Because farm animal
well-being works.

Veterinarians consider maintaining health and controlling pain a priority for ensuring good well-being on farm. Consumers are more concerned about “lack of naturalness” and perceived cruelty. A better understanding of the differences in perception may be beneficial for facilitating public debate and improving communication between beef and dairy producers and citizens.

Veterinarians may make assumptions that producers don’t want to spend money to improve the well-being of their animals. Such assumptions are often false perceptions. Testimony of a practice that has set up a successful strategy around animal welfare.

Although ensuring animal well-being may for some stakeholders be perceived as an ethical rather than an economic discussion, there are some direct production benefits from pain relief and better well-being. Ensuring proper animal husbandry can be a first step and improved production outcomes can be the first argument to convince a cattle producer.

Pain, whether caused by disease or management procedures, causes some behavioral changes in the cow which may indirectly have its repercussions on production. On overview of the current scientific knowledge on the short and long-term benefits of pain relief in dairy and beef production.

Weaning is an extra-ordinary stressful moment in a young calf’s life. Knowing the mechanisms by which stress interferes with immunity helps to change strategies which will benefit both health and welfare of the calf.

New technologies such as activity meters, calf feeders or data recordings on milking machines have become broadly available on dairy farms. The data they provide have a tremendous potential to record and improve well-being on today’s dairies.

In surveys, consumers identify animal welfare as a top priority in their buying decisions. However, buying behavior does not reflect that. Including compromise products in the assortment leads to a reduction in the market share of meat produced at minimum welfare standards and less consumers who refrain from choosing meat.

In past times, more people had a direct connection to farming and understood how meat or milk is produced. Farmer’s didn’t have to explain why they do certain things. Now the majority of people live in urban areas. Moving forward, beef and dairy producers will need to invest more in communication in order to guarantee their “social license to produce”.

Animal welfare is currently driven by consumer pressure in industrialized countries. How does that fit into a global market where food is more and more produced in countries where animal welfare is not a concern of society?

The economic benefit of improving welfare and animal well-being is not just the potential of higher production benefits. Producers should consider it a way to open new markets or secure their existing market.