scholarly journals Assessing Animal Welfare and Farm Profitability in Cow-Calf Operations with Stochastic Partial Budgeting

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 382
Author(s):  
Haseeb Ahmed ◽  
Karin Alvåsen ◽  
Charlotte Berg ◽  
Helena Hansson ◽  
Jan Hultgren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Disease Incidence ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Herd Size ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Farm Animal Welfare ◽  
Partial Budgeting ◽  
Cow Calf

The societal demand for good farm animal welfare (FAW) has increased over time. Yet, very little is known about the economic consequences of improvements in FAW in cow–calf operations. This study investigates on-farm economic consequences of improved FAW measures in cow–calf operations. It uses a stochastic partial budgeting approach to examine the relationship between contribution margins and improvements in FAW in terms of increased space allowance for a typical Swedish cow-calf operation, as compared to current practices. In the current practice, a cow should be given at least 5 m2 and the calf 2.2 m2. We found that a 0.5 m2 increase in space allowance per calf (achieved by a corresponding reduction of herd size) was associated with a 6.9 to 18.7% reduction in contribution margins in the short term. Our analysis does not include possible indirect gains like decrease in disease incidence and enhanced non-use or ‘soft’ values associated with increased FAW. However, our analysis indicates that high FAW standards can be costly and careful cost–benefit analysis should be a part of decision-making processes regarding FAW standards. Our results also suggest a need for government support payments and/or the development of market mechanisms to stimulate farmers to continue producing livestock-based foods with high FAW.

scholarly journals Pain Management in Farm Animals: Focus on Cattle, Sheep and Pigs

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1483
Author(s):  
Paulo V. Steagall ◽  
Hedie Bustamante ◽  
Craig B. Johnson ◽  
Patricia V. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Pain Management ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Pain Assessment ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Scoring Systems ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Farm Animal Welfare ◽  
Food Animals

Pain causes behavioral, autonomic, and neuroendocrine changes and is a common cause of animal welfare compromise in farm animals. Current societal and ethical concerns demand better agricultural practices and improved welfare for food animals. These guidelines focus on cattle, sheep, and pigs, and present the implications of pain in terms of animal welfare and ethical perspectives, and its challenges and misconceptions. We provide an overview of pain management including assessment and treatment applied to the most common husbandry procedures, and recommendations to improve animal welfare in these species. A cost-benefit analysis of pain mitigation is discussed for food animals as well as the use of pain scoring systems for pain assessment in these species. Several recommendations are provided related to husbandry practices that could mitigate pain and improve farm animal welfare. This includes pain assessment as one of the indicators of animal welfare, the use of artificial intelligence for automated methods and research, and the need for better/appropriate legislation, regulations, and recommendations for pain relief during routine and husbandry procedures.

scholarly journals Costs and Benefits of Improving Farm Animal Welfare

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Jill N. Fernandes ◽  
Paul H. Hemsworth ◽  
Grahame J. Coleman ◽  
Alan J. Tilbrook
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Farm Animal ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Farm Animal Welfare ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Course Of Action

It costs money to improve the welfare of farm animals. For people with animals under their care, there are many factors to consider regarding changes in practice to improve welfare, and the optimal course of action is not always obvious. Decision support systems for animal welfare, such as economic cost–benefit analyses, are lacking. This review attempts to provide clarity around the costs and benefits of improving farm animal welfare, thereby enabling the people with animals under their care to make informed decisions. Many of the costs are obvious. For example, training of stockpeople, reconfiguration of pens, and administration of pain relief can improve welfare, and all incur costs. Other costs are less obvious. For instance, there may be substantial risks to market protection, consumer acceptance, and social licence to farm associated with not ensuring good animal welfare. The benefits of improving farm animal welfare are also difficult to evaluate from a purely economic perspective. Although it is widely recognised that animals with poor welfare are unlikely to produce at optimal levels, there may be benefits of improving animal welfare that extend beyond production gains. These include benefits to the animal, positive effects on the workforce, competitive advantage for businesses, mitigation of risk, and positive social consequences. We summarise these considerations into a decision tool that can assist people with farm animals under their care, and we highlight the need for further empirical evidence to improve decision-making in animal welfare.

scholarly journals The legislative, ethical, and conceptual importance of replicability in farm animal welfare science.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Lorenz Gygax
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Farm Animal ◽  
Farm Animals ◽  
Ethical Aspect ◽  
Farm Animal Welfare ◽  
Industrial Setting ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Conceptual Problems ◽  
Animal Welfare Legislation

Abstract This article discusses the points of consideration in animal behaviour and applied ethology studies in farm animals, including animal welfare legislation and its potential economic consequences on animal keepers (such as farmers), the ethical aspect of using animals for experimentation that are routinely kept in millions in an industrial setting and the conceptual problems and benefits when testing animals at different facilities (e.g. farms).

scholarly journals Integrated drought risk assessment to support adaptive policy making in the Netherlands

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjolein Mens ◽  
Gigi van Rhee ◽  
Femke Schasfoort ◽  
Neeltje Kielen
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Drought Risk ◽  
Adaptive Policy ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Support Decision Making

Abstract. Adaptive policy-making to prepare for current and future drought risks requires an integrated assessment of policy actions and combinations of those under changing conditions. This entails quantification of drought risks, integrating drought probability and socio-economic consequences for all relevant sectors that are potentially impacted by drought. The investment costs of proposed policy actions and strategies (various actions combined) can then be compared with the expected risk reduction to determine the cost-effectiveness. This paper presents a method to quantify drought risk in the Netherlands under changing future conditions and in response to policy actions. It illustrates how to use this information as part of a societal cost-benefit analysis and in building an adaptive long-term strategy. The method has been successfully applied to support decision making on the Netherlands’ national drought risk management strategy as part of the National Delta Program for climate change adaptation.

