Because farm animal
well-being works.

Animal welfare offers a vital lens through which to explore the economies, culture and politics of food. From the practicalities and limitations of establishing a basic standard of care for livestock, to the ethics of selling welfare as a product in the supermarket, it is worth exploring how animal welfare is defined, advocated, assessed and implemented by farmers, veterinarians, distributors, and consumers. 

Sensor technologies could revolutionise global dairy farming in a positive way. There are significant barriers but also benefits to animal wellbeing, profitability and sustainability that could result if the technologies are implemented to a significant extent.

Several indicators have been developed to assess farm animal welfare, and several specific protocols have been proposed for welfare evaluation. Most of the indicators, however, focus on the negative aspects of animal welfare (e.g., lameness, lesions, diseases, etc.). To guarantee high welfare standards, animals should also experience positive conditions that allow them to live a life that is really worth living.

The assessment of the welfare of cows involves audits that are time-consuming and expensive, as welfare is a complex multidimensional phenomenon. Integration of valid and reliable precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies is needed to allow for real-time assessment of farm animal well-being. Data collected during on-farm monitoring has high potential to assess different aspects of cattle welfare, and currently available technologies can provide animalbased welfare information.

In contrast to the intensive nature of dairy production, where cows may be housed in sheds or feedlots for large parts of their lives, most Australian dairy cattle spend at least part of the day grazing or foraging on pasture. When pictures of pretty scenes with cows eating grass are shown to consumers, they associate this with good animal welfare. However, beautiful scenery can be misleading, and there are animal welfare challenges associated with pasture-based farming, especially as herds increase in size.

Housing facilities, management and husbandry practices, and handling…there are many ways in which farmers can affect the welfare of the animals in their care. Some management systems are designed to be convenient for our human uses, but how do we make sure farm animals have the best lives possible? Studying the biology and behavior of dairy cows may help us better meet the animals’ needs while making farms more efficient and consumers less wary.

Detection of emotional states through automatic decoding of facial expressions is an emerging area of investigation with potential applications in health care. The variation in facial expression can provide a clue for occurrence of pain and help when the patients cannot verbally describe or rate their level of pain. But how can this work with cows?

Interactions between animals and their human caretakers play a significant role in the overall welfare of both the livestock and their stewards. In modern farming systems, the quality of human-animal interactions can have a profound impact on the productivity and welfare of farm animals. It is influenced by the attitude and behaviour of stockpeople, as well as their technical skills, knowledge, job motivation, commitment and job satisfaction.

Stockpeople’s attitude towards their animals is directly associated with their behavior during handling and rough practices can negatively affect animal welfare, increasing animals’ fear towards humans. On the other hand, when the animals experience positive interactions with humans, they become less fearful, which, in turn, facilitates handling.