Dutch organic dairy farmers expressed their opinions on animal health and welfare in order to be able to communicate it internally (within the dairy sector) and externally (to consumers). A healthy animal in their opinion is free of physical and psychological discomfort, survives in a herd, takes enough food and behaves naturally. Disease resistance, both innate and achieved, plays a crucial role in health and welfare. Breeding should aim at health criteria and high production may even be sacrificed for good health. Prevention is more important than treatment. A diseased animal should, to some extend, be given the opportunity to recover by itself. However, needless suffering should be prevented by effective treatment, which only as a last remedy, may be antibiotics. For the assessment of suffering, the intensity and duration of pain should all be taken into account, as well as the course of the disease and its prognosis, feed and water intake, survival in the herd and body reserves. Moreover, more regulations are no guarantee for a better health and welfare. Housing, adequate feeding, care and the farmers’ attitude toward his animals all contribute to animal health and welfare

Bestman, M.W.P.

Eijck, I.A.J.M.

Smolders, E.A.A.

English

NARCIS 

Vision of Dutch organic dairy farmers on animal health and welfare

Name not available

Wageningen Yield 

16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008 
Archived at http://orgprints.org/view/projects/conference.html 
 
 
Vision of Dutch organic dairy farmers on animal health and welfare  
Gidi Smolders1, Monique Bestman2 & Ineke Eijck3 
Key words: disease resistance, prevention, suffering 
Abstract 
Dutch organic dairy farmers expressed their opinions on animal health and welfare in  
order to be able to communicate it internally (within the dairy sector) and externally (to 
consumers). A healthy animal in their opinion is free of physical and psychological 
discomfort, survives in a herd, takes enough food and behaves naturally. Disease 
resistance, both innate and achieved, plays a crucial role in health and welfare. 
Breeding should aim at health criteria and high production may even be sacrificed for 
good health. Prevention is more important than treatment. A diseased animal should, 
to some extend,  be given the opportunity to recover by itself. However, needless 
suffering should be prevented by effective treatment, which only as a last remedy, 
may be antibiotics. For the assessment of suffering, the intensity and duration of pain 
should all be taken into account, as well as the course of the disease and its 
prognosis, feed and water intake, survival in the herd and body reserves. Moreover, 
more regulations are no guarantee for a better health and welfare. Housing, adequate 
feeding, care and the farmers’ attitude toward his animals all contribute to animal 
health and welfare. 
Introduction 
Compared to conventional dairy husbandry, organic animals do have about the same 
health status (Eijck et al, 2003) and better welfare (Ruis and Pinxterhuis, 2007). Some 
recent developments in the Dutch organic dairy sector are the increasing farm size, 
scattered attention of the stockman because of other farm activities, minimizing use of 
antibiotics, cattle being used in order to maintain natural grassland, inclusion of feed of 
nature grasslands in diets, closing feed cycles and 100% organic feed (Smolders et al, 
2007). On farms producing special product (i.e. organic farms) according to 
Dijkhuizen&Hort (1997) there will be more focus on development and application of 
alternative treatment. These developments might compromise animal health and 
welfare. For a sustainable organic dairy husbandry, regulations should include also 
customer safety, human welfare and economy (Noordhuizen & Metz, 2005). At the 
same time, focus should be more on preventive measures instead of treatment. 
Farmers and their advisors have questions about ‘complementary’ medicine. 
especially about their effectiveness. These developments demand a strategic vision 
on animal health and welfare, supported by the organic dairy sector. In order to be 
able to formulate such a vision, dairy farmers  were invited to react on a list of 
questions and statements.    
                                                 
1 Animal Sciences Group of WUR, Postbox 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands. E-mail: 
gidi.smolders@wur.nl. Internet: www.asg.wur.nl 
2 Louis Bolk Instituut, Hoofdstraat 24, 3972 LA Driebergen, the Netherlands. E-mail: 
m.bestman@louisbolk.nl. Internet: www.louisbolk.nl 
3 Address as note 1. E-mail: info@spf-gezondevarkens.nl 
16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008 
Archived at http://orgprints.org/view/projects/conference.html 
 
