Implications of intensification of pastoral animal production on animal welfare

Abstract

The intensification of pastoral animal production results from several major developments including increased forage production and utilisation, diet supplementation, breeding animals to increase milk, meat or wool production, and changes in management. The impact of increased intensification on welfare will differ across species and systems. More intensive-grazing systems and the feeding of novel forages will underpin all moves to intensification. More intensive grazing generally reduces opportunities for shade and shelter. Improved nutrition will generally benefit welfare but competition for available feed may cause increased social pressure. Increased flock and herd size will be associated with a reduction in the human:animal ratio and less time to observe individual animals. Remote monitoring of activity and health might counter this impact. Intensification of dairy production will result in larger herds, more year-round milking, robotic milking, use of housing and yards year round, and total mixed-ration feeding. Larger herds mean longer distances to walk to and from the dairy shed, and more lameness and less time to spend on self-maintenance activities such as grooming. Holding and feeding dairy cows on yards will cause an increase in lameness and mastitis and perhaps an increase in agonistic behaviour but will reduce time spent walking. Intensification of sheep production will involve increased flock size, increased fecundity, breeding from hoggets, and breeding ewes all year round. Housing during lambing might be considered appropriate, as would feeding to lift milk yields. Increased fecundity with an increase in triplets will increase lamb mortality rates, but housing ewes, when managed well, will result in reduced lamb mortality. Intensification of lamb finishing will be by improved nutrition. Intensification of beef production will include more breeding of heifers at 15 months, and more problems with dystocia. Intensification of pastoral production will have positive and negative effects on animal welfare. The balance will be determined by the quality of management and stockmanship, and the pressure on businesses to be profitable.

Building ‘cowshed cultures’: A cultural perspective on the promotion of stockmanship and animal welfare on dairy farms

“…In small to medium size herds the social structure may run throughout the entire herd. However, as herd size increases, the social order becomes more difficult to maintain as the ability of cows to recognise herd-mates declines, causing cows to split into sub-groups (Hemsworth et al, 1995;Stafford and Gregory, 2008). Social hierarchies are thus an important aspect of cow 'culture'.…”

The behaviour and productivity of water buffalo in different breeding systems: a review

“…Those calves were also found to have higher quantities of antibodies (P ≤ 0.05). In contrast, Stafford and Gregory (2008) reported that the use of more intensive grazing systems generally reduces opportunities for shade and shelter and results in less time available to spend on self-maintenance activities such as grooming, in addition to a reduction in human-animal contact. Human-animal interactions are recognized to have an impact on productivity, behaviour and welfare (Cavallina et al 2008).…”

“…Additional findings have demonstrated that keeping and feeding dairy cows in yards results in an increase in lameness and mastitis and, perhaps, also in agonistic behaviour, but reduces time spent walking (Stafford and Gregory 2008). In dairy buffaloes with hoof or leg problems, a decrease in ruminant motility was found, while haematological indexes showed significant declines in Hb, PCV and TEC (Kalsi et al 2002).…”

“…The systems based on pastures do not provide the necessary nutritional requirements (Schutz et al 2013) ↑ Stress caused by reduced space (De Rosa et al 2009a) Scarcity of food may provoke fighting due to competition (Schutz et al 2013) ↑ Behaviours during mechanical milking such as kicking, defecating, urinating, and pulling the teat cup off the teat (Cavallina et al 2008) ↓ Milk and meat production during dry seasons (Cavallina et al 2008) ↑ Animals with laminitis (Cavallina et al 2008) ↓ Time for self-maintenance and grooming activities (Stafford and Gregory 2008) ↑ Agonistic behaviours (Cavallina et al 2008) ↓ Reduced human contact (Stafford and Gregory 2008) ↓ Time for walking (Stafford and Gregory 2008) ↑ Animals are more restless during handling (Probst et al 2012) No space available for wallowing behaviour (Tripaldi et al 2004) ↑ Increase in periods of inactivity (Tripaldi et al 2004) respectively (Barile et al 2007). Better results have been achieved in water buffalo cows fed ad libitum a diet with a forage/concentrate ratio of 53/47 that contained alfalfa hay (10%), corn silage (43%) and concentrate (47%).…”

Temperament during Milking Process and its Effect on Behavioral, Productive Traits and Biochemical Parameters in Friesian Dairy Cows

“…Phillips, (2002), Ceballos and Weary, (2002);and Fukasawa and Tsukad, (2010), stated that walking, exploring and licking object were increased with aggressive animal in order to evaluate stressful conditions. In contrast (Cavallina et al, 2008;Tripaldi et al, 2004;Stafford and Gregory, 2008) stated that when agonistic behavior increased with stress caused by mechanical milking the time of locomtion decreased. Regarding urination, defecation frequency, it was increased with aggressive temperament then nervous one and at lowest level with calm temperament.…”