The dairy industry has published its first progress report since launching the dairy cow welfare strategy in August 2010. A year on, industry leaders say the scheme, which aims to improve the health of the UK dairy herd, is on track, and already yielding positive results. However, measurable progress may be slow. image expired

The strategy was launched in response to the 2009 Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) report Opinion on the Welfare of the Dairy Cow, which, though it recognised positive welfare development in the sector, revealed that more could be done to further improve welfare standards.

The industry also wishes to face up to concerns raised by animal welfare groups about the prevalence of health issues including lameness, mastitis, calf mortality and the shortening lifespan of high-yielding cows which persist in the UK. The UK’s 1.8 million dairy cows produce 13.5 billion litres per year, but the average lifespan is around 6 and a half years, less than half the natural average.

While the groups behind the strategy, including the NFU and Dairy Co, maintain that UK dairy farmers operate to "World leading welfare standards," Dr Dick Esselmont, an industry consultant, believes that problems in the industry persist.

Dr Esselmont claimed on BBC Radio 4 in April that much of the stock on British dairy farms is "not fit for purpose." He said the health and fertility of UK dairy cows has decreased markedly over the past thirty years. Dr Esselmont blamed the emphasis on breeding animals to produce evermore milk per day for the current situation; a generation of dairy cows that are much more prone to disease and live a shorter life.

He estimated there were fifty cases of mastitis per hundred cows, per year on UK dairy farms and around sixty cases of lameness per hundred, per year, and that nutrition for breeding cows and calf mortality were also causes for concern. Furthermore, in light of the proposed badger cull, opponents to the cull have pointed out the increased susceptibility of dairy cows as a reflection of the animals’ health.

Chair of Welfare group says improvements are underway

Tom Brigstocke, chair of the Cattle Health and Welfare Group, did not deny there was cause for further investigation and an industry-wide effort to tackle these problems, such as mastitis and lameness, which blight the dairy sector. However, speaking on Radio 4’s Farming Today programme, he said that there were no universal statistics available, so drawing conclusions from studies conducted by various cattle groups was problematic.

The aim of the Cattle Health and Welfare Group, according to Mr Brigstocke, is to bring these organisations together to get a "truer picture" of the UK industry. He said there has already been some success, and pointed to Dairy Co figures which show, for the year up to June, there has been a 7.8 per cent reduction in mastitis.

He continued, stating that, to tackle lameness the new industry standard scoring system would provide useful data on a national level, which would make tackling the endemic problem much more practicable at a policy level.  

Mr Brigstocke said he expected progress to be made by next year, but that it could take up to five years before any concrete improvements were seen.