now on bbc news, panorama investigates the dairy industry to find out whether animal welfare is being compromised in the drive to keep milk prices low. this programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. milk�*s as popular as ever, but should we think more about how it's produced? the average yield for a dairy cow daily is about 23, 2a litres a cow. 40% higher than it would have been about 30 years ago. the way the industry keeps the milk flowing is becoming more controversial. they shout and bawl. they'll scream for that baby and pace around the pen. panorama's been given shocking undercover footage from one large dairy farm in the uk. i've seen cows being kicked while they are down. -

i've seen a cow hit- with a shovel in her face. oh, my god, it's going up into the air. that's, that's terrible. intensive farming helps keep milk cheap, but is it now time for us to pay more? we're too used to paying next to nothing for milk and all food products. we just don't value the milk enough to start with. tonight, we ask — what is the true cost of milk? the dairy industry produces 15 billion litres of milk annually, worth £9.2 billion to the economy. but there are growing concerns about the welfare of some of the uk's 1.9

million dairy cows. last year, the campaigning charity animal equality sent an investigator to work undercover on a large dairy farm in wales. they've shared their footage with panorama. some of it is hard to watch. to make sense of it, i'm meeting the man who filmed it. he's asked us to disguise his identity. what was the basic routine at the farm? i was a general worker, assisted with milking and other tasks that are required on the farm. he worked on the farm over a couple of months. one of the first things he saw was a newborn calf being separated

from its mother. the calf, he was still wet, moist from the birth, and the mother cow saw the wheelbarrow, she immediately ran to her calf and started licking him. this calf was born less than an hour before. she was following the wheelbarrow and trying to lick him and touch him. in order to produce milk, dairy cows have to produce a calf every year, and in order that we're able to harvest the milk, the calves are removed from the mothers, usually within the first few hours after birth. professor andrew knight is critical of intensive farming methods. he believes that separating the calves from their mothers causes trauma. the bond between a calf and a mother is a very strong bond and it's very, um, stressful for both the calf and for the mother for the calf to be removed.

watching the calves being quickly separated from their mothers, it's easy to see how you can have an emotional response. but it's a fundamental part of mass milk production and happens on nearly every dairy farm in the uk. i've come to taynton court in gloucestershire. it's a large dairy farm, which has been recognised by the industry for its high welfare standards. they're happy to show me how and why they separate calves at birth. roger blowey is a vet who's been looking after the animals here for a0 years. you can see the cows all lined up, and as soon as there's a space, the cow goes onto the platform. we're here for the first of two daily milkings. over the next few hours, 800 cows will pass through this rotating milking parlour.

we haven't been here long when there's news that a cow is in labour. we head over to the calving shed. do you know how long she's been showing signs, alec? about an hour, hour and a half. how long would you leave it before you maybe intervene? yeah, about this time, hour and a half, two hours. 0h, right, here we go. on examining the cow, there's a surprise in store. now that alec�*s examined it, he finds it's got... there's two heads there. so it's a twin birth. calving plays a vital part in the milk production process. giving birth induces the cow to start producing milk, but little of that milk is destined for her own calves. so the calf is going to be separated from the mother now? the mother is going to be taken in to be milked, so that we get the colostrum from the mother, ready to feed the calves later. oh, i see, yeah.

colostrum is the first milk from the cow and that first milk from the cow contains very high levels of antibodies. it's essential for the calves' early development, but farm workers will then feed it to the calves by hand. by the time their mother returns from milking, they've been moved to another part of the farm. they could be given that by hand and then returned to the mother. they could, and if you did that, you would increase the amount of bonding between the mother and calf, and when the separation comes, then there will be, in my opinion, a greater amount of trauma when the separation eventually comes. once separated, the calves are unlikely to see their mothers again. james griffiths has run

this farm for 30 years. he says while cow—calf separation maximises the milk production, doing it this way is also in the animals' best interests. so is that the best option for the cow and the calf? we absolutely, genuinely believe so. you know, welfare is about health, happiness of the individual and the group. and in this case, even though it might be a tough hit at the start, we think it is the most healthiest thing to do. so to what extent do the consumers who buy the milk in the supermarkets know what's going on, on a dairy farm? i suspect that they have a certain rose—tinted view of dairying in green fields all of the time. these cows go out to green fields every year. they probably don't realise some of the realities of what we do, and how we do it and particularly why we do it. many of us now have a greater interest in where our food comes from and the lives of the farm animals that feed us.

