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Improving animal welfare and health in housing on a dairy farm

Modern dairy farming has become an intensive industry. To produce maximum milk yields, dairy cows are pushed to their physiological limits through a combination of selective breeding, high-protein feeds and the latest technology.

It is not hard to imagine that welfare problems are associated with this move towards higher profits and outputs.

Choices in housing and management affect the behaviour, health and comfort. And a positive interaction between a cow, her workplace and her caregivers lead to animal well being and a better performance.

Since an animal depends on our mercy, her welfare is our responsibility and a cow's demands are simple:

• Comfort and shelter in a proper housing
• Freedom of movement
• The opportunity to follow her natural behaviour without pain or fear
• Company of other animals
• Free access to fresh water and a diet to maintain an animal in full health and vigour
• Respect and correct treatment

Of course, nobody can make things perfect, but there are possibilities how farmers can improve it…

And to figure these things out was the task of 30 agricultural students from Austria, Finland and the Netherlands. They tried to outline the most common problems in dairy farms based on farm visits and farmers' and veterinarians' interwievs in their countries.

They tried to work out practical solutations for all farmers and people interested in this topic 

by writing down the information they obtained and by comparing and discussing the situations.

In the following picture you can see the problem areas and the groups solutions for those: