Public concerns about dairy-cow welfare: how should the industry respond?

Abstract

Abstract. Common practices on dairy farms have fallen out of step with public values, such that the dairy industry has now become a target for public criticism. In the present paper, we describe some of the forces that have led to the current situation, and various potential methods to rectify the situation. One approach is to shield industry practices from public scrutiny, for example, by using 'ag-gag' legislation to stem the flow of videos exposing contentious practices. Another is to educate members of the public so that they better understand the nature of these practices and the reasons that they are used on farms. The literature we reviewed indicated that neither of these approaches is likely to be successful. Instead, we suggest that the dairy industry needs to develop methods of meaningful two-way engagement with concerned citizens, including research using social-science methods to document the values of different stakeholders and examine approaches to resolving conflicts. We also reviewed how biological research can help resolve issues, for example, by developing rearing systems that address public concerns around freedom of movement and social contact without putting animals at an increased risk of disease. We end with a discussion of how policy efforts by the dairy industry can be used to ensure compliance with commonly accepted standards, and more ambitiously, develop a common vision of dairying that positions the industry as a leader in animal welfare.

Managing Socio-Ethical Challenges in the Development of Smart Farming: From a Fragmented to a Comprehensive Approach for Responsible Research and Innovation

“…Including community actors or CSOs in project teams would not provide sufficient legitimacy and engagement unless the project activities and agendas were relevant to the community actors, requiring a wider range of skills among project leaders to facilitate such engagement. Including the public in discussions on smart dairy issues, using tools such as internet forums (crowdsourcing), farm visits, and interactive design exercises explored by other studies (Weary and von Keyserlingk 2017;Ventura et al 2016;Cardoso et al 2016) could enable more ethical outcomes in the NZ dairy sector.…”

Implications of prolonged milking time on time budgets and lying behavior of cows in large pasture-based dairy herds

“…Farms milking more than 500 cows are now common and, in a recent survey of Australian dairy farmers, 73% of farmers milking more than 700 cows in 2017 expected to increase numbers further over the next 2 yr (Dairy Australia, 2017b). The increasing herd size and intensification of pasture-based dairy production, such as occurs in Australia and New Zealand, has occurred against a background of a heightened public interest in animal welfare (Fisher and Webster, 2013;von Keyserlingk and Weary, 2017;Weary and von Keyserlingk, 2017). Potential challenges to pasture-based dairy cow welfare that have been identified with increasing herd size include the long distances cows are required to walk to and from the dairy parlor and extended time spent at the dairy waiting to be milked (Clark et al, 2013;Beggs et al, 2015Beggs et al, , 2018Webster et al, 2015).…”

Protection of Dairy Cattle in the EU: State of Play and Directions for Policymaking from a Legal and Animal Advocacy Perspective

“…According to D. Broom [52], "a system or procedure is sustainable if it is acceptable now and if its expected future effects are acceptable, in particular in relation to resource availability, consequences of functioning and morality of action." It follows that if the dairy sector wants to maintain its societal licence to operate it will also need to address the expectations of the general public concerning the ethical treatment of dairy cows [53].…”