the industry itself acknowledges that cow—calf separation is a difficult issue. how big is your herd? approximately 200... abi reader is a dairy farmer in wales and a board member of the national farmers' union. this is the biggest issue that dairy farms globally are focusing on. most farms will separate calves from cows within the first 24—48 hours. it's a very complex issue. as an industry, we recognise that this is something difficult for consumers to grapple with. it's 5.30 in the morning and i'm in south west scotland, and i'm here to visit a dairy farm where they believe that cows deserve a rather less stressful existence. this is the morning milking at the ethical dairy. here, they allow the calves

to stay with their mothers for five months, and they only milk the cows once a day. charles ellett is in charge of the milking herd. he used to work on a large—scale dairy farm. it doesn't take long for a cow to burn out, which is what, you know, those big herds have problems with. my oldest cow in here is 12 years old. she's just starting her ninth lactation. most cows in commercial systems are gone after four or five. and why is that? because their body just burns out? just burned out. he's had first—hand experience of cow—calf separation. they shout and bawl and, you know, they'll scream for that baby and pace around the pen. the ethical dairy has a herd of 120 cows, owned by farmer david finlay.

we wanted to see, is it possible to create a more natural environment for our animals so that they are relaxed, they are stress—free and they're productive and healthy? you can see over here that the mothers are with the calves and that's, that's unusual, isn't it? er, to say the least. i think the industry predicted that we wouldn't be able to make it work, both in terms of financial and in terms of practical application. david finlay says that, despite much of his cows' milk going to feed their calves, he makes it work financially. the milk he does take from the cows, he turns into profitable artisan cheese and ice cream, instead of selling it on as liquid milk. he also says keeping the calves with their mothers means they grow faster, so he can sell them sooner and keep his costs down. look at the calves. these calves are thriving.

they're growing more than twice as fast because they're consuming loads, loads of their own mother's quality milk. last year was profitable and this year will be more profitable again. unlike the ethical dairy, many dairy farms have to try to make a profit selling only liquid milk. prices have been kept low for years. typically, farmers are paid between 31p and 38p a litre. that means making the cows as productive as possible. we have invested a lot of money in genetics and we have invested a lot of money in health and those two hand in hand just mean we can bring out the best in the cow. the average yield for a dairy cow daily is about 23, 2a litres a cow, which is about 40% higher than it would have been about 30 years ago. a lot of the market is exceptionally price competitive, particularly the sector that we're in, which is the liquid market. and there's a massive range within dairying of those who are making good money

and those who are really, really struggling. when selling liquid milk, the margins are tight across the industry. there are effectively i three legs to the dairy industry in the uk. there's the farmer, there'sl the milk processor and then there's the retailer. the retailers, mostly supermarkets, sell milk cheaply. you can get four pints for around £1.15. i don't believe that- supermarkets view milk, particularly liquid milk, as a profitable sector. i it has been a loss leader. that has to stop. so no—one�*s really making much money out of milk, then? no—one's made a great deal of money out of liquid milk. | over the past few months, though, the price processors have paid farmers for a litre of milk has been rising, due to a shortage in supply. but despite farmers currently getting paid more, many are still struggling as farm costs rise. recent figures show that a quarter of dairy farms are failing to break even.

and there are other challenges to running a dairy farm. on the farm in wales, the undercover worker has noticed some of the cows are limping badly. it was explained to me that the major cause is the huge stress that their body is going through because of the high milk production.

i see these animals being bred every year to produce ever more milk, which is putting their bodies under strain. they get higher rates of lameness. it's already 30% amongst british dairy cattle and it's a very painful condition in the later stages. i showed the footage to vet roger blowey, who i met on the farm in gloucestershire. it would be unusual to find a dairy herd without any lameness, er, like common cold in man. the two factors that probably most affect lameness in cattle is, first of all, calving, and secondly, the amount of standing. being milked frequently means that they have to spend a lot of time on concrete. a dairy cow that's giving a lot of milk probably has to spend six or eight hours a day standing to feed. on the welsh farm, things were taking a darker turn.

