IMPROVING ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE

In 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Global Dairy Platform published the report ‘Climate Change and the Global Dairy Cattle Sector’. This worldwide study identified improving bovine health as key to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from livestock farming.

Healthier animals are more productive and generate fewer emissions per unit weight of finished product. Improving animal health reduces the intensity of emissions and improves the effectiveness of the resources used by reducing mortality and boosting productivity and fertility. As a result, fewer animals are needed to meet demand. The positive association between improved animal health and both increased production and reduced emissions has been demonstrated for various diseases. Good animal health facilitates commerce and trading and makes it easier to adopt systems with low carbon emissions.

The FAO is helping to improve animal health around the world to step up the productivity and sustainability of livestock production. It is one of the worldwide partners of the One Health initiative11, which is interested in the link between animals, humans and the environment.

Farmers and animal breeders are aware of the issues surrounding their livestock’s welfare and quality of life. Technology, including agritech, can play a useful part here. One example of this is milking robots. In their most advanced form, these devices allow the cow to decide when it should be milked, entering and leaving the milking parlour when it wants to. In this way, the robot takes the optimum quantity of milk. This new technology makes a general improvement to animal health and welfare: the herds are less stressed, and this is reflected in an improvement in milk quality. According to the trade publication UFA Revue, by early 2020, nearly 1,000 milking robots were in use on Swiss farms. These robots are manufactured by companies in the Netherlands (Lely), Sweden (DeLaval) and Germany (GEA).

In Switzerland, Agolin (see page 91) markets a product that not only reduces methane emissions from ruminants but also improves their digestion and welfare.