“The animals should be healthy. The animals should be kept and maintained in a good environment. "

So it says in Arla's quality program.

But Mission Review and SVT News Gävleborg have gained access to a newly made film that shows a completely different reality. It is filmed from one of the over 2600 farms supplying milk to Arla in Sweden - and one of the larger dairy farms in Hälsingland.

The film should have been made less than two months ago, in early December.

The pictures show how many of the dairy cows are forced to wade around and lie in a thick layer of urine and faeces. In addition, several extremely lean animals are visible.

- I who have been county veterinarian for many years, I have to say that this is among the worst I have seen, says Margareta Stéen, associate professor of veterinary medicine at the National Center for Animal Welfare at the Swedish National Agricultural University, SLU.

SVT has spoken to a number of former employees and others with insight into the business. Over the years, the farm has had a large proportion of foreign labor, mainly from Eastern Europe. Many of them testify to constant conflicts regarding wages and working hours - but also about poor animal husbandry.

- I saw that the animals were not treated well by those responsible. The owner was not involved in running the farm. He did not care, says a former employee who worked for a short period on the farm.

A large number of villagers have written protest lists against how the owner manages the farm and the animals.

- The biggest problem I think for us who live here is that the owner does not care for the animals he has. This summer I already reacted a lot to the fact that some people looked way too skinny, says one person.

SVT has taken pictures of some of the farm's cows from the summer of 2019.

"You see here that this has started to melt your muscles to get nutrition," says Kalle Hammarberg, a retired veterinarian, when he gets to see the pictures.

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Experts at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have also reviewed and analyzed the images. They have classified the cows in the pictures as "very lean" and "unacceptably lean".

Since 2010, the County Administrative Board in Gävleborg has received 38 notifications against the farm and the owner. Deficiencies have been noted several times.

Among other things, it has been about cows that have been too dirty and in holes, ie lean.

Jenny Larsson, Head of Unit at the County Administrative Board in Gävleborg, does not want to comment on the newly made film more than generally, because she says she does not know where it is filmed.

Do you think it is dirty on these pictures?

- Yes, in these pictures, or in this movie, I think it is too dirty in this barn. Absolutely.

In the follow-up checks, the County Administrative Board found that the previous deficiencies had been rectified.

Obviously, you still see lean and dirty animals even though it's been so long. Shouldn't you have acted more?

- No, I think we have acted in the way we should act as regulators. We have made checks and demanded action. Then it is also the case that the entrepreneur must have a right to have time to correct it.

A report of animal cruelty and environmental crimes came to the police this summer and a preliminary investigation has been started. During the autumn, the county administrative board made two checks on the farm where deficiencies were identified and demanded that they be remedied.

The farm owner does not want to answer SVT's questions about the animals and the farm but refers to LRF, the Swedish National Farmers' Association. But neither do they answer any questions about animal husbandry.

Arla has refused to interview and says they do not want to discuss a single individual in the media, citing, inter alia, that the farmer is not a company. The dairy giant also writes in an e-mail that they had previously been temporarily suspended by the milk delivery from the farm and that they had recently done an audit which did not show any serious deficiencies.