Public attitude towards cow-calf separation and other common practices of calf rearing in dairy farming—a review

Abstract

Public demand for food produced in systems with high animal welfare standards is rising. In terms of animal welfare, the dairy industry has a positive reputation in European countries. However, there are many practices in the dairy industry of which the public is unaware, e.g., zero-grazing, tethering, dehorning, disposal of male calves, and early cow-calf separation. We focused on the latter and reviewed studies addressing public opinions about dealing with calves in dairy farming. We show that most respondents in studies are unaware or reject these practices. During the last years, more and more attention was paid to cow-calf separation. This practice is mainly rejected because it is considered to be unnatural and associated with stress for the animals. However, there is a lack of scientific surveys that explore the public opinion about how much stress is tolerable in animals that have been allowed to live up to their needs for a period of time. On the other hand, the economic aspects of management practices enabling the animals to express their natural behavior to a greater extent than in the current husbandry systems should be investigated comprehensively. The amount of sales and the willingness to pay a higher price for milk and meat produced in such systems might be the key factors to a wider acceptance of such systems by dairy farmers, who will expect to be compensated for their increased efforts.

Public attitudes toward dairy farm practices and technology related to milk production

“…For each of the four scenarios presented, participants showed the most support for the naturalistic alternative. Previous studies have shown that participants support providing a more natural living environment for animals [ 3 , 34 ], and for practices perceived as being more natural [ 20 , 35 ]. Schuppli et al [ 23 ] found that 80% of participants agreed with allowing pasture access for cows.…”

“…These results are consistent with previous literature showing public concern towards modern practices [ 3 , 41 , 42 ]. More specifically, previous work has identified opposition to lack of pasture access [ 23 ], disbudding [ 35 ], and cow-calf separation [ 20 ]. We compared attitudes across scenarios and found that participants opposed some practices (e.g.…”

“…Work to date has found substantial public opposition to dairy farm practices that are perceived to harm animals. For example, cow-calf separation was largely opposed because participants viewed this practice as harmful to cow and calf [ 19 , 20 ]. Recent concern for the welfare of calves has also emerged due to the practice of selling excess calves shortly after birth [ 21 ].…”

Anthropogenic suffering of farmed animals: the other side of zoonoses

“…On dairy farms, male cattle are sent to the slaughterhouse at a young age, after being separated from their mothers within hours or days after birth and then often confined for the whole of their brief lives, which do not extend beyond calfhood (Ventura et al 2013;Tuloch & Judge 2018;Placzek et al 2020;Mikuš & Mikuš 2020). Females survive for several years (far less than their normal lifespan) during which they are repeatedly inseminated to gestate and give birth in order to produce enormous quantities of milk from their oversized mammary glands, the result of human manipulation designed to increase production beyond natural limits (Lehenbauer & Oltjen 1998;Dobson et al 2007;Sumner-Thompson et al 2011;Ayadi 2019).…”

The Effect of Mother Goat Presence during Rearing on Kids’ Response to Isolation and to an Arena Test

“…The common dairy industry practice of permanently separating mother from offspring, at an early age, has attracted increasing concern and criticism [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] and early permanent separation has been reported as stressful for both mother goats and their kids [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Maintaining the mother-offspring relationship is likely to have positive consequences for the welfare of the dam and goat kids [ 17 , 18 ].…”