Tiina Kauppinen

Relationships between pig welfare, productivity and farmer disposition

The aim of this study was, firstly, to investigate the connection between on-farm assessed welfare scores and production parameters for sows, and secondly, to examine how farmers perceive the connection between their disposition, animal welfare and productivity. We assessed environmental and management preconditions on animal welfare and interviewed farmers on 30 Finnish farms. We studied the relationship between welfare and production using correlation and regression analyses. The theory of planned behaviour served as an articulation of farmer disposition when studying farmer perceptions. Concerning the production data, better welfare scores from the ‘health and stockmanship’ category during lactation were correlated with shorter reproduction cycle and fewer stillborn piglets and it also explained some of the variation in the number of piglets per year and the length of the farrowing interval. The farmers agreed that the productivity parameters and the principles of assessing welfare used in this study were relevant. A majority of farmers considered that animal welfare affects productivity and that there are associations between farmer attitudes, animal welfare and productivity. There were no statistical relationships between farmer perceptions and animal welfare; yet on the farms of farmers with positive perceptions of attitudes to animal welfare and productivity there were slightly lower piglet mortality rates and lower stillbirth rates than on the farms with farmers holding less positive views. We conclude that actions to improve animal welfare also have an economic impact as they enhance sow production. Good stockmanship and healthier animals result in more piglets born and a shorter reproduction cycle.

Attitudes of beef producers to disbudding and perception of pain in cattle

Pain is an indicator of welfare status in livestock, and attitudes play a key role in the assessment and treatment of pain in animals. Veterinarians’ and dairy producers’ perceptions of cattle pain are affected by gender, age and work experience. The aim of this paper was to study beef producers’ attitudes regarding disbudding as well as the painfulness of certain cattle diseases. A questionnaire was sent out to 1,000 Finnish beef producers and the response rate was 44%, representing 19% of all Finnish beef producers. Producers graded their attitudes on a five-point Likert scale and perception about pain on an eleven-point numerical scale. Factor analysis was used and four factors were established. These factors described producers’ assessment of disbudding-related pain, their sensitivity to pain in cattle, their willingness to self-medicate disbudded calves and their perceived importance of horns. Factor scores were tested for differences between genders and the use of disbudding on farms with Mann Whitney U-tests. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess differences among producers’ age, work experience and herd size. Female beef producers assessed animal pain higher than male beef producers. Older and more experienced beef producers showed more positive attitudes towards cattle with horns than younger or less-experienced ones. Older beef producers were more sensitive to cattle pain than younger producers and beef producers with a smaller herd size took disbudding pain more seriously and were more sensitive to cattle pain than the producers with larger herds. Producers who did not use disbudding valued horns more than producers using disbudding.