The relationships between attitudes, personal characteristics and behaviour of stockpeople on dairy goat farms

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the human-animal relationship on dairy goat farms, in particular associations between stockpeople's attitudes towards goats ( Capra hircus) and actual behaviour when handling goats and making decisions. Data were collected on 45 Austrian and German dairy goat farms. Attitude questionnaires of 119 stockpeople (58 female, 61 male) were analysed and 14 attitude components were extracted by five Principal Component Analyses (PCA) regarding general attitudes about goats and human-animal relationship, behavioural attitudes about specific human-goat interactions and interactions during milking, and affective attitudes. To investigate associations between stockpeople's attitudes and their subsequent behaviour, we calculated linear and logistic regression analysis on their behaviour during milking (n = 53 milkers) and on management decisions (n = 45 farms). Several attitude components were predictors of behaviour during milking. The attitude ' Needs of goats ' was included in all models: the higher stockpeople scored on ' Needs of goats ', the more positive interactions they showed and the less likely they were to use negative interactions. Gender influenced five attitude components: females showing greater agreement than males on positive general and affective attitudes, eg ' Needs of goats .' Regarding management, the more strongly decision-makers disagreed on using negative interactions during milking, the better was their farm's housing and management. To conclude, these results highlight the importance of the stockpeople's attitudes, not only for the interactions with their animals, but also for their decisions related to management and housing. Our results indicate opportunities for improvement of animal welfare by training specifically targeting stockpeople's attitudes.

Assessing Animal Welfare Risk in Fibre-Producing Animals by Applying the Five Domains Framework

“…The social interactions provision investigated whether the animals are required to be kept in stable groups [70], if the young are allowed to be separated from their mothers [71,72], and if play behaviour is promoted in any way (e.g., keeping of animals in age-appropriate groups) [73]. The human-animal relationship (HAR) provision was focused on requiring positive handling of animals [74][75][76], not only during routine interactions but also during shearing. We also investigated whether there are any possibilities for the building of trust (e.g., by early handling of animals, regular contact without direct handling) and if it is required to habituate animals to routine husbandry procedures (e.g., shearing and combing, but also with veterinary checks).…”

Human-animal relationship in water buffalo: quality of stockpeople interactions and their effect on dairy and meat production

“…In recent years, the interest in maintaining optimal animal welfare standards in livestock has led to the establishment of guidelines that ensure the physical and mental health of animals and animal-based food production chain (OMSA 2004;Rojas et al 2005;Saltalamacchia et al 2007;Veissier et al 2011;Deemer and Lobao 2011;Napolitano et al 2019). Within these guidelines, the quality and frequency of HAR has an impact within buffalo production in different contexts, as shown in Figure 1, such as feeding, transport, herding, handling, milking, or weighing, causing certain effects on the emotional and cognitive states of buffaloes (Waiblinger et al 2002;Rushen and Passillé 2010;Napolitano et al 2019;Mersmann et al 2022).…”