the undercover worker sees shovels and other implements used on cows. on other occasions, workers were seen punching cows. and even putting the boot in. i can say that i... i've seen horrible things. the video did not cover it all, absolutely. i missed many events that i would be happy to capture. sometimes dairy cows lose their footing and can't get up. when this happens, there's a race against time to get them back on their feet before they suffer permanent nerve damage. it's especially challenging in a confined space like the milking parlour.

instead of letting her calm down and maybe try to pull her in a gentle way, the first reaction was to kick her forcefully in the flank, in the stomach. the second reaction of other worker was to kick her in the back and the consensus was that to pull her tailforcibly is the right thing to do. the kicking only stopped once the cow was finally freed. what's your view? that what he was doing was totally unnecessary and unwarranted. you would certainly do something to encourage her to stand up.

i might have just sort of given her a footer. give her front foot a poke or something like that. so i can see the extreme frustration to the people that are there because the cow is down and the cow clearly has to be moved. they're kicking that cow pretty hard at the moment. it's abuse, it's inhumane, this should not be occurring. other methods were also used for dealing with downed cows. a hip hoist can be used on farms to help cows regain their footing. correct procedure is that the hip hoist is applied to the hip bones, gently, carefully and with skill and with a light touch. when the workers had to move a stricken cow to an area where there was straw underfoot to help her keep upright, this light touch seemed to be absent. the cow's meant to be raised to the point where it can just stand and then the hip hoist

is supposed to be immediately released and the cow's supposed to be supported gently on either side. the cow was struggling to balance herself. she was just banging her head over the concrete again and again. howling while the worker were laughing. this poor cow's having its face dragged along the concrete. oh, my god, it's going up into the air. that's, that's terrible. that's very obviously abuse. the worker is joking about it. what is not supposed to happen is that the cow's raised into the air using the hip hoist, which can significantly damage the bone and the soft tissues, causing further trauma. not to mention the amount of fear this cow must be enduring. farm vet roger blowey had a rather different take on the footage. what's being done there is, in, in my experience, would be

fairly common practice. is there not a potential to damage the hips? i suppose there must be a potential, but i mean, it's done so commonly without any damage. and isn't it also likely that the cow is in some distress or pain when that's happening? absolutely, definitely. yeah. yeah, definitely. so what you have to balance is the stress and the pain of that over a short period of time to be put into a nice environment versus the alternative, which would be to be left where she was. when animals are beyond help, the law requires them to be put out of their suffering promptly. but that didn't always happen on this farm. this cow was severely ill and in need of attention. a vet who was treating another cow at the farm was asked about it. have you seen the other cow? the vet that was present acknowledged that they are suffering and advised prompt

euthanasia. but instead of paying the vet to euthanise the dying cow there and then, the cow was left until a slaughterman could put it down the following day. it means she was suffering almost 2a hours from the time we saw her. i would've expected them to have got the vet, erm, to have euthanised the cow. erm, but even more surprising, i would've expected there would be somebody on farm who was capable of doing that sort of thing. as soon as reasonably possible. we took the undercover footage

from the farm in wales to a barrister who's handled many animal abuse prosecutions. so that's hitting a cow with a shovel? yes, quite clearly, that would constitute an offence and we would prosecute something like that. it's basically an assault against the animal. it's quite a hard watch, that, actually, isn't it? it is. there's no good reason for kicking the animal while it's stricken. it's going to cause, especially to the stomach, some unnecessary suffering and pain. so a likely breach of the law? yes. a hip hoist is a valuable tool for a farmer to use to get a stricken cow back up on its feet. the circumstances in which it's been used here are quite inappropriate. is it likely to be something that might be prosecuted? potentially, yes. what's your overall view of what you've seen?

we've got a number of different types of criminal offences. it's frankly not an acceptable way to deal with cattle. we wrote to the owner of the welsh farm. his lawyers told us, if workers had punched and kicked animals, a "disciplinary process would start immediately". they say the farm continues to invest "with particular regard to animal health and welfare". the uk dairy industry says it has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. as well as government regulations, 95% of dairy farms in the uk are signed up to an industry—run assurance scheme called red tractor. where red tractor comes in is that is a voluntary assurance scheme and that is one that, as dairy farmers, we would sign up to, and that is a, a scheme with an add—on so it goes over and above the regulations that the country sets on us.

