Animal welfare concerns the healthy life of farm animals and the major questions asked by them include: –
- Is the animal able to live a healthy life?
- How’s the functioning of the animal in that environment?
- Do the animals get a reasonably natural life?
Most people who are associated with animal welfare, address the first question primarily which includes checking for poor growth rates, diseases, reproductive problems, injury and many more.
However, some people also take into consideration the emotional state of the animal whether they live in fear, stay hungry or experience pain regularly. Others worry about whether the farm animals can live a relatably natural life.
Now let’s look at the role of Animal Welfare in dairy farming including the impact on the quality of the milk and the ethical considerations of raising animals for Food.
Animal Welfare in Dairy Farming
Dairy cows are a significant part of the ecology of animal welfare, economic utilities, and sound food production. A large part of it concerns itself with the reformation and identification of ethical guidelines.
The three facets of animal welfare are also there in the official definitions as stated by the WHO – animal health means when an animal is in good animal welfare meaning it is in a healthy, well-nourished, safe and comfortable place where the animal can express its natural behaviour while not undergoing any kind of pain, distress or fear.
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Biological Functioning With Respect to Health
It is uncontroversial that good health is important for good welfare. Measure that helps solve the problems of biological functioning has become a reasonable factor to consider. For example, if you look at the high mortality rate of dairy cows in a certain area, you can discern from the information that poor life quality is the reason behind it.
Milk-fed calves have a high level of mortality rate and one can verify this from the USDA, 2017 survey. It is quite noticeable that farmers as well as producers would benefit greatly if the mortality rate decreases. Some farms are in great need of advanced management procedures which can elevate their farming process.
Without a doubt, one can take the mortality and morbidity to be a sure sign of the quality of health and welfare. Organizations assess the health of certain farm cattle with the use of these subtle indicators. This way they can detect diseases in animals beforehand and take measures accordingly. For example, the stats give an indication of whether a farm is harbouring cows that are prone to illness, and from there they can provide assistance to make the cow’s life better by treating them before their demise.
Surveys and statistics proved that poor welfare will inevitably lead to low milk production. Vice versa, if a farm has higher milk production then it is obvious that their animal welfare is good. There are a lot of reasons why poor welfare of the animal can lead to the farm producing lower quality and quantity of milk.
Cows need metabolic energy to boost their immune system in order to fight any illness. But illness may result in the cow intaking a lesser amount of ration. Since the source gets a limitation tag, the immune function requires energy to survive. The body of the cow then holds the production of the milk and focuses on getting better.
Studies by Grohn and Huzzley are proof that cows with diseases produce less amount of milk. For example, a cow who had metritis produced 8 kilograms per day less within the 1st 3 weeks of lactation.
Naturally, cows can live up to 20 years or more healthily. The dairy cows are killed for meat after three or four lactations as their productivity goes down and sometimes the cows got infertile or lame.
Now, there are various factors affecting the welfare issues of dairy cows.
Lameness, Diseases, Mastitis and Reproductive Problem
In the whole world, the lameness of dairy cows is a tormenting problem. Various conditions contribute to the lameness of cows and some of those are sole ulcers, digital dermatitis, hoof lesions and laminitis. Again, these bacterial infectious diseases can be caused due to impractical foot trimming, bad quality floors for cows, longtime standing on concrete floors and insufficient nutrition. Furthermore, metabolic diseases and mastitis may arise from lameness as added problems in dairy cows’ welfare.
As a painful result of cows’ bacterial diseases, inflammation of the udder, mastitis is widespread. Contaminated bedding or milking equipment may account for infection in the cow’s udder with bacteria of mastitis. This is the reason why cows kept in the pasture are less likely to be infected than are housed for a prolonged time period.
In dairy, infertility of cows is one of the major problems that affect the productivity of that dairy. Poor body, poor nutrition and stress can cause infertility among cows, resulting in a threat to the welfare of dairy cows.
Housing
As cows are kept housed most of the time, they are not exposed to the natural setting much and they can’t exercise or act naturally, though indoors is necessary during bad weather. So, it’s important to arrange well-designed housing for the welfare of dairy cows. Highly humid conditions, crowding and poor ventilation can set up high infection among cows.
Also, rest is necessary for cows. Particularly, during lactating, cows need to lie somewhere comfortably. Insufficient bedding on concrete floors and small cubicles for cows may develop lameness and mastitis. If floors are hard, that will be problematic for lame cows to stand and walk. Cows may get slipped and injured when floors are excreted and wet.
Diet
Cows live on grasses and they graze naturally in the pastures. So, cows get access to lots of fibre that is required in their diet. But in high-yielding dairies, cows are fed more nutritious food with more concentrates. This type of diet for a long time causes acidosis in cows and acidosis can lead to laminitis and diarrhoea.
In a natural setting, calves get to suckle their mothers for almost a year, making a great bond with their mothers. But in commercial settings, calves are taken away within hours of birth from mother cows. This contributes to distress in both the mother cow and the calf and leads to poor physical and social development of the calf.
Generally, female calves are kept as a milking herd. In the case of male cows, as they can’t give milk, considering them as surplus to the dairy they are shot to death after birth or sold for beef.
Cooperation between the RSPCA and the dairy industry is making sure now that male calves are reared for meat, not shot to death.
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Slaughtering Dairy Cows
When the productivity of the cows in the dairy industry becomes less or when the cows have serious health issues, they are sent to slaughterhouses.
More humane alternative ideas should be introduced to the welfare of dairy cows.
The Bottom Line
Good animal welfare is necessary for the dairy farming industry to blossom as we can clearly notice a significant reduction in milk production due to poor animal welfare. Producers implemented short-term changes to which the cows have responded well against stressful events. For the dairy industry to survive, it needs to take into consideration the welfare of the cows as well as the impact on the environment so that it can optimize the demand and supply ratio.
