Economic optimization of pork production-marketing chains: I. Model input on animal welfare and costs

Economic, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Performance on Livestock Farms: Conceptual Model and Application to Some Case Studies in Italy

“…In addition, Langford and Stott [36] modeled different animal welfare scenarios, including high and low rates of infertility, mastitis, and lameness, and estimated the effects on long-term economic performance of animal welfare improvements. Den Ouden et al [37] developed a simulation model to identify optimal levels of some animal welfare attributes in different pig breeding stages, including farrowing, fattening, transportation, and slaughter, that minimize costs and ensure some level of animal well-being. Kingwell [38] applied a simulation model to analyze the effects of different management scenarios on animal welfare and sheep farming incomes in low rainfall areas.…”

Agricultural Marketing and Consumer Behavior in a Changing World

“…In using the pork chain model instead of models simulating the separate stages of the chain, these so-called interstage relations could also be taken into account. Both the animal welfare evaluations and the costs of the corresponding attributes (Den Ouden et al, 1996b) served as input values in an optimization model (dynamic linear programming). The optimization model is used to evaluate the development of pork production-marketing chain concepts, in which additional costs for realizing increasing levels of additional pig welfare in the pork chain are minimized (Den Ouden et al, 1996c).…”

“…This implied an underestimation of the real economie impact. More information on the pig welfare variables and corresponding economics can be found in Den Ouden et al (1996b).…”

Welfare of Pigs in the Farrowing Environment

“…SVC, 1997; den Ouden et al, 1997;Krieter, 2002) and these do yield some potentially useful information.…”

“…However, these authors still show similar economic trends. Den Ouden et al, (1997) used a different method by which they calculated the change in cost per feeder pig produced for the addition of 13 different factors into basic crate farrowing accommodation with slatted floors. At this basic level, total chain cost of production per pig from farrowing to slaughter was 357 Dutch Gilders (Dfl).…”