Dairy cattle - what are we doing?
Some of the ways we are working to give dairy cattle a better quality of life are as follows.
Lobbying for improvements
Our scientific staff represent our views on government and industry cattle committees. These include the Defra Farm Health Planning group for cattle and the Tubney Trust Healthy Feet Project steering group, which is looking at ways to help farmers reduce the level of lameness in dairy cattle in the UK.
Research projects
We have funded a number of projects over the years looking at various aspects of dairy cattle welfare:
Breeding to improve cow welfare
For many years breeding has largely concentrated on increasing the amount of milk cows produce. It could be argued that is the root cause of many of the welfare problems of the modern dairy cow. This project, which was carried out by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) and the commercial breeding company Cogent, looked at the results of welfare-orientated breeding programmes. They concluded that a greater focus on animal welfare during breeding could improve the lives of cattle, and could also be better for the farmer because he/she would not be spending as much money on veterinary bills etc.
The Robust Cow project
Following on from the above project, we worked with Defra, the SAC, the University of Edinburgh, veterinary surgeons, and cattle industry representatives on this three-year project looking at breeding to make cows more ‘robust’. Although it was shown that it might be possible to make changes in breeding programmes to improve cow welfare, the complex nature of dairy breeding means that it could take many years for improvements to occur.
Development of welfare outcomes
Along with the University of Bristol, we’ve been developing and trialling Welfare Outcomes Assessment to help better assess the welfare of dairy cattle on farms.
RSPCA welfare standards for dairy cattle
Since the early 1990s, we've been developing our welfare standards for dairy cattle, which cover the key areas effecting dairy cattle welfare and are used within the Freedom Food scheme. Based on the latest scientific evidence, and our own practical evidences over this period, we're currently considering making a number of changes to the standards in order to better address some of the key welfare issues affecting the modern dairy cow.
Beyond Calf Exports Stakeholders Forum
In 2006 the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming organised a forum with leading stakeholders (e.g. retailers, the dairy industry and government) to find practical ways to ensure that more male dairy calves are reared under higher welfare conditions in the UK. The work is ongoing and we hope there will be an increase in the number of calves going into the UK beef chain and fewer calves being killed soon after birth on-farm or going for live export. A number of retailers have taken encouraging steps to address these issues.
The National Cattle Mobility Event
We co-sponsored this event held at Harper Adams College in 2009. The idea was to raise awareness of cattle lameness problems, and present solutions, through a mixture of expert speakers and practical demonstrations. In this way essential knowledge can be transferred to farmers, and we hope this will become an annual event.
If you share our concerns about the welfare of dairy cattle you might be interested to learn how you can help to improve their lives.