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Giving Milk a Good Shake Looking at Better Options in the Way We Produce Dairy

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Giving Milk a Good Shake Looking at Better Options in the Way We Produce Dairy Giving Milk a Good Shake looking at better options in the way we produce dairy Lesley Moffat Margret Wenker November, 2014 Preface This report is dedicated to the dairy farmers who had the courage to try out new ideas and stood up for the welfare of the animals they raise. You are the leaders in pushing industry to become a gentler one, and your passion for the animals on your farms is what we admire the most. This report is also dedicated to a very special cow, 6274, that touched us with her curious personality, her expressive eyes and vocalizations as we watched her fragile body being loaded onto a truck from a cull-cow market and unloaded at a slaughterhouse in Friesland. We would like to thank all those farmers who welcomed us on their farms, the market and slaughterhouse managers who showed us their facilities and listened to our suggestions and all the cattle experts (transporters, veterinarians, welfare scientists) who met with us and answered our questions. We are very grateful for their collaboration. Although some people from the dairy industry did not let us in or did not want us to take photos or footage, and some will also find this report confrontational, it is by working together and being open that we can move forward to improve animal welfare, work pleasure for the farmer and customer satisfaction. Lastly, we would like to thank all the volunteer-inspectors from Eyes on Animals who put hours and hours of their free time into helping with the field work and research needed for this project. You are all true assets to the organization. Margret Wenker & Lesley Moffat Wageningen/Amsterdam, October 2014 2 Content 1. Personal comments ........................................................................................................................... 5 2. Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 6 3. Life on a conventional dairy farm...................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Introduction into the Dutch dairy sector ...................................................................................... 8 3.2 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................. 14 3.2.1 Genetics .............................................................................................................................. 14 3.2.2 Cow-calf separation ............................................................................................................ 17 3.2.3 Dehorning ........................................................................................................................... 22 3.2.4 Housing of calves ................................................................................................................ 23 3.2.5 Housing of dairy cows ......................................................................................................... 27 3.2.6 By-products: redundant calves ........................................................................................... 35 4. Life after the dairy farm ................................................................................................................. 38 4.1 Dutch cull-cow markets ............................................................................................................. 38 4.2 Transport of cull-cows ............................................................................................................... 43 4.3 Slaughter of cull-cows ................................................................................................................ 48 4.4 Dutch calf markets ..................................................................................................................... 54 4.5 Transport of calves .................................................................................................................... 56 4.6 Slaughter of calves..................................................................................................................... 59 5. Legislation and label criteria ........................................................................................................... 60 5.1 EU and Dutch legislation............................................................................................................ 60 5.2 Label criteria .............................................................................................................................. 62 5.2.1 Weidemelk ......................................................................................................................... 62 5.2.2 EKO ..................................................................................................................................... 63 5.2.3 Demeter ............................................................................................................................. 64 6. Alternative ways to produce milk: best practices ........................................................................... 66 6.1 De Zonnehoeve .......................................................................................................................... 66 6.2 De Regte Heijden ....................................................................................................................... 67 6.3 Moerdijk .................................................................................................................................... 69 6.4 De Groote Veen ......................................................................................................................... 74 6.5 Hazelbroekhoeve ....................................................................................................................... 77 6.6 Schoonderbeek .......................................................................................................................... 78 7. Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 81 3 8. References ....................................................................................................................................... 83 9. Appendix I: Overview to score pain in cattle (Dutch) .................................................................... 88 10. Appendix II: Legislation ................................................................................................................. 89 10.1 Council Directive 95/58/EC Protection of animals kept for farming purposes ......................... 89 10.2 Dutch Act for Keepers of Animals (‘Besluit houders van dieren’) Chapter 2 Keeping of farm animals (‘Houden van dieren voor landbouwdoeleinden’) paragraph 5 (cattle) & paragraph 5.1 (calves) ............................................................................................................................................. 94 10.3 English Translation of Dutch Act for Keepers of Animals ......................................................... 98 10.4 EC 1/2005 On protection of animals during transport (pertinent to cattle) ............................ 101 10.5 Council regulation (EC) No 1099/2009 On the protection of animals at the time of killing .... 109 10.6 CIWF (UK) letter on EU legislation on Welfare of Dairy cows ................................................. 143 4 1. Personal comments As a Dutch Master student studying Animal Sciences specializing in animal welfare and behaviour at Wageningen University, my main objective is to outline all practices in the Dutch dairy sector from birth till slaughter of cows and calves, and discuss the effects on animal welfare and ethical concerns in the current way of dairy farming. Besides having a critical look at the common current system, it is also important to put emphasis on good practices, since more animal-friendly ways of dairy farming exist that deserve more attention. During my studies I became more and more worried about our farmed animals and the quality of their lives. In my opinion, animal welfare is often impaired by current housing and management on the farm, and by animal transport and slaughter conditions. I applied to be a volunteer inspector at Eyes on Animals in order to learn more about transport and slaughter of farmed animals. Besides this, I wanted to spread my knowledge of agriculture and animal welfare via Eyes on Animals by volunteering for this dairy report project. For this report, I outlined current statistics of the Dutch dairy industry, I sorted out literature on animal welfare aspects in dairy farming, and I visited numerous dairy farms and a cattle market with Eyes on Animals. It is my honour to be part of this project to try to raise peoples’ awareness of dairy cow-welfare in The Netherlands. I hope we can succeed in shaking up consumers and the people in the dairy industry itself (e.g. farmers, cattle market leaders, transporters, and slaughterhouses) by opening their eyes to the poor welfare conditions the majority of our dairy cows suffer from. I also hope we can inspire farmers and other stakeholders in this industry to apply more animal-friendly practices, and to motivate consumers to buy more animal-friendly milk. If we can alter the whole system together with most stakeholders, suffering of these animals can be greatly reduced and better lives for them can be created. Margret Wenker Sept 2014
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