510:26:57

People have a very romantic view of farming, I think,

0:26:570:27:00

and you can talk a lot about, you know,

0:27:000:27:03

people who like to see animals go out to grass and all the rest of it

0:27:030:27:08

but ultimately it's a business

0:27:080:27:10

and a lot of it boils down to the milk price.

0:27:100:27:13

We could put another two or three pence easily on a litre of milk

0:27:130:27:17

for the farmers and the farmers wouldn't expand so much.

0:27:170:27:21

Wouldn't be as intensive.

0:27:210:27:23

You can't blame the farmers,

0:27:230:27:25

they've been forced into this position by the price of milk.

0:27:250:27:30

We're paying more for a small bottle of water than what we do for a litre of milk.

0:27:300:27:34

There's got to be something wrong in that, isn't there?

0:27:340:27:37

If the proposals for mega-dairies are successful I think

0:27:370:27:41

that'll set a very dangerous precedent.

0:27:410:27:43

It'll also undermine the integrity of our milk.

0:27:430:27:46

Who wants milk to be viewed on our supermarket shelves with

0:27:460:27:51

the same suspicion that is currently afforded to battery eggs.

0:27:510:27:55

Hopefully in 10 years' time we'll still be milking and making

0:27:550:27:59

a reasonable profit and we're still producing what the consumer wants.

0:27:590:28:04

Erm, but I think we all need a price increase from our customers

0:28:040:28:10

to maintain that, really, yes.

0:28:100:28:11

Or a fair price against the cost of production.

0:28:110:28:14

Cos the end of the day, the public dictate to the supermarkets

0:28:140:28:18

and the supermarket dictate to us.

0:28:180:28:21

it's not really, the farmers quite often say

0:28:210:28:24

"It's the supermarket's fault,"

0:28:240:28:26

but at the end of the day they're only reacting to the public.

0:28:260:28:30

The public have got the power.

0:28:300:28:31

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