3 results
Interactions between profit and welfare on extensive sheep farms
- AW Stott, B Vosough Ahmadi, CM Dwyer, B Kupiec, C Morgan-Davies, CE Milne, S Ringrose, P Goddard, K Phillips, A Waterhouse
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- Journal:
- Animal Welfare / Volume 21 / Issue S1 / May 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 2023, pp. 57-64
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Extensive sheep farming systems make an important contribution to socio-economic well-being and the ‘ecosystem services’ that flow from large areas of the UK and elsewhere. They are therefore subject to much policy intervention. However, the animal welfare implications of such interventions and their economic drivers are rarely considered. Under Defra project AW1024 (a further study to assess the interaction between economics, husbandry and animal welfare in large, extensively managed sheep flocks) we therefore assessed the interaction between profit and animal welfare on extensive sheep farms. A detailed inventory of resources, resource deployment and technical performance was constructed for 20 commercial extensive sheep farms in Great Britain (equal numbers from the Scottish Highlands, Cumbria, Peak District and mid-Wales). Farms were drawn from focus groups in these regions where participative research with farmers added further information. These data were summarised and presented to a panel of 12 experts for welfare assessment. We used two welfare assessment methods one drawn from animal welfare science (‘needs’ based) the other from management science (Service Quality Modelling). The methods gave complementary results. The inventory data were also used to build a linear programme (LP) model of sheep, labour and feed-resource management month-by-month on each farm throughout the farming year. By setting the LP to adjust farm management to maximise gross margin under each farm's circumstances we had an objective way to explore resource allocations, their constraints and welfare implications under alternative policy response scenarios. Regression of indicators of extensification (labour per ewe, in-bye land per ewe, hill area per ewe and lambs weaned per ewe) on overall welfare score explained 0.66 of variation with labour and lambs weaned per ewe both positive coefficients. Neither gross margin nor flock size were correlated with welfare score. Gross margin was also uncorrelated with these indicators of extensification with the exception of labour/ewe, which was negatively correlated with flock size and hence with gross margin. These results suggest animal welfare is best served by reduced extensification while greater profits are found in flock expansion with reduced labour input per ewe and no increase in other inputs or in productivity. Such potential conflicts should be considered as policy adjusts to meet the requirements for sustainable land use in the hills and uplands.
Culled early or culled late: economic decisions and risks to welfare in dairy cows
- FM Langford, AW Stott
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- Journal:
- Animal Welfare / Volume 21 / Issue S1 / May 2012
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 2023, pp. 41-55
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Involuntary culling (IC) is where a cow is disposed of due to injury, poor health or infertility. The main reasons for IC are infertility, mastitis and lameness. These reasons have differing age profiles in when they affect cows, cost variable amounts to treat and have an effect on the value of the cow at market. They also reduce cow welfare in different ways. These factors influence the economically optimum cow replacement decision, which must balance the risks of future loss from the current cow against its future prospects and the net costs of a replacement. So the farmer's economic decision as to when to cull a cow may not occur at the same time as when the cow could, and sometimes should, be culled to maximise her welfare. To explore this dilemma, we developed a Dynamic Programme (DP) model to assess the optimum replacement policies for each of 180 possible cow states (12 parities and 15 milk-yield levels) under a simplified set of alternative husbandry systems and remedial practices. The DP was used to explore the relationships between financial outcomes, investment in improving welfare, lifespan and IC in dairy systems. There is a trade-off between dairy cattle lifespan and risk of suffering over which farmers have some control by the replacement and investment decisions they make. Our results show that improving cow welfare by reducing mastitis, lameness or infertility over the long term increases the mean longevity of the herd and also reduces the potential of long-term suffering resulting from chronic conditions. Additionally, it has the effect of increasing replacement opportunities and the annuities for each cow (£ per cow per year) mainly by increasing milk yield and reducing costly on-farm culls, creating a win-win situation for both farmer and cow.
Animal welfare and economic optimisation of farrowing systems
- B Vosough Ahmadi, AW Stott, EM Baxter, AB Lawrence, SA Edwards
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- Journal:
- Animal Welfare / Volume 20 / Issue 1 / February 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 2023, pp. 57-67
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In many countries, including the UK, the majority of domestic sows are housed in farrowing crates during the farrowing and lactation periods. Such systems raise welfare problems due to the close confinement of the sow. Despite the fact that many alternative housing systems have been developed, no commercially viable/feasible option has emerged for large scale units. Current scientific and practical knowledge of farrowing systems were reviewed in this study to identify alternative systems, their welfare and production potential. The aim was to establish acceptable trade-offs between profit and welfare within alternative farrowing systems. Linear programming (LP) was used to examine possible trade-offs and to support the design of welfare-friendly yet commercially viable alternatives. The objective of the LP was to optimise the economic performance of conventional crates, simple pens and designed pens subject to both managerial and animal welfare constraints. Quantitative values for constraints were derived from the literature. The potential effects of each welfare component on productivity were assessed by a group of animal welfare scientists and used in the model. The modelled welfare components (inputs) were extra space, substrate and temperature. Results showed that, when using piglet survival rate in the LP based on data drawn from the literature and incorporating costs of extra inputs in the model, the crates obtained the highest annual net margin and the designed pens and the pens were in second and third place, respectively. The designed pens and the pens were able to improve their annual net margin once alternative reference points, following expert-derived production functions, were used to adjust piglet survival rates in response to extra space, extra substrate and modified pen heating. The non-crate systems then provided higher welfare and higher net margin for sows and piglets than crates, implying the possibility of a win-win situation.