There are horrors hiding behind every bottle of milk and block of cheese, which the dairy industry rarely acknowledges nevermind takes responsibility for. While it publicly boasts of sustainability and welfare, the truth is that modern dairy farming is a system engineered around profit. At its core, it is a machine built to extract everything from a cow: her milk, her space, her health and her young until she is no longer economically profitable.

And nowhere is this more obvious than in the way the industry builds the sheds meant to house her. Recently, farmers have explored the financial benefits of switching to three row cubicle sheds instead of the standard two row. What does this mean? Even less room for the cows trapped on a zero-grazing farm.

A Prison Built to Maximise Output

Modern dairy sheds are not designed for cows. They are designed for spreadsheets and profit margins. Whether it’s a two-row or a three-row system, the debate always comes back to the same question: how many cows can they cram in without breaking the law or dropping production too much? It’s not about wellbeing. It’s about money. 

Adding more cubicles and tightening passageways might save a few hundred pounds per cow in construction. But it also means less space to lie down, eat, drink, or even move freely. The cow, a living being, is reduced to a milk-producing unit and her needs calculated in centimetres and litres. Feed space? Just enough to meet minimums. Water troughs? Placed wherever they won’t interfere with the flow of the milking schedule. Comfort? Only if it translates into more milk. And when things go wrong and the industry is exposed, it never takes responsibility. 

Zero-Grazing is Becoming the Norm, Not the Exception

Dairies where cows do not have access to pasture are fast becoming the popular, most profitable, choice. Around one in five dairy farms are now zero-grazing, and the publication of more and more articles about how to cut margins and look after the bottom line are indicators that these systems are not going anywhere soon. And this is in the UK where we claim to have 'high animal welfare standards.’ 

The reality is that thousands of dairy cows in the UK are confined indoors their entire lives. This isn’t just a broken system, it’s a violation of their rights. They never feel the sun on their backs. They never graze on grass or walk freely across a field. From birth to death, their lives are controlled, confined, and exploited for milk that was never ours to take.

The industry claims to be sustainable, but sustainable for whom? Certainly not for the animals, who are pushed to physical extremes and discarded when their productivity drops. Not for the calves, who are separated from their mothers and often sent for slaughter or fattening if male. Not for the public, who are sold a sanitised story about happy cows and family farms in imaginary lush green spaces.

We Don’t Need to Farm Animals 

The industry is built on exploitation. The answer isn’t better buildings and housing. It’s a better question: Why are we still doing this at all? It’s time to stop talking about how to make dairy more 'efficient' or ‘cost-effective’ and start confronting what it actually is: an outdated industry that puts money before the most basic rights of animals.

There is no humane way to exploit a cow for milk she didn’t consent to give. There is no ethical way to design a prison cell. So let’s keep exposing this industry, one farm at a time. 

As always,

For the animals! 

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