Veterinarians’ and agricultural advisors’ perception of calf health and welfare in organic dairy production in Norway

Abstract

Veterinarians, as opposed to other professionals, have been accused of being unduly critical to animal welfare in organic farming. A nationwide questionnaire (QuestBack™) was distributed to 400 Norwegian production animal veterinarians and 400 agricultural dairy advisors to compare attitudes and opinions on calf health and welfare in organic dairy farming. The response rate was 52 % for veterinarians and 54 % for advisors. In direct comparison, both groups thought that the calves’ overall health status and well-being did not differ in organic and conventional dairy farming systems. However, a significant number of both veterinarians and advisors considered the calves’ confidence in people and space allowance to be better in organic dairy herds compared with conventional dairy herds, whereas feed quality was regarded to be poorer. When asked in more depth about organic dairy farming, the majority of respondents considered the routine of keeping calves with their mothers and the good care of the calves by stockpersons as important welfare advantages. Among all factors related to health, welfare, morbidity and mortality, low calf mortality and adequate treatment of disease and injury received the best scores. Body condition and growth, as well as the use of calf health recording cards, received the worst scores. The two professions differed in their views on the most important welfare challenges for calves in an organic environment: while both groups agreed on poor feed quality, veterinarians indicated concern for inadequate disease treatment while advisors pointed to poor hygiene. Results from the questionnaire indicated that the participants’ familiarity with organic standards was relatively poor, especially among the less-experienced professionals. In conclusion, the view that veterinarians are more sceptical towards animal health and welfare in organic production compared with other professionals is not supported. The few differences found between the two groups may reflect different emphases due to their education and focus, e.g. treatment of disease versus advice on feeding, rather than different attitudes to organic farming. Future efforts should address the possible challenges and shortcomings in organic calf production found in the current study.