Welfare considerations in future selection and management strategies

Abstract

AbstractThis paper considers the welfare implications of breeding, feeding and managing dairy cows for increased productivity. The physiological demands of lactation for the high genetic merit dairy cow are exceptional, less in their intensity and more in their duration. Most welfare problems can be attributed less to productivity per se than to systems of feeding, milking and management that are unsuitable to the genotype of the high yielding cow. These include the inadequacies of wet grass silage as a staple food and the abnormal restriction of cows to twice-daily milking. It is also necessary to consider welfare problems that may arise from the application of new technologies to increase milk yield or to increase the rate of genetic progress. These may be related to the process itself or to its consequences. It is proposed that the commercial exploitation of these new technologies should be controlled by legislation similar to that for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes which applies a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the cost to the animal can be justified in terms of any potential benefit to society.