American-style farming techniques are threatening to revolutionize the British dairy industry, and not everybody's happy about it. Nocton Dairies is seeking approval for an 8,100-cow facility near the village of Nocton in Lincolnshire. Nocton's owners say they will keep pollution out of their watershed, and they'll keep the cows clean and happy. (Britons are especially sensitive to animal comfort. PETA, the Humane League, et al are pretty much minor league players compared to British animal rights activists.) Nocton says they'll be adding 85 jobs to the local economy - which could use the jobs - and they'll be using manure digester technology to generate electricity to run the farm with enough left over to sell to the national grid. It would be the biggest of the UK's 13,500 dairy farmers, where the average herd numbers 114. Only 94 of the current dairy operations have more than 500 cows. There's a story in The Economist about the stir the plans are causing, and you can read it here: http://www.economist.com/node/16793059?story_id=16793059


     Using antibiotics to not just cure but to prevent livestock disease is a perennial hot button topic. at last week's Penn State Ag Progress Days, Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres sat in on a session with Penn State Extension veterinarian David Wolfgang as he explained what he feels are the pluses and minuses - mostly pluses - of treating sick animals and also of treating animals with subtherapeutic doses to keep them from getting sick. You can read the report in our current print edition, or check it out at our new website, which is here: http://lfg.live.mediaspanonline.com/assets/4940567/A01LFWE-082110_1.pdf

     Hoops at the White House. (Not what you think.) Saw this first on our new website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07vtMJgp0no