Preparatory work for the scientific opinion on welfare assessment of dairy cows in small scale farming systems
Abstract
The activities under Objective 1 will lead to the following outputs: 1. A methodology and criteria to identify international, national and regional organisations representing or grouping small scale farms associations or networks of dairy farmers including those with a specific focus on “non-conventional” production systems. 2. A methodology and criteria to identify relevant sources of information and data on small scale farms. 3. An identification of relevant umbrella international, national and regional organisations. Objective 2 aims to list the criteria for the description of the small scale farms. As a starting point, from gathered information of the umbrella organizations (in Objective 1), the objective will be to set the criteria to define the small scale farms at different general and structural characteristics: socio–economical and productive aspects, orientation market type, intensification level, and dimension. This list of criteria will also include more technical aspects: feeding and husbandry systems, resources and management practices (e.g. herd size, number of lactating cows, level of production, etc.). In Objective 3, a draft protocol for the farm-based survey on risk factors and Animal-Based Measures (ABMs) will be developed and refined for small scale farms. Based on the outcomes of Objective 2, the consortium will propose a sampling plan for the farm-based survey on risk factors and animal-based measures in small scale farms. The sampling plan will be built with the goal to have a range of situations of risk factors. The survey will be performed in 120 farms with at least 5 farms per relevant category identified. Objective 5 has the central role to combine on farm assessment of risk factors and animal based measures , which will be used later to understand the suitability of the proposed small farm criteria. This will be done by on farm testing and potential revision of the protocol (using the draft protocol developed by Objective 4), training of observers and application on 120 farms. Data will be collected and submitted in close collaboration with Objective 6. This objective will be carried out to submit the data collected during farm visits via the EFSA Data Collection Framework (DCF).
Publikationen
Project staff
Christoph Winckler
Univ.Prof. Dr.med.vet. Christoph Winckler
christoph.winckler@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-93221
BOKU Project Leader
01.10.2014 - 30.06.2015