Interactions between profit and welfare on extensive sheep farms

Abstract

Extensive sheep farming systems make an important contribution to socioeconomic well-being and the 'ecosystem services' that flow from large areas of the UK and elsewhere. They are therefore subject to much policy intervention. However, the animal welfare implications of such interventions and their economic drivers are rarely considered. Under Defra project AW1024 (a further study to assess the interaction between economics, husbandry and animal welfare in large, extensively managed sheep flocks) we therefore assessed the interaction between profit and animal welfare on extensive sheep farms. A detailed inventory of resources, resource deployment and technical performance was constructed for 20 commercial extensive sheep farms in Great Britain (equal numbers from the Scottish Highlands, Cumbria, Peak District and mid-Wales). Farms were drawn from focus groups in these regions where participative research with farmers added further information. These data were summarised and presented to a panel of 12 experts for welfare assessment. We used two welfare assessment methods one drawn from animal welfare science ('needs' based) the other from management science (Service Quality Modelling). The methods gave complementary results. The inventory data were also used to build a linear programme (LP) model of sheep, labour and feed-resource management monthby-month on each farm throughout the farming year. By setting the LP to adjust farm management to maximise gross margin under each farm's circumstances we had an objective way to explore resource allocations, their constraints and welfare implications under alternative policy response scenarios. Regression of indicators of extensification (labour per ewe, in-bye land per ewe, hill area per ewe and lambs weaned per ewe) on overall welfare score explained 0.66 of variation with labour and lambs weaned per ewe both positive coefficients. Neither gross margin nor flock size were correlated with welfare score. Gross margin was also uncorrelated with these indicators of extensification with the exception of labour/ewe, which was negatively correlated with flock size and hence with gross margin. These results suggest animal welfare is best served by reduced extensification while greater profits are found in flock expansion with reduced labour input per ewe and no increase in other inputs or in productivity. Such potential conflicts should be considered as policy adjusts to meet the requirements for sustainable land use in the hills and uplands.

The Relationship between Animal Welfare and Economic Performance at Farm Level: A Quantitative Study of Danish Pig Producers

“…While other empirical studies about the relationship between animal welfare and economic performance mostly analyse dairy cows and use health indicators as animal welfare indicators, our study analyses the pig sector and uses compliance with animal welfare regulations as animal welfare indicators. In spite of these differences, the results of our study are generally in line with the results of earlier studies that either find no or no clear relationship between animal welfare and economic performance (Lawson et al ., ,b) or a slightly positive relationship (Jensen et al ., ; Barnes et al ., ; Stott et al ., ).…”

“…Stott et al . () find a slightly positive relationship between animal welfare scores obtained from expert assessments and gross margin for their small sample of 20 purposely selected extensive sheep farms in Great Britain. Other studies use animal health as a proxy for the animals’ well‐being.…”

“…Most of the current studies of the relationship between animal welfare and economic performance are based on expert information or test stations, but their results have not yet been validated in commercial farms under real‐world conditions. The few studies that are based on real‐world farm‐level data (to our knowledge only Lawson et al ., ,b; Barnes et al ., ; and Stott et al ., ) have all been conducted in the dairy or sheep sector and mostly use animal health indicators as proxies for animal welfare, while the relationship between animal welfare and economic performance has – to our knowledge – not yet been empirically analysed for pig farms. In order to close this gap in the literature, we investigate the empirical relationship between animal welfare and the economic performance of Danish pig farms, which is of particular relevance because a number of animal welfare issues are specific to pig farms, e.g.…”

Animal welfare and efficient farming: is conflict inevitable?

“…A growing number of new laws and regulations covering the rearing, transport and slaughter of food animals, and even the costs of welfare assessment itself, impose costs on farmers who already have small financial margins (Sumner et al 2011;Stott et al 2012). Rising costs put pressures on farmers to become more efficient and therefore potentially put animal welfare on a collision course with profitability (Rauw et al 1998;Ingemann et al 2008).…”

“…In dairy cows, genetic selection for increased milk production has led to an increasing incidence of health problems such as lameness and a decline in longevity and fertility (Oltenacu and Algers 2005). Even for free-range sheep, there can be conflicts between efficiency (for example by reducing the number of stockpersons or increasing flock size) and the reduction in welfare resulting from a shepherd having to monitor more sheep in larger or more spread out groups (Waterhouse 1996;Stott et al 2012).…”