Attitudes and expectations of beef farmers in Austria, Germany and Italy towards the Welfare Quality® assessment system

Abstract

Farmers' attitudes and expectations towards mainly animal-based welfare assessment tools such as the Welfare Quality® protocol are regarded important for successful implementation. The objectives of this study with beef farmers in Austria, Germany and Italy were to investigate farmers' willingness to join such a comprehensive assessment system and their expectations towards expected benefits, practicalities of the assessment procedure and respective feedback mechanisms. For this purpose, questionnaire-guided interviews were carried out with in total 90 beef farmers with alternative housing conditions for beef production, i.e. straw bedding or soft rubber mats at least in the lying area. 65% of the beef farmers were motivated to join a system such as WQ on a regular basis. About three quarters of all farmers considered as important, that the system is able to detect deficiencies in housing and management. Further benefits were expected in terms of profitability, state of animal welfare as well as personal job satisfaction. Regarding the willingness to implement measures to improve the welfare state, 92% of farmers agreed to change management routines and 67% would invest more labour. Only few objections were raised which mainly addressed the fear of new regulations, higher production costs and the reliability of the results. Nevertheless farmers agreed to a large extent to the practicalities of the protocol and would be willing to contribute to data provision. In conclusion, apart from the use for labelling purposes, beef farmers in this study regard a welfare assessment system such as Welfare Quality® as a valid basis for advice. Beyond assessing animals' state, information needed for improvement strategies may therefore be considered. Farmers' trust in the assessment system may be increased by further research with regard to reliability aspects.