Dairy NZ

Animal Welfare – awareness and change

This programme is aimed at providing educational support and resources to ensure good on-farm animal welfare practices are understood and adopted by NZ dairy farmers.

During 2011-12, this project will deliver:

1. Operational management of a system to assist farmers through coordination of industry and community resource, linking at-risk farms with the right people to provide effective help and support.
2. Activities to support good on-farm practice through:
• Practical training workshops in stock skills for new entries to dairy farming.
   Topics tor 2012 will be decided based on debrief of the June 2011 workshops and consultation with stakeholders, and will be informed by results of the 2011 survey
• Introduction of an animal husbandry on-farm checklist to prompt discussion  and information transfer about obligations under the dairy cattle code of welfare.
3. Assessment of industry compliance with animal welfare guidelines for dairy farming (utilising the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare standards).