article_snippet.sent: The new free-for-all will promote dairy factory farms, where super-size Holstein cows have been bred to produce more milk than any calf could drink in order to cut production costs.
article_snippet.sent: The industrialisation of dairy farming has seen the number of UK farms producing milk fall from 50,000 to 14,116 over the last 30 years.
article_snippet.sent: At the same time the average herd has risen from 64 cows to 134.
article_snippet.sent: The average milk production from Holstein dairy cows, which have been labelled ‘udders on legs’, has risen by 55per cent to 7,327 litres per animal per year – around 12,900 pints.
article_snippet.sent: In some cases this has been done through selective breeding programmes designed to create supersize cows, which are bulked up with high protein feed and kept inside for much of the year in what are known as ‘zero grazing’ barns.
article_snippet.sent: Europe could see more factory farms with 1,000, 2,000 or even 5,000 cows, merely providing raw materials for the industry,’ she said.