the farm in wales is red tractor—assured, but for most commercial dairy farms, red tractor�*s animal welfare standards are considered to be the industry minimum. for us, it's almost a background noise, so it's a pretty low bar. it's not a big issue for us one way or another. who's driving increasing standards of welfare in the industry, then? the dairies, that they're feeling pressure from who they're selling milk to, to make sure that they can get traceability and accountability from the farms that are supplying them. processors, or dairies, who demand extra standards from the farms who supply them tend to pay them more for their milk. that money can then be used by the farmers to enhance welfare standards even further. farms that are receiving a better price have got a much better opportunity to progress quicker in terms of meeting their aspirational animal health and welfare targets. even just one extra penny on a litre will enable a farmer to upgrade,

or take advantage of new technology that's out, to make sure the cows are getting the best care that they can. so where does the milk from the cows on the welsh farm go? freshways supplies a lot of milk into the service industry, including to big brands such as british airways and costa coffee. historically, freshways has been one of the lower payers. they are taking advantage of the contract that they've got with their farmer and passing all too often the price pressures back down the line on to that farmer who is supplying them, and it's something that, as an industry, we're trying to stop happening. we've analysed the amount that freshways has paid farmers over the last seven years, and they've regularly been one of the lower payers.

what that means is, for example, for a farm that produces two million litres of a milk a year, if they'd been selling to one of the five best—paying processors instead of freshways, they'd have made around £240,000 more over that seven—year period. freshways says it "has a track record of paying suppliers a competitive milk price" and "has been paying a leading price to suppliers since last october." it says red tractor aligns with its own expectations of welfare standards. red tractor says its scheme is "the bedrock of progressive farming in britain" and "animal welfare is core to all that we do". we wanted to find out how recently the welsh farm has been inspected, so we contacted red tractor and two government inspectorates — the food standards agency and the animal and plant health agency. after we got in touch, all three carried out unannounced inspections

at the farm. red tractor would only say that the farm is currently a member of its assurance scheme. we understand that neither of the government agencies identified any animal welfare concerns. animal equality has reported the welsh farm to the local council and asked it to investigate their findings. last year, parliament approved a new law which increases the maximum prison sentences for those abusing animals from six months to five years. the government is also trying to introduce another piece of legislation — the animal sentience bill. it's really important that we recognise that they are sentient, that they've got the capacity to experience positive and negative emotions, that they may have strong social bonds with one another. in scotland, farmer david finlay says he has faced hostility for doing things differently.

we're seen as fairly toxic by the industry now. there's very few dairy farms that will speak to me, and i'll probably be related to most of them. if we can make this work, then the question obviously is, why isn't everyone doing it? critics of intensive milk production believe only customers can drive change. consumer pressure is so important because ultimately, unfortunately, money talks and the industry will do whatever is necessary to ensure that people buy their products. farmers themselves acknowledge that even the fundamentals of dairy farming, like separating new—born calves from their mothers, may have to change. this is where the majority of research is going at the minute, and who knows, in 20 to 30 years' time, it may not happen. the key thing is, as an industry, if that's what the consumer wants, that's what we will provide.

as consumers, we've all got used to cheap milk. over the past ten years, the price has barely gone up at all. we must learn from the egg industry. i people are prepared - to pay a few more pennies to have the free—range eggs. that is coming with dairy. some people will pay additional money for their milk _ and dairy products. milk is far too cheap. sometimes i look at the cows and think it's an insult to see it being sold at the rate that it is. it would be nice to have an option to think, yes, i will buy this milk at a higher price because i know that it's guaranteeing those standards. if the price of contented farmers and their cows is a few extra pence on a litre of milk, the question is, are we willing to pay more?

this is bbc news, i'm david eades. our top stories... settled out of court — prince andrew reaches a deal with virginia giuffre, with no admission of liability, after she accused him of sexual assault. russia claims it has withdrawn some of its troops from the border with ukraine. president biden says allied action will be swift if moscow orders an invasion. if russia attacks ukraine they will be met with overwhelming international condemnation. the world will not forget that russia chose needless death and destruction. in a legalfirst, an american gun company has been held liable for the sandy hook mass shooting in which 26 students and staff lost their lives. and the american author and satirist, pj o'rourke has

died at the age of 7a.