This was part of a mission to look at dairy cow welfare across the EU and the FVO team are also visiting Ireland, Poland, Estonia and Austria.
As well as investigating how well the UK is doing on implementing dairy cattle welfare legislation the FVO auditors wanted to meet with industry and organisations that influence dairy cow to build up a comprehensive picture on all that goes on within the UK on dairy welfare.
The audit is focusing on:
- National policy on animal welfare on dairy farms
- National legislation and measures such as cross-compliance
- Official controls on dairy farms and their outcomes
- Other measurements of animal welfare outcomes (e.g. lameness scores, body condition scores, somatic cell count, longevity)
- Dissemination of information on husbandry systems and information on the impact of change from applied research, economic studies
- The ability, knowledge and competence of dairy farmers, and measures that influence their husbandry practices
- Mechanisms for supporting change to husbandry systems (e.g. funding, communication, training and education)
- Involvement of the dairy industry in the above issues (e.g. dairy processors, milk purchasers or farmer co-operatives)
- Market led initiatives which promote animal welfare (voluntary schemes)
- Involvement of advisory services such as farm advisory or private veterinary groups
Our involvement
The NFU met the FVO auditors alongside RABDF, Red Tractor, Holstein UK, RSPCA and AHDB and discussed the various initiatives that are in place to support and inform farmers on dairy cow welfare.
Central to this was our Dairy Cow Welfare strategy that is audited every two years by CHAWG. The latest review is here and showcases all the industry-led work carried out on dairy cow welfare in the UK. The auditors were also interested in the work carried out by AHDB in their calf to calving initiative and how breeding priorities in the UK dairy industry had changed in recent years (PLI).
Satisfied that there was ample work being done to improve dairy cow welfare within the industry the auditors then travelled to the South West to interview dairy farmers about their farming practices.