 
Materials and methods  
The statements and questions were formulated by researchers. Organic dairy farmers 
were asked to give their opinion about the statements and comment on the following 
subjects:  
- an animal is healthy if it is not diseased visibly, 
- antibiotics should be replaced by vaccinations, 
- all new developments should be applied to fade out antibiotics, 
- utmost hygiene is bad for disease resistance, 
- an animal can recover by itself: but this may need some time, 
- it must be possible to apply non-registered medicines, 
- advisers should take into account the specific wishes of organic farmers,  
- zoönoses should be monitored and control programmes should be 
compulsory, 
- animal welfare should have more attention, but is not measurable, 
- economy is more important than ‘trouble free production’, 
- organic production is always good for the animal, 
- purely home-grown feed is not good for animal health. 
  
Statements and questions about animal health and welfare were send by email or by 
paper mail to organic dairy farmers. 31 dairy farmers reacted by mail or phone and 
another 25 farmers gave their opinion in a meeting of the dairy farmers union 
“Natuurweide”.  
Results 
Health is defined as the possibility to survive in a herd, take enough food and behave 
more or less natural. It is more than the absence of physical and psychological 
discomfort. Despite more rules aiming at a better animal welfare in organic, compared 
to conventional farming, this is no guarantee for a better animal health and welfare. 
Housing (including outdoor areas), adequate feeding, care and the farmers’ attitude 
towards his animals will contribute to animal health and welfare. If these aspects fail, 
the control body should persuade or even force farmers to implement improvements. 
All farmers are convinced that disease resistance plays a crucial role in the health and 
welfare of their animals. Animals that live long enough to develop an active immune 
system, should be given the opportunity to achieve that.  In case of animals without 
this possibility or in case of diseases that cannot be overcome or cause great 
economic damage, vaccinations could be used to gain specific resistance. 
In breeding programmes one should, besides production criteria, aim at health criteria. 
The general opinion is that for production without health problems, some yield may be 
sacrificed. The expectation is that somehow this will turn out in economic and 
psychological profit. 
16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008 
Archived at http://orgprints.org/view/projects/conference.html 
 
 
Rearing replacement animals on the farm is to be preferred above buying young 
animals, because of resistance against farm specific pathogens. It is important to keep 
the farm closed by avoiding the introduction of new animals. However, organic farmers 
pursuit for close contacts with consumers and therefore need ‘open’ farms. Farmers 
think that, given a good disease resistance, there is no need for utmost hygiene in 
order to minimize the risks of pathogens to enter the farm and or move between 
animal groups on the farm. 
Preventing animals from disease, is given priority above treatment. If an animal is 
diseased, it should be given the opportunity to recover by itself. If and how long this 
should take, depends on the disease: the infection-risk for herd mates and the 
prognosis for recovery. To a certain degree suffering may be part of recovering, but 
needless suffering should be prevented by effective treatment. In order to judge when 
suffering becomes needlessly, aspects should be taken into account of intensity and 
duration of the pain, course of the disease and chances of the animal, feed and water 
intake, survival in the herd and body reserves. Treatments administered must be 
effective and antibiotics should be administered only as a last remedy. In research 
more attention should be given to alternative and complementary treatments. At the 
same time, the ‘off-label use’ on commercial farms should be discouraged. Non-
registered medicines are defined not only as complementary medicines (for example 
homeopathy) but also medicines registered for other animal species. For example, 
medicines approved for dairy cows might be effective in goat as well, but are not 
registered as such, because of the expensive procedure. The approval procedure of 
this last category of medicines should be facilitated. Measures for prevention and 
treatments according to a farm specific plan, contribute to the health and welfare of 
farm animals. Such a plan consists of measures to be taken in case of specific health 
and welfare problems. Because the consumer must be supplied with absolutely safe 
products, monitoring of zoönoses should also be part of this plan. 
On-farm growing of feed nor organic regulations concerning animal food may hinder 
animal welfare. In cattle little difficulties are to be expected, but independent advisors 
with a large scope and good knowledge of organic farm management are needed to 
keep farmers alert and prevent them from organisational blindness. 
Summarising statements concerning dairy cows: 
- A healthy animal gleams, is active, takes enough food and is pleasant, 
without problems, produces enough and does not transmit diseases to 
offspring and herd mates. 
- Banning antibiotics is not a necessity. Important is that one tries by all 
means to prevent the animals from getting ill. Administration of antibiotics 
should only be done in case of life-threatening situations. 
- Administration of alternative medicines depends on the seriousness of the 
disorder. In life-threatening situations, only approved and registered 
medicines should be administered. Other disorders can be treated in a more 
‘natural’ way. 
- Utmost hygiene limits the development of the immune system. Although 
farmers should work hygienic, they don’t need to use all kinds of products to 
achieve the highest hygiene standard. 
- Trusting on the ability to recover by itself may be accompanied by some 
degree of suffering. Suffering is regarded as part of a natural healing 
16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008 
Archived at http://orgprints.org/view/projects/conference.html 
 
