Welfare group Voiceless turns its scrutiny on the dairy industry
Anna Vidot
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Wool, pork, poultry and live exports have already faced intense scrutiny from animal rights groups - and now it's milk.
The animal welfare group Voiceless says it has serious concerns about the treatment of Australian dairy cows and calves.
But farmers say the diary industry is already committed to animal health and welfare.
Anna Vidot reports.
ANNA VIDOT: Voiceless will formally launch its report, aimed at consumers, later this month.
The welfare group raises specific concerns about tail docking, the treatment of bobby calves, and the workload of dairy cows.
But Elise Burgess from Voiceless says the report isn't aimed at shutting down dairy farming; the group wants to start a conversation.
ELISE BURGESS: Because what we've seen is that the status quo hasn't been challenged in quite a long time, unlike some of the other animal industries, where we have seen a lot of discussion around animal husbandry practices.
ANNA VIDOT: In the report, Voiceless urges consumers to reduce their dairy consumption because, they say, more demand means more production, means more stress for dairy cows.
Elise Burgess says the group's researchers found many consumers don't realise that dairy cows have to keep calving to produce milk.
ELISE BURGESS: A cow must have a calf every 13 months in order to be able to produce a high volume of milk. And our biggest concern is 1) the separation of the cow and calf, which we have documented in scientific evidence how distressing that process is; and then, also, the early slaughter of around 800,000 bobby calves every year.
These are calves who are essentially born and within five days of life are slaughtered because they are deemed waste product. And all of this is driven by high production.
We're talking: a cow having a calf every 13 months and that puts enormous stress on her body. And it's because there is such demand for such high volume of milk.
ANNA VIDOT: But the group representing dairy producers says it's not right to say that calving every 13 months places an unacceptable burden on cows.
And the president of Australian Dairy Farmers, Noel Campbell, says there are specific reasons why the industry recommends the early removal of calves from their mothers.
NOEL CAMPBELL: In states where Johne's disease is an issue, the recommendation for the least possibility of Johne's disease being taken from generation to generation is the removal of the calf within 12 hours. So the cow does have the ability to feed their calf with colostrum and farmers, generally speaking, feed the colostrum as well to make sure that their calf has the best opportunity, you know, not to have disease.
Now, there is some also discussion around that we overwork cows. Our genetics over a number of years have been for not just milk production but they've been for longevity, to not have lameness, fertility. There's a whole raft of things that we actually look for in our breeding program.
It's not about production: it's about the welfare of the cows. So I think we as an industry, we do look after our animals.
ANNA VIDOT: Australian Dairy Farmers hasn't yet seen the final Voiceless report. But Noel Campbell says his group and Dairy Australia spoke with Voiceless a number of times while it was being prepared. He says some of those discussions were very productive and there is some common ground.
For example, the industry itself has proposed a ban on tail docking and Noel Campbell says industry's also working through welfare standards and guidelines for dehorning and disbudding, including discussions about pain relief.
But Noel Campbell's has rejected a key recommendation of the Voiceless report: that welfare assurance schemes be created to certify farmers who voluntarily meet the highest possible standards.
NOEL CAMPBELL: That then makes an assumption that if someone hasn't actually signed onto that, that they've got animal health and welfare practices that are sub-standard - that's not the case.
I think we need to have an industry as a whole that is prepared to put its hand up and say, "We have got good animal welfare practices. We've got to be able to run our businesses effectively."
The vast majority of farmers recognise the fact that they need good practices to have a good business. And I think that's extremely important for people to understand.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Australian Dairy Farmers president Noel Campbell ending Anna Vidot's report.
Welfare group Voiceless says it has serious concerns about the treatment of Australian dairy cows and calves. It wants consumers to reduce their dairy consumption, and a new welfare certification scheme for milk production. But farmers say that would send the wrong message, and that the industry is already committed to the health and welfare of their cows.