Dairy cow welfare
May 2009
Retailers, farmers & consumers must all take responsibility to tackle the serious welfare concerns facing the dairy cow.
In the UK there are over two million dairy cows - the vast majority of which have been bred to produce more and more milk. As a consequence of this over the years they have been dogged with health and welfare problems, largely associated with in breeding and now the industry is being forced to play catch-up in terms of how to look after them.
John Avizienius, the deputy head of RSPCA*s farm animal science department is a former dairy farmer. He appeared on Countryfile on Sunday May 10, shedding light on these problems, alongside an eminent Cambridge professor and members of the dairy cow industry. If you didn't see the programme, you can watch it again on BBC iplayer
“This is a very real problem, and one that must be tackled by everyone from farmers and retailers to us the consumer,” says John, “If we don’t take action now we could end up milking the dairy cow to death.”
What can you do?
At the moment, although some farmers have very good levels of welfare their milk is sold for the same price as everyone else’s in the supermarket. While any work to improve welfare by the farmers and supermarkets is to be applauded, we need to work together to ensure a greater number of cows (and farmers) will benefit.
Greater consumer awareness of the issues is key. The more shoppers demand better welfare for dairy cows, and are prepared to spend a few pence more to award farmers who do invest in better standards, the more quickly we will see these desperately needed changes taking place.
In the meantime, if you are concerned about the welfare of the animal that produced your milk, we would urge you to ask at your supermarkets where the milk has come from, and whether they have good standards of welfare.
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