The importance of farm animal welfare
Ethical farming includes efforts to improve animal welfare by adapting the farm environment to better suit animal needs by improving management practices and housing conditions. Of course, animal welfare is about more than physical health, it includes mental health as well.
The assessment of wellbeing should focus on whether the farmed animal has the freedom and capacity to adapt to environmental challenges and how it copes with the conditions in which it lives. A high state of welfare must include being healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, and include mental stimulation where the animal is able to express its instinctive behaviours.[1]
In most intensive farming, calves and piglets are separated from the mother early and housed individually indoors. Research has shown that an early social environment affects behaviour, stress reactivity, and the ability to cope with different challenges. Health, weight gain, and future productivity are also improved when farm animals can spend more time with their mothers.
Pigs, for example, are usually weaned at the relatively young age of four weeks. During an extended pre-weaning period, piglets may learn from the sow about how to eat novel foods and to increase their intake of solid food. Interaction with the sow may also help reduce the development of damaging behaviours and increase play behaviour after weaning. A less abrupt weaning at a higher age improves the welfare of sows and piglets. Additionally, a two-stage weaning procedure has been developed in which a calf is prevented from drinking milk from its mother for a period before separation from the mother. Two-stage weaning may cause less stress than the usual one-stage weaning process.
The barren environments that farmed animals are provided also affect their welfare. Most pigs are kept in barren pens with a concrete and partially slatted floor. According to Pork Australia, around 90 per cent of Australian pigs are housed indoors, often referred to as factory farms.[2]
However, pigs are highly motivated to root, a behaviour that cannot be executed in these types of environments. It has been found that the lack of rooting material leads to increased aggression, ear chewing, biting pen-mates, and restlessness. Depriving pigs of nest building impairs their welfare because it limits expression of their behavioural needs. Animals should be provided with an appropriate environment, including adequate shelter, fresh clean bedding, and a comfortable resting area. Farm animals should have enough space to move freely and have the company of their own kind.
In free range pig production, all pigs are kept outdoors all the time with access to shelter with suitable bedding provided. Similar to free range, is outdoor system farming where all adult breeding sows and boars live in open spaces with access to shelter and bedding.[3]
Consideration should also be given to how animals are fed, with feeding systems in place that reduce bullying and deprivation from food through aggression by other pigs. Feed that maintains optimum physical health free from harmful substances is crucial.
Thankfully, farm animal welfare is now on the radar of consumers and as a result, more humane farming is on the increase.
[1] Farm Animal Welfare: A Review of Standard Practices And Their Effects - Faunalytics
[3] Handbook_for_the_model_code_of_practice.pdf (australianpork.com.au)