Question
Does the Minister agree that a 3,700-cow mega dairy in Lincolnshire will be as much of a nail in the coffin for the competitiveness of small British dairy farmers as the unopposed arm lock of the supermarkets over farmers with their milk prices?
Answer
My Lords, I am not going to comment on individual applications by individual farmers or farming groups for their own planning consents, but the point that should be made in terms of our own interests in this is that the welfare of the animal must always be supreme. We believe that with proper stockmanship and so on, the welfare of animals can be maintained on big farms as well as on small farms.