However, Federated Farmers national president Don Nicolson has supported the right of farmers to submit such resource consent applications, saying ever-tighter regional council and national rules might force other farmers to consider that type of farming.
In a statement, Dr Norman said keeping cows in cubicles was a "radical departure" from New Zealand's tradition of farming stock outside and on pasture and could do immense harm to the country's clean, green international brand.
"Once word gets out to overseas consumers that New Zealand butter comes from factory farms, there goes our competitive advantage," Dr Norman said.
He said Federated Farmers leadership, in May, was extolling the virtues of free-range grass-fed dairy cows and how it was New Zealand's competitive advantage.
"Now they're defending the arrival of factory-farm dairying . . . it's contradictory and duplicitous."
In three separate applications, Five Rivers, Southdown Holdings and Williamson Holdings propose housing cows 24 hours a day from March to October, and 12 hours a day from November to February.
In a statement, Mr Nicolson said people needed to "take a deep breath".
The applications would have to go through a full resource consent process.
"From what I see, it's a European-style of agriculture being applied to a European style of climate.
"The Mackenzie Basin supports rapid grass growth over summer but also has harsh winters.
"Yet it's the right of every single landowner to make an application and let due process test the validity of that application."
"The Greens can't have it both ways.
"They wish to see pastoral free-range farming controlled, yet oppose applications that are fairly much as controlled as you can get," he said.
European Union regulations for "loose housed" dairy cows required each animal to have at least 6sq m of indoor and 4.5sq m of outdoor space.
Cows must also have easy access to feed and water, ventilation, freedom to move and access to pasture, he said.
"This style of closed cycle farming can, for example, be put into bio-digesters with the resulting biogas used to power the farm, offsetting farm animal emissions.
"Surplus energy could be sold into the national grid and all the while, nutrient loss is minimised," he said.
When contacted, Federated Farmers national dairy section chairman Lachlan McKenzie said the Green Party was trying to say keeping cows in cubicles was the same as pigs in sow crates "and that's absolute rubbish".
Dairy housing enabled cows to walk in, lie down and, if they wanted to, get up and go out for a drink and food which they were free to do.
Around the world, "everybody's doing it" and there were now "heaps" of indoor operations in New Zealand.
North Otago SPCA chairwoman Aveley Gameson said the applications had not been brought to the branch's attention and she could not comment until it had the facts.