 
process. However, in case of severe pain or long periods of suffering, 
human intervention is needed. 
- The use of non-registered medicines should be accepted only under strict 
conditions and directives and preferably under experimental conditions.  
The use of non-registered medicines is bad for the image of the dairy 
sector, has little or no effect and does not add anything to the health care of 
cows. However, a part of the farmers is positive about homeopathy. 
- Advisors should take into account the specific preconditions of organic 
farming. Without solid and reliable advisors, not always the best decisions 
concerning animal feeding and animal health are being made. 
- In order to guarantee animal and human health, zoönoses should be 
prevented. Participation in programs should be obligatory, with respect to 
organic starting points. 
- Production without health and welfare problems justifies a somewhat lower 
production level and should be the starting point in dairy husbandry. If that 
point is reached, economics will be all right and farmers will do their job with 
pleasure. 
- Working according to the organic production rules is not automatically good 
for animal welfare. In order to measure animal welfare, the following 
management figures could be used: mean age of the herd, number of 
incomplete lactations, yield, body condition score, percentage of cows with 
skin damages, percentage of lame cows and percentage of cows with 
mastitis. In behavioural studies animal welfare can be objectified.  
- Growing all feed on the farm is not necessarily a risk for animal health. It 
depends on the type of farm and soil. However, it should be possible to give 
additional minerals and trace elements when shortages occur. 
References  
Eijck, I.A.J.N., Smolders, E.A.A., Gaag, van der, M.A. and Bokma – Bakker, M.H. (2003). 
Diergezondheid biologische houderij versus gangbare houderij. Praktijkrapport rundvee 32, 
Mei 2003, 48 p. 
Dijkhuizen, A.A and Horst, H.S. (1997): Een toonaangevende diergezondheid in 2015 haalbaar 
mits betaalbaar. In NRLO rapport 97/30: Naar een gezonde veehouderij in 2015, p 59-75. 
Noordhuizen, J.P.T.M. & Metz, J.H.M. (2005): Quality control on dairy farms with emphasis on 
public health, food safety, animal health and welfare.  Livestock Production Sciences 94, 51-
59. 
Ruis, M. and Pinxterhuis, I. (2007). Verantwoorde en communiceerbare argumenten bij 
biologische producten: dierenwelzijn. ASG-rapport 39, March 2007, 78 p. 
Smolders, Gidi, Bestman Monique, Eijck Ineke (2007). Vision health and welfare organic farm 
animals. ASG rapport 55, July 2007, 24 p. 
 


Bestman Monique, Eijck Ineke

Diergezondheid biologische houderij versus gangbare houderij. Praktijkrapport rundvee 32,

Een toonaangevende diergezondheid in 2015 haalbaar mits betaalbaar.

Quality control on dairy farms with emphasis on public health, food safety, animal health and welfare.

Verantwoorde en communiceerbare argumenten bij biologische producten: dierenwelzijn. ASG-rapport 39,

Vision of Dutch organic dairy farmers on animal health and welfare

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