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Ireland’s dairy industry needs a welfare scheme that features the animal as its central focus, Dr Doreen Corridan from Munster Cattle Breeding told the Nuffield conference delegates.
“It cannot be a tick-box scheme, it should be measuring outcomes that give the animal the life it ought to have, with the outcomes backed up by science,” the vet explained.
“We are very good in this country at developing schemes to try to keep the processor happy and the producer happy, but we need a scheme with the animal at its centre,” she said.
Outcomes
Dr Corridan added that there was too much of a focus on the process in current schemes rather than outcomes.
She quoted the example of lameness in the national dairy herd as an area that an animal-welfare based scheme could provide visible results for both the animals and tangible outcomes for herdowners to buy into.
She added that there also needs to be consequences for the minority of farmers who did not reach the desired industry standards, so that they could not damage the reputation of the majority of compliant farmers.
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