Abstract
Early cow-calf separation followed by individual housing of calves is standard practice on dairy farms. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that as awareness grows the public will oppose these practices, which could compromise the dairy industry's social license. Despite disagreement among different stakeholders over weighting and evaluations of effects of early separation (e.g., distress response, disease risk), recent systematic reviews indicate that there is little scientific evidence supporting this practice. The acceptability of alternative cow-calf management systems is unknown. We used a mixed methods survey with a convenience sample of 307 Canadians plus a representative sample of 1,487 Americans to investigate perceptions of these systems, examining the effects of providing social or foster cow contact following early separation or not separating cow-calf pairs. Attitudes and perceptions of animal welfare were more positive (on a 7-point scale where 1 is most negative, 7 is most positive, and 4 is a neutral midpoint) toward the system where calves were not separated from the cow (mean ± SE; 5.8 ± 0.07; 5.7 ± 0.07), compared with systems in which the calf was separated and individually housed (3.6 ± 0.07; 3.4 ± 0.07), separated and group housed (3.7 ± 0.07; 3.4 ± 0.07), or separated and kept with a foster cow (3.8 ± 0.07; 3.6 ± 0.07). Participants were consistent in their attitudes toward and perceptions of animal welfare within the system, suggesting that participants took a holistic and value-oriented approach to cow-calf management regarding separation. These results, in combination with many participants' concern for the importance of the mother cow-calf relationship and perceptions that severing of this bond was a breach of standard of care, suggest that there may be low acceptance of any cow-calf management system involving early separation as such systems are unlikely to resonate with underlying values.
Highlights
Public interest in, and concern for, the treatment and welfare of production animals appears to be growing, or is at least becoming more visible (Verbeke, 2009; Alonso et al, 2020)
There was no difference in attitude between the 3 systems all involving early cow-calf separation, there was an interaction between system and gender (F3,1766 = 8.68; P < 0.0001) resulting from participants who identified as female having more negative attitudes to the 3 systems involving early separation
As with the model of participant attitudes, there were no main system effect differences on perceptions of animal welfare between the 3 systems all involving early cow-calf separation, there was an interaction between system and gender (F3,1765 = 6.64; P = 0.0002) due to participants who identified as female having more negative perceptions of animal welfare to the 3 systems involving early separation
Summary
Concern for, the treatment and welfare of production animals appears to be growing, or is at least becoming more visible (Verbeke, 2009; Alonso et al, 2020) Much of this concern centers on contentious practices and the call for more socially sustainable management practices (Vermeir and Verbeke, 2006; Boogaard et al, 2008). In most dairy production systems cows are separated from their calves within a few hours of birth (reviewed by Beaver et al, 2019), causing acute distress responses (Newberry and Swanson, 2008) and preventing cows from performing and calves from receiving natural maternal behaviors (Flower and Weary, 2003). As reported by Ventura et al (2013) and Pempek et al (2017), some proponents of early separation argue that this practice protects calves from exposure to patho-
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
