Opposition is mounting over a plan to farm 8,100 cows in "battery conditions" at Britain's largest dairy – a complex of indoor hangars that protesters say will match the carbon emissions of 3,000 homes.

Everything from pollution worries to possible damage to Roman remains is being thrown into the fight to stop the 22-acre development in Lincolnshire, which is set to revolutionise milk production methods.

The consortium of dairy farmers behind the idea, linking herds in Lancashire, Devon and Lincolnshire, says the unit will be a "flagship for the industry" as well as set new standards in animal welfare.

But groups led by Viva, the Vegetarians International Voice for Animals, call the proposal "an environmental disaster, condemning animals to dark sheds for most of their lives".

Protesters have until Wednesday to submit views to North Kesteven district council, which has received a detailed application from the consortium, Nocton Dairies. The group proposes bedding the cows on sand, continuously cleaned and recycled, and feeding them on locally grown lucerne and maize.

The firm says that when in milk the animals would be kept indoors, "free to roam in open-sided, airy, sheds", but when dry would be allowed outside to pasture.

Nocton spent two years looking for a site before choosing Nocton Heath, five miles south of Lincoln, where the £40m indoor complex would be surrounded by 21,500 acres to grow the feed and recycle manure from the cattle.

Nocton said: "The dairy has been designed to a level beyond the highest environmental and animal welfare standards ever seen in the UK. The cow's health is the single most important factor in this or any other dairy. The Nocton Dairy has been designed with the health and welfare of the cow to be unparalleled in any dairy probably in the world."

The animals' diet would be supplemented with by-products from a sugar beet factory at Newark and an ethanol and biofuel plant planned for Immingham. Nocton says that slurry would be fed into an anaerobic digester, producing 2MW of power for the plant and 2,000 local homes. They also propose a visitor centre and facilities for schools.

Robert Howard, a local farmer and part of the consortium, said: "Nothing this ambitious has been attempted in western Europe – let alone this part of Lincolnshire. It provides all of the neighbouring farms with an opportunity to work together and represents a massive investment into the local economy."

The application promises 80 jobs and production of close to half a million pints every 24 hours.

Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager for Viva, said: "Can dairy farming in the UK sink any lower? This blows out of the water the supposedly bucolic, pastoral image the industry likes to portray.

He accused Nocton of moving towards "American-style zero grazing" and said that approval by North Kesteven would prove the thin end of that wedge.

"We have already imprisoned chickens, ducks and turkeys in massive concrete sheds. Can we really be so stupid and reckless that we are forcing dairy cows to join the factory farmed millions?"