Animal Welfare on the Farm

What is animal welfare? In 1986, Dr. Donald Broom defined animal welfare as the ability of an animal to cope with its environment and living conditions. Animal welfare is about how the animal is doing and perceiving its environment. An animal’s welfare is ever-changing and can shift over time or from moment to moment. An animal welfare organization that we often look to for information and support is the Food Animal Concerns Trust.

What are animal rights? Animal rights advocates believe that animals have certain moral rights, and those rights should be protected, no matter what. Some believe in ending the use of animals as food, transportation, entertainment or as pets. One example of an animal rights organization is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

We respect anybody’s beliefs about these two distinct topics. Personally, we hold true that humans have long eaten meat in ecosystems around the world, alongside plants. And we’ve personally experienced that our bodies crave the nutrients that good meat provides.  

As livestock producers, we take great care to ensure our animals’ welfare is good — knowing that we cannot always prevent pain or discomfort, but we can take measures to mitigate it.

While at the OEFFA Conference this year, we learned about the Five Freedoms of animal welfare, which were developed by the Farm Animal Welfare Council in the United Kingdom, following an investigation by the Brambell Committee into the conditions in which farm animals were being kept.

They Five Freedoms are…

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst.
2. Freedom from discomfort.
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease.
4. Freedom to express normal behavior.
5. Freedom from fear and distress.

Read on to see how our farm works to provide these freedoms!

1 - Freedom from Hunger and Thirst: by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigor.

Our cattle and hogs have access to fresh water and feed at all times. During the summer, the cattle are rotated daily to fresh pasture and every year we work to diversify our pasture species so they have a diverse diet. The hogs are moved weekly on pasture and supplemented with a locally-grown, non-GMO feed. In the winter, the cattle get hay and continue to graze stockpiled grasses as possible.

Making sure the animals have enough feed and water is the #1 chore for us as livestock managers. It is our daily routine to check on them, make sure the water system is working, and give more feed.

2 - Freedom from Discomfort: by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.

Just like we look to science to understand our soils, we must look to science to understand what our livestock need for shelter and comfort. Unfortunately, we’ve heard stories of people who judge the way that animals are raised because they use their human-biased perspective to assume how other species should live.

For example, a neighbor who called the humane society on a livestock guardian dog who was wearing a yoke to prevent him from getting out of the perimeter fence. The farmer told us that sadly she was made to put the dog on a 15 foot chain now while he guards the sheep — a much less humane practice than wearing a yoke, in her eyes. Or you might be surprised to know that one animal welfare study discovered that goats spent more time lying on rubber matting and plastic slats than wood shavings indicating that goats may prefer solid surfaces to lie on over softer bedding.

On our farm, this looks like providing shelter — sometimes a barn, but often a natural shelter like pine trees or shrubs — and shade. Both cattle and pigs need access to shade during the hotter months, particularly pigs who can get sun burnt. We create shade structures and plant trees into pasture to provide this invaluable shade. When the cattle or hogs have to be in a man-made structure, we “deep bed” the area with a couple feet of straw to keep them dry and warm.

3 -  Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease: by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.

I’ll admit, noticing illness or injury quickly in the herd can be hard. Especially because prey animals (like cows) often mask their pain so as not to appear weak to predators. This is why observation is our most important skill. We take time every day to watch the cattle and pigs. We look for lameness, check on the quality of their manure as a sign of health, and make sure the cattle’s rumens are full. We also look for general alertness and behaviors that signal their health. Are their ears drooping? Are their noses snotty? Is one pig always the last one to come to the feeder? When there are issues, we either treat them ourselves with things like dewormer or pinkeye spray — or we call our vet when an expert is needed. Though issues rarely arise due to raising the livestock out on pastures

4 -  Freedom to Express Normal Behavior: by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.

This is where pasture-based operations excel over confinement operations! Our pigs have the space and freedom to get the “zoomies” and our cattle have the joy of being outside year-round. We aim to mimic the most natural setting for our livestock, where the cattle can graze like bovines always have and the hogs can root around in the dirt like wild boars do.

What does the science say? One study of dairy cows in continuously housed versus pastured-based systems found that pasture access “had benefits for dairy cow behaviour, in terms of grazing, improved lying/resting times and lower levels of aggression.” When given the choice between pasture and indoor housing, cows showed an overall preference for pasture, particularly at night.

5 -  Freedom from Fear and Distress: by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

In our operation, the most stress occurs for the livestock when they’re being transported — i.e. when we buy cattle from another farm, move the herd to leased pasture, or haul the cattle to the butcher. The art of “handling” is one that we’ve gotten better at over the years, understanding the animal’s flight zones when herding them towards the barn and designing handling systems that are low-stress.

If you observe CJ and I loading the cattle, you won’t hear much. We don’t shout or use cattle prods, but rather position our bodies to persuade the cattle to move in the right direction. We set up gates in the barn so that the animals move through a series of choices to take the “path of least resistance.” If you’ve worked with cattle, you know that it’s much more effective if the animal makes the decision to step into the trailer versus being forced out of fear or stress. Temple Grandin has done amazing work on this front. Furthermore, some interesting research discovered that cattle found that shouting was as aversive as cattle prods when being loaded, but being spoken to gently was not rewarding to them.

For the hogs, we take care to put the trailer into their field at least a week prior to hauling them, so they get used to it. We put feed inside the trailer and they go in and out of it all week, associating it with food and ease. When the day comes to haul them to the butcher, they walk in on their own with little to no stress.