Farm Sustainability Learning Hub Series in association with Bord Bia
Good animal health and welfare is an integral part of livestock farming and Irish farmers operate to high standards.
Using guidelines from Animal Health Ireland and Teagasc, Bord Bia has developed a new set of modules on animal welfare to support farmers in implementing the highest standards of welfare on farm.
From July 10, a number of animal welfare modules will be made available to members of the sustainable beef, lamb and dairy assurance schemes.
Five animal welfare modules are currently being developed: an introductory module, a calf welfare modules, and specific modules for sheep, dairy, and beef.
In this article we look at the introductory and calf welfare modules.
Animal Health and Welfare: Introduction
The introductory module covers the key principles of animal health and welfare. It takes about 45 minutes to complete and must be completed first to access the other welfare modules.
Topic 1: The Five Freedoms
The Five Freedoms define the ideal level of welfare, as opposed to simply what’s acceptable.
They are freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury and disease; freedom to express normal behaviour; freedom from fear and distress.
Topic 2: Animal husbandry
Good husbandry practices are an essential part of farming. Competency in animal husbandry increases with experience and is second nature to most farmers.
This module asks farmers to consider how they build competency among less experienced farmers.
Topic 3: Hygiene
Good hygiene practices prevent the spread of infection and therefore the need for antibiotics. Due to increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance in Irish agriculture, hygiene practices are becoming increasingly important.
Proper hygiene controls include cleaning of farm equipment, controlling vermin, clean bedding and good ventilation.
Topic 5: Body Condition Scoring
Body Condition Score (BCS) is used to assess an animal’s body reserves or fat accumulation. Using a five-point scale, farmers score their animals from one (very thin) to five (overweight).
BSC is important to observe in breeding cows and ewes. It changes throughout an animal’s life cycle and at different times of the year. The BSC for different species will be covered within their specific modules.
Topic 5: The importance Qualitative behavioural assessments (QBA)
QBA is a quick and scientifically valid way for farmers to judge their animals’ health and welfare. Increasingly consumers are concerned about the effects of farming practices on animal well-being.
QBA addresses this concern with a ‘whole animal’ approach that assesses animal welfare by their body language. The ‘whole animal’ perspective recognises that an animal’s actions and expressiveness reflects what they’re feeling.
Calf Welfare Module
The Calf Welfare module reinforces and promotes best practice in calf health and welfare, specifically in the areas of stress reduction, pain management, disease prevention and biosecurity practices.
The calf welfare module is suitable for farmers working with either dairy, suckler or dairy to beef cows. This module is only available upon completing the introductory module and takes 30 minutes.
Topics include:
- The 1-2-3 technique for colostrum management;
- The optimal calf housing conditions to prevent stress and limit susceptibility to disease;
- The importance of providing pain management when disbudding and castrating;
- Supporting biosecurity through hygiene, a vaccination programme and scour treatment;
- How to reduce stress and promote the health and welfare of dairy and beef calves during weaning.
Topic 1: The 1-2-3 technique
Calves need high quality colostrum to survive and thrive, but it must be managed correctly. What does the 1-2-3 mean for giving colostrum to calves? 1
- Use colostrum from the first milking for the first feed;
- Give colostrum within two hours from the calf’s birth;
- Give at least 3L.
Topic 2: Calf housing
Wind and rain affects calves more than mature cows so it’s important to keep them indoors or under shelter for the first three weeks of their life. Optimal housing management also prevents stress and limits your calves’ susceptibility to disease.
Topic 3: Pain management
Disbudding, dehorning and castrating are painful and stressful for calves. To follow the gold standard of pain management for disbudding, use both a local anaesthetic and pain relief using a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).
Dehorning requires a local anaesthetic that is either provided by or overseen by a veterinarian. You must also provide NSAID pain relief.
Topic 4: Health and hygiene
Improving calf health and welfare requires actively preventing and treating diseases. A herd health plan is an important measure for supporting biosecurity – most notably in the areas of hygiene, vaccination and scour treatment.
Topic 5: Weaning
Changing from a mostly liquid, animal protein diet to a solid, vegetable protein diet can be stressful for dairy calves. How you manage these changes within weaning impacts their level of stress.
For suckler systems, weaning includes breaking the maternal-offspring bond and removing milk from the calf’s diet.
In a natural environment, the cow would initiate weaning gradually by refusing the calf access to suckle, however this would be later than most farmers’ typical practice. This man-made schedule change causes stress, but you can take steps to reduce the impact.
The module provides advice on managing the weaning of calves including guidance on starter intake and calf concentrates.
Next steps
Join the thousands of other farmers who have registered for the Farm Sustainability Learning Hub.
Visit farm.bordbia.ie to enroll in the Farm Sustainability Learning Hub.
You will be asked to enter your herd number and the pin number you received at your last audit. If you do not know this, there is a ‘forgot pin’ option that will text the pin to your mobile phone.
Click here to view the rest of the articles in the Farm Sustainability Learning Hub Series.