Brexit likely to create a rise in UK megafarms

Smaller farms may be squeezed out if farmers switch to vast, intensive facilities due to the pressures the industry faces from leaving the EU, say farmers and campaigners

Leaving the EU is likely to lead to an increase in the number of megafarms dominating the British countryside, campaigners and farmers agree, with far-reaching effects for farms, consumers and those who live in the countryside.

The huge intensive farms, in which as many as 1.7 million animals may be kept on a single holding, are an increasingly common, but controversial, feature of UK agriculture. The pressures of Brexit on farming are likely to cause more farmers to move to such facilities in order to lower the costs of meat production, and may squeeze smaller more traditional farms out of the market, potentially changing the UK's landscape forever.