Huge rise in factory-style dairy farming of ‘battery cows’ in UK as costs rise

Data suggests at least 180 dairy farms do not give cows access to the outdoors, up from 70 in a decade. Photograph: Ann and Steve Toon/Alamy

There has been a huge rise in factory-style dairy farming of “battery cows” in the UK as farmers struggle with increasing costs and face selling milk at a loss.

The number of intensive dairy farms that permanently confine some of their cattle indoors has more than doubled in the past 10 years, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) has found. Data suggests there are now at least 180 dairy farms where cows have no access to the outdoors, up from about 70 in 2015.