Abstract
Public demand for food produced in systems with high animal welfare standards is rising. In terms of animal welfare, the dairy industry has a positive reputation in European countries. However, there are many practices in the dairy industry of which the public is unaware, e.g., zero-grazing, tethering, dehorning, disposal of male calves, and early cow-calf separation. We focused on the latter and reviewed studies addressing public opinions about dealing with calves in dairy farming. We show that most respondents in studies are unaware or reject these practices. During the last years, more and more attention was paid to cow-calf separation. This practice is mainly rejected because it is considered to be unnatural and associated with stress for the animals. However, there is a lack of scientific surveys that explore the public opinion about how much stress is tolerable in animals that have been allowed to live up to their needs for a period of time. On the other hand, the economic aspects of management practices enabling the animals to express their natural behavior to a greater extent than in the current husbandry systems should be investigated comprehensively. The amount of sales and the willingness to pay a higher price for milk and meat produced in such systems might be the key factors to a wider acceptance of such systems by dairy farmers, who will expect to be compensated for their increased efforts.
Highlights
Over the last years, consumers’ interest in animal welfare, in particular in products from animal-friendly husbandry systems, has increased
Consumers’ interest in animal welfare, in particular in products from animal-friendly husbandry systems, has increased. This is reflected by a higher willingness to pay (WTP) for foods from such production systems (Clark et al 2017; Janssen et al 2016)
This review aims to give an overview of the opinions of citizens and consumers towards specific husbandry practices concerning calves in dairy farming from an international viewpoint and to highlight the gaps of knowledge that should be addressed by future studies, to advance calves’ welfare in dairy production
Summary
Consumers’ interest in animal welfare, in particular in products from animal-friendly husbandry systems, has increased (e.g., for Germany: Risius and Hamm 2017). This is reflected by a higher willingness to pay (WTP) for foods from such production systems (Clark et al 2017; Janssen et al 2016). For German consumers, who regularly buy organic products, an animal-friendly husbandry system is the most important reason for their purchasing decisions (BMEL 2017). The milk industry has a relatively good reputation for animal welfare among the population of European countries like the UK and Spain (Ellis et al 2009; María 2006). Consumers advocate natural animal husbandry, they are not aware of many practices, especially in dairy farming
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