NEWS AND VIEWS
Welfare and ethics
UPDATE
Virginia Williams, for MPI and the NZVA, provides an update on welfare and ethics.
INSIDE OR OUT? Pasture-based or confinement systems for cows? An article in the New Zealand Veterinary Journal asks the question in the context of dairy cow welfare, while accepting that consumers “perceive pasture-based systems of milk production as natural and therefore better for cow welfare than confinement systems”. In reality, many systems lie between the two extremes, with pluses and minuses for all. The authors conclude that the optimal system gives cows an element of choice for both environments. They also stress that, whatever the system, the quality of management may be as important as the system of management in ensuring good dairy cow welfare and addressing societal concerns.
AUTOMATIC VS CONVENTIONAL MILKING SYSTEMS An Australian study aimed to determine whether transitioning to automatic milking systems caused changes in the humananimal relationship. In particular, it looked at stress levels in cows on five farms that were making the transition. The farms were first visited when they operated conventional milking systems, then a year later when they had completed the transition to automatic milking systems. After a year cows decreased their avoidance distance from farmers by approximately 27% and farmers spent less time interacting with cows in the automatic system. Cows were also less fearful around people and showed reduced stress responses to close handling.
REFERENCE:
REFERENCE:
Mee JF, Boyle LA. Assessing whether dairy cow welfare is ‘better’ in pasturebased than in confinement-based management systems. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 68, 168–77, 2020
Wildridge AM, Thomson PC, Garcia SC, Jongman EC, Kerrisk AL. Transitioning from conventional to automatic milking: Effects on the humananimal relationship. Journal of Dairy Science 103(2), 1608–19, 2020
16 – VetScript August 2020
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