scholarly journals Identification of Suitable Animal Welfare Assessment Measures for Extensive Beef Systems in New Zealand

Agriculture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kaurivi ◽  
Richard Laven ◽  
Rebecca Hickson ◽  
Kevin Stafford ◽  
Tim Parkinson
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Beef Cattle ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Farm Animal Welfare ◽  
Welfare Assessment ◽  
Assessment Protocol ◽  
Assessment Measures ◽  
Animal Welfare Assessment ◽  
Cow Calf ◽  
Cattle Systems

Farm animal welfare assessment protocols use different measures depending on production systems and the purpose of the assessment. There is no standardized validated animal welfare protocol for the assessment of beef cattle farms in New Zealand, despite the importance of beef exports to the country. The aim of this study was therefore to identify welfare measures that would be suitable for an animal welfare assessment protocol for use in extensive pasture-based cow–calf beef cattle systems in New Zealand. The proposed animal welfare assessment measures were selected from the Welfare Quality protocol and the rangeland-based UC Davis Cow–Calf Health and Handling assessment protocol. Measures that were deemed impractical and/or unsuitable were excluded from the protocol. After testing the applicability of selected measures at one farm, additional measures that were deemed to be practical to undertake in New Zealand were identified and incorporated into the protocol. The intention was to identify animal welfare indicators that were assessable in the yard during a single farm visit, a questionnaire guided interview, and a farm resource assessment visit that evaluated cattle health and management. Further testing of the 50 measures that were identified as being appropriate will be undertaken on commercial beef farms to develop a practicable welfare protocol for extensive pasture-based beef systems.

Assessing economic consequences of improved animal welfare in Swedish cattle fattening operations using a stochastic partial budgeting approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 232 ◽  
pp. 103920
Author(s):  
Haseeb Ahmed ◽  
Karin Alvåsen ◽  
Charlotte Berg ◽  
Helena Hansson ◽  
Jan Hultgren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Partial Budgeting

The use of animals in research: counting the costs and the benefits

2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Rickard
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Economic Gain ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

The Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes requires Animal Ethics Committees to assess the merits of any research proposal involving the use of sentient animals. As part of that assessment they should make a judgment as to whether or not the costs to the welfare of the experimental animals are outweighed by the benefits of the predicted experimental outcome (i.e. conduct a cost–benefit analysis). This paper describes one approach that has been proposed to assist Animal Ethics Committees to take all factors into account when making this judgment. When agricultural animals are used in research the potential benefits are usually measured in terms of improved health and welfare or increased productivity when the research outcomes are applied to other animals reared in agricultural enterprises. When the aim of a project is to improve the health and welfare of the animals (i.e. ‘animal benefit’), the benefits are usually obvious and counting the cost is straightforward even if the impact on the animals under experimentation is quite extreme (e.g. death as an unavoidable endpoint in a vaccination experiment). Where the benefits accrue solely in terms of increased productivity or economic gain (i.e. ‘human benefit’), then balancing the costs and the benefits can be more problematical because people’s personal beliefs and their orientation towards animal welfare influence their assessment. Economists indicate that it is not increased productivity per se that generates value but consumption. Therefore, consumer perceptions of any adverse impact that gains in productivity have on the welfare of farmed animals can play a significant role in determining the ultimate benefit (value) of a particular piece of research with the sole aim to increase production and economic gain. This paper will explore some postulated relationships between productivity and animal welfare which could influence consumer preferences and hence the cost–benefit analysis.

External and Internal Asset Partitioning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Hansmann ◽  
Richard Squire
Keyword(s):  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Corporate Groups ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Asset Partitioning

This chapter analyzes the economic consequences of external and internal asset partitioning, and it considers implications of this analysis for creditor remedies. External partitioning refers to the legal boundaries between business firms and their equity investors, while internal partitioning refers to the legal boundaries within corporate groups. The chapter begins by cataloguing the benefits and costs of corporate partitioning; it then employs this catalogue to analyze the relative economics of external and internal partitioning. Non-partitioning functions of subsidiaries are also identified. The chapter then considers whether cost-benefit analysis predicts how courts actually apply de-partitioning remedies, with particular emphasis on veil piercing and enterprise liability. The chapter concludes by arguing that courts should employ the distinction between external and internal partitioning when applying creditor remedies that disregard corporate partitions, and it identifies factors—in addition to whether a partition is internal or external—that courts should consider when deciding whether to de-partition.

Limitations to Productivity

1994 ◽  
Vol 1994 ◽  
pp. 61-61
Author(s):  
A.J.F. Webster
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Animal Science ◽  
Gross Efficiency ◽  
Physiological Capacity ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Livestock Systems

Productivity in livestock systems is closely correlated with gross efficiency. Improving efficiency by increasing productivity is an honourable pursuit since it minimises waste; not least the waste of animals through disease, infertility or simply the inability to provide food in excess of maintenance. By this (limited) definition the limits to productivity in any system are defined only by the quality of feed available and the genetic and physiological capacity of the animal to convert it into food for man. However, the approach to the limit is asymptotic, i.e. subject to the law of diminishing returns. Until recently most Animal Science has been directed towards marginal improvements in productivity but we now recognise the need to broaden our objectives to include quality of life criteria, such as environmental protection and animal welfare. My remit is to consider how to incorporate a proper concern for animal welfare into the assessment of limits to productivity,or more precisely, the cost/benefit analysis of marginal responses to increased intensity of production.

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