Animal Health and Welfare Planning in Organic Dairy Cattle Farms

Vaarst, Mette

doi:10.2174/1874318801105010019

Cited by 29 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This will have severe structural and practical consequences for the way the farm is designed, organized, and managed, including the animals. European action research projects demonstrated how emphasizing farmer ownership in decision-making, empowerment, knowledge exchange, and common learning can mediate significant change on the farm level (Anonymous 2010;Vaarst 2007;Ivemeyer et al 2010;Vaarst et al 2010;Bennedsgaard et al 2010). On the sector level, the constant debate in combination with addressing and involving relevant actors such as decision makers, citizens, and politicians, can stimulate further development of livestock systems with high animal welfare in accordance with the basic organic principles, even in situations where the agricultural sector is under great pressure, e.g., economical pressure to produce more for less money.…”

Section: Tropical Organic Livestock Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concepts of Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Livestock Systems

Vaarst

Alrøe

2011

J Agric Environ Ethics

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In 2005, The International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) developed four new ethical principles of organic agriculture to guide its future development: the principles of health, ecology, care, and fairness. The key distinctive concept of animal welfare in organic agriculture combines naturalness and human care, and can be linked meaningfully with these principles. In practice, a number of challenges are connected with making organic livestock systems work. These challenges are particularly dominant in immature agro-ecological systems, for example those that are characterized by industrialization and monoculture. Some of the current challenges are partly created by shortages of land and manure, which encourage zero-grazing and other confined systems. Other challenges are created in part by the conditions for farming and the way in which global food distribution systems are organized, e.g., how live animals are transported, how feed is traded and transported all over the globe, and the development of infrastructure and large herds. We find that the overall organic principles should be included when formulating guidelines for practical organic animal farming. This article explores how the special organic conceptions of animal welfare are related to the overall principles of organic agriculture. The aim is to identify potential routes for future development of organic livestock systems in different contexts and with reference to the specific understanding of animal welfare in organic agriculture. We include two contrasting cases represented by organic livestock systems in northwestern Europe and farming systems in tropical low-income countries; we use these cases to explore the widely different challenges of organic livestock systems in different parts of the world.

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Section: Tropical Organic Livestock Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concepts of Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Livestock Systems

Vaarst

Alrøe

2011

J Agric Environ Ethics

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“…These studies emphasize the initial assessment and evaluation of health and welfare by an external person, implementation of farm-specific measures, and constant review and adaptation of measures as key aspects. The structured process includes farmer ownership of goals and measures, involvement of all relevant people, and the acknowledgment of good aspects on the farm (Vaarst et al, 2011;Tremetsberger and Winckler, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal health and welfare planning improves udder health and cleanliness but not leg health in Austrian dairy herds

Tremetsberger

Leeb

Winckler

2015

Journal of Dairy Science

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Animal health and welfare planning is considered an important tool for herd management; however, its effectiveness is less well known. The aim of this study was to conduct animal health and welfare planning on 34 Austrian dairy farms and to evaluate changes in health and welfare after 1 yr. After an initial assessment using the Welfare Quality protocol (Welfare Quality Consortium, Lelystad, the Netherlands), results were reported back to the farmers. Health and welfare area(s) in which both the farmer and the researcher regarded improvement as important were discussed. Management practices and husbandry measures were chosen according to the respective farm situation. One year after interventions had been initiated, farms were reassessed, and the degree of implementation of improvement measures was recorded. The average implementation rate was 57% and thus relatively high when compared with other studies. High degrees of implementation were achieved related to cleanliness and udder health, at 77 and 63%, respectively. Intervention measures addressing udder health were mostly easy to incorporate in the daily routine and led to a reduced somatic cell score, whereas this score increased in herds without implementation of measures. The decrease in cows with dirty teats was more pronounced when measures were implemented compared with control farms. The implementation rate regarding leg health (46%) was comparably low in the present study, and leg health did not improve even when measures were implemented. Lying comfort, social behavior, and human-animal relationship did not require interventions and were therefore seldom chosen by farmers as part of health and welfare plans. In conclusion, the structured, participatory process of animal health and welfare planning appears to be a promising way to improve at least some animal health and welfare issues.

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“…The perceptions of both the farmers and the veterinarians are crucial if the relationship is to be satisfying and fulfil the objectives of improved health and economical benefits for both parties [20]. According to [21] "Respectful communication between the owner of the herd and other farmers as well as animal health and welfare professionals (veterinarians and advisors) is paramount." The perception of veterinarians by dairy cow farmers, even in conventional farms, falls within one of two groups: : one group sees the veterinarian as a repairman that identifies pathologies and cures them, and the other group demands technical advice for previously identified problems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Advisors in Organic Meet Sheep Farms: The Role of the Veterinarians

Cabaret¹

2011

TOVSJ

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Farmers receive advice from various categories of advisors' regarding the health management of their flocks. With respect to disease control strategies, treatment recommendations typically include either an allopathic synthetic drug approach or a more organic complementary line using alternative medicine, or indeed, a combination of the two. This study aimed to determine the proportion of treatment options in use by farmers and to correlate the treatment recommendations to the different categories of health advisor. A set of 34 meat sheep farms from the centre of France was used in the restricted sampling study, this included a representative sample of both organic (n = 7) and conventional (n = 8) farms. Data on general health matters (e.g. cost of drugs, flock mortalities etc.) were collected from each of the farms. The study found conventional farms prescribed more to the recommendations made by veterinarians and spent more on synthetic allopathic drugs. The reverse situation was observed in organic farms which invested more money in alternative medicines as advised by mostly non-veterinarian health advisors, or guided by their own appreciation of disease management.

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Animal Health and Welfare Planning in Organic Dairy Cattle Farms

Cited by 29 publications

References 24 publications

Concepts of Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Livestock Systems

Concepts of Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Livestock Systems

Animal health and welfare planning improves udder health and cleanliness but not leg health in Austrian dairy herds

Health Advisors in Organic Meet Sheep Farms: The Role of the Veterinarians

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