lSir, I read with interest your recent article regarding the planned "super-dairy" at Nocton in Lincolnshire ('Super-size my farm' p10, The Dairymen supplement, 11 September).
It seems to me that a farm development twice the size of Yeovil Football Club and with more cows than Yeovil Town have fans is not quite the consumer idea of what a British dairy farm should be like.
We do live in an era where farmers are constantly being told to reduce costs and we should all be under no illusions as to what an extreme low cost dairy unit would look like.
There is always a balance between cost and aesthetic feel. It was John Ruskin who said: "There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey."
In many ways the 'Nocton Three' should be lauded as pioneers who have given us a glimpse of what the 'grey squirrel' of British dairy farming will look like. Super-efficient, highly competitive and not particularly attractive, just like the grey squirrel, but ultimately sounding the death knell for its slightly sleepy, inefficient red counterpart.
Should it go ahead, it will be the benchmark against which all dairy farms will be measured and there will be no going back.
In ten years time the family farm may be something that we remember with fondness and occasionally catch a glimpse of while passing through a much changed countryside.
Richard Clothier, managing director, Wyke Farms
It seems to me that a farm development twice the size of Yeovil Football Club and with more cows than Yeovil Town have fans is not quite the consumer idea of what a British dairy farm should be like.
We do live in an era where farmers are constantly being told to reduce costs and we should all be under no illusions as to what an extreme low cost dairy unit would look like.
There is always a balance between cost and aesthetic feel. It was John Ruskin who said: "There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey."
In many ways the 'Nocton Three' should be lauded as pioneers who have given us a glimpse of what the 'grey squirrel' of British dairy farming will look like. Super-efficient, highly competitive and not particularly attractive, just like the grey squirrel, but ultimately sounding the death knell for its slightly sleepy, inefficient red counterpart.
Should it go ahead, it will be the benchmark against which all dairy farms will be measured and there will be no going back.
In ten years time the family farm may be something that we remember with fondness and occasionally catch a glimpse of while passing through a much changed countryside.
Richard Clothier, managing director, Wyke Farms
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