Document type : Best practice information sheets published by Care4Dairy
Authors: Care4Dairy
Preview: Care4Dairy has produced best practice guides (available in French) for four key stages in dairy production: dairy calves, heifers, lactating cows and cows at the end of their career. Each best practice guide is a compilation of fact sheets summarizing recent scientific and technical data in favor of animal welfare. They are user-friendly, solutions-based and have been developed in partnership with the dairy industry. Each fact sheet describes good and best practices and is structured according to the four pillars of animal welfare: feed, housing, health and behavior. Some topics may concern more than one life stage, and this is indicated at the beginning of each sheet.
Life stages are characterized as follows:
- calves calves are defined as cattle from birth to 6 months of age
- heifers heifers are generally between 7 and 24 months of age
- mature mature cows are over 2 years old
- cows at the end end-of-career cows - animals may be 2 years or older until the end of their productive lives, whether as a result of natural culling, disease or injury.
Information on bull care has been included in the relevant text, although this group is not within the direct scope of Care4Dairy. In addition to the guides, several EU member states have shared "success story" examples where best practices have been used either in training, on-farm evaluations and through communication tools. Other resources are provided in addition to the best practice guides.
