Fit and feeling good: Promoting high welfare on British dairy farms

摘要

Good welfare plays an important role in the success of a dairy enterprise - that was the message delivered to dairy producers at a RABDF farm walk hosted by Derrick Davies, Home Farm, Sulham-stead, Reading. And good cow health and welfare are synonymous with each other, with good welfare being defined as a cow that is "fit and feeling good", said leading vet Nick Bell, from the Royal Veterinary College. "The health status of the British dairy herd is something we need to keep under constant review. And if we can measure welfare performance through welfare outcomes, it perhaps does not matter how we. arrive at it so long as these measures are robust," he added. He said getting welfare right was a "win win for everyone" because cows kept on a high-welfare system would produce lots of milk, and on some farms in the past, low welfare had actually been a ceiling' on production.