Dairy animal welfare in New Zealand

Public concern for the welfare of farmed animals is increasing. While New Zealand is often considered progressive in terms of its animal welfare legislation, we are not devoid of welfare issues when it comes to the management of animals within our food production systems. When considering dairy animals, cattle are often the main focus; however, dairy goats and dairy sheep are both emerging industries within New Zealand. Therefore, this report will encompass all three species.

Determining priority issues of animal welfare is critical to ensure limited funding and research is focused in the most appropriate areas, and to ultimately improve on-farm practices and animal welfare. It also allows for awareness to be raised regarding animal welfare best practice, and to highlight where the status quo is being challenged and where novel approaches are being used to address priority issues.

Whilst previous research has used expert consensus to identify priority welfare issues in dairy animals, there is no New Zealand specific data. Therefore, the overarching objective of this project was to determine priority welfare issues specific to New Zealand, by using a multistakeholder approach. Specifically, the aims of this project were to 1) determine how stakeholders rate known welfare issues for the three species, 2) determine specific priority issues of animal welfare for the three species, 3) identify novel approaches that are being used within the industry/sector to help mitigate the identified priority issues.

A review of the scientific and industry relevant literature was conducted to establish a list of documented welfare issues for each species (i.e., dairy cattle, dairy goats and dairy sheep). An online survey was then developed and circulated to a range of stakeholders (including veterinarians, farmers, scientists, government, NGO’s) for them to rate the constructed list of welfare issues in terms of severity and occurrence using Likert scale questions. Additionally, using open ended questions respondents were asked to specify their top three welfare priorities and to identify any novel approaches being used to improve animal welfare. Follow up semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain additional information for some of the identified novel approaches.

Key survey findings:

• A high percentage of respondents rated the severity of lameness as having a high or very high impact for all three species (76%, 83%, 71% for dairy cattle, goats, and sheep respectively). Furthermore, lameness was identified as the top priority issue for all three species.
• The severity of painful procedures was rated higher in dairy goats and sheep compared to dairy cattle.
• Delayed veterinary care and/or delayed euthanasia featured high in terms of severity for all three species.
• A high percentage of respondents rated the occurrence of surplus offspring (71%, 85%, 35% for dairy cattle, goats, and sheep respectively) and early dam separation (81%, 75%, 41% for dairy cattle, goats, and sheep respectively) as very frequently or always in all three species. Additionally, surplus offspring was identified as a priority issue for dairy cattle and dairy sheep.
• Lameness and surplus offspring were reoccurring themes across the survey responses for all three species. Therefore, they were the focus for follow up interviews regarding novel approaches.
  • Novel approaches to improve the welfare of surplus offspring included creation of new value streams through premium meat products, and the breeding of dairy beef,
  • Novel approaches for lameness centred around innovative technologies (e.g. Herd-i).

Recommendations:

• Stakeholder collaboration is needed to solve ‘wicked’ problems. There is no silver bullet to solve complex welfare challenges. Commitment from stakeholders for continuous improvement across the supply chain is required to solve or at least reduce some of these issues (i.e. surplus offspring).
• Showcase and support the innovative thinkers and early adopters. There are farmers and companies challenging the status quo and coming up with innovative ways to overcome welfare issues. They deserve recognition, industry and government support and financial assistance. If we are proactive and support the innovators and early adopters, then we can drive animal welfare change through farmer lead solutions rather than being pushed by policy and regulations from government.
• New Zealand cannot rest on its laurels. We need to be proactive when it comes to animal welfare to ensure we maintain our social license to farm, keep up with public expectation of pasture-based animal production systems, and to meet changing domestic and international market expectations.