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Large-scale investigation of risk factors for multiple welfare indicators in hybrid pasture-based dairy systems is scarce. Our objective was to identify grazing season welfare risk factors on spring-calving, hybrid pasture-based dairy farms where cows experience periods of both grazing and housing. Herd-level data were collected from visits to 93 farms in the primary dairy producing counties of Ireland. Zero-inflated beta regression analysis was used to assess potential associations between categorical management and resource factors, and commonly measured animal-based welfare indicators: locomotion, body condition, nasal and ocular discharge, tail injury, integument damage, and avoidance behaviour. To account for small sample size due to elimination of farms with missing data, analyses were conducted on both a dataset of complete cases, and a dataset where missing values had been substituted for the most common response through single imputation. Resulting risk factors from both methods of analysis were compared for each indicator. Analyses identified 14 risk factors associated with one or more welfare indicators. The proportion of lame cows was positively associated with a previous housing period of four months or more compared to three months, all cubicles being outside recommended lengths and repairing roadways every two to three years compared to either yearly or more than every four years to never. The proportion of cows below minimum target grazing body condition score of 2.75 was negatively associated with participation in elective herd disease-testing in the past year. The proportion of cows with tail lacerations was positively associated with using a single breeding method, not employing part-time staff and not using brisket boards in cubicles. Previous housing period length was significantly associated with the proportion of cows with integument damage, although the direction of association was unclear. Moderate to severe nasal discharge was positively associated with collecting yard holding times of ≤ 60 min compared to > 90 min. Ocular discharge was negatively associated with manual health record-keeping and a collecting yard below the recommended area of 1.4 m 2 /cow. The proportion of cows with an avoidance response distance > 1 m was positively associated with herding cows without a dog present and having no additional full-time staff. Multiple risk factors were related to the housing period, suggesting that potential carry-over effects of housing management on welfare persist into the grazing period. This emphasizes the need for research to consider both housing and grazing periods in the management of welfare in hybrid pasture-based systems., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Lameness is a painful disease, which negatively impacts dairy cow production and welfare. The aim of this observational study was to determine herd lameness prevalence, describe current lameness management practices and identify the presence of established risk factors for lameness on Irish pasture-based dairy farms. Farms were visited once during grazing (99 farms) and again during housing (85 farms). Lameness scoring was carried out at each visit (AHDB 0-3 scale); cows were classified as lame if they scored two or three. Farm management practices and infrastructure characteristics were evaluated via farmer questionnaires and direct measurements of farm infrastructure. Results: Median herd-level lameness prevalence was 7.9% (interquartile range = 5.6 - 13.0) during grazing and 9.1% (interquartile range = 4.9 - 12.0) during housing; 10.9% of cows were lame at a single visit and 3.5% were lame at both visits (chronically lame or had a repeat episode of lameness). Fifty-seven percent of farmers were not familiar with lameness scoring and only one farm carried out lameness scoring. Only 22% of farmers kept records of lame cows detected, and 15% had a lameness herd health plan. Twenty-eight percent of farmers waited more than 48 h to treat a lame cow, and 21% waited for more than one cow to be identified as lame before treating. Six percent of farmers carried out routine trimming and 31% regularly footbathed (> 12 times per year). Twelve percent put severely lame cows in a closer paddock and 8% stated that they used pain relief to treat severely lame cows. Over 50% of farms had at least one cow track measurement that was classified as rough or very rough, and cow tracks were commonly narrow for the herd size. On 6% of farms, all cubicle beds were bare concrete (no matting or bedding) and on a further 6% of farms, there was a combination of cubicles with and without matting or bedding. On 56% of farms, all pens contained less than 1.1 cubicles per cow and on 28% of farms, a proportion of pens contained less than 1.1 cubicles per cow. Conclusions: Overall, this study identified infrastructure and management practices which could be improved upon. The comparatively low lameness prevalence demonstrated, compared to fully housed systems, also highlights the benefits of a pasture-based system for animal welfare; however, there remains scope for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The welfare status of an animal is dependent on its ability to cope and exist in harmony with its environment, such that good physical and psychological health is maintained. Improving animal welfare is an increasingly important aspect of livestock production systems due, in a large extent, to increased consumer concerns about animal production practices. Animal welfare is an integrated part of quality assurance programmes for sustainable animal production, considering that welfare, health, management, economy, consumer acceptance and environmental impact are interdependent. The major welfare concerns in the livestock industry in recent years relate to the rearing and management of dairy calves, the welfare of the dairy cow, effect of husbandry management procedures on the welfare of beef cattle, rearing of sows in gestation and farrowing crates, and the broiler (meat) chicken sector. The paper will focus on scientific research underpinning these welfare concerns, with a particular focus on research conducted on the island of Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lameness in dairy cows is a major animal welfare concern and has substantial economic impact through reduced production and fertility. Previous risk factor analyses have focused on housed systems, rather than those where cows were grazed for the majority of the year and housed only for the winter period. Therefore, the aim of this observational study was to identify a robust set of cow-level and herd-level risk factors for lameness in a pasture-based system, based on predictors from the housing and grazing periods. Ninety-nine farms were visited during the grazing period (April 2019–September 2019), and 85 farms were revisited during the housing period (October 2019–February 2020). At each visit, all lactating cows were scored for lameness (0 = good mobility, 1 = imperfect mobility, 2 = impaired mobility, 3 = severely impaired mobility), and potential herd-level risk factors were recorded through questionnaires and infrastructure measurements. Routine cow-level management data were also collected. Important risk factors for lameness were derived though triangulation of results from elastic net regression, and from logistic regression model selection using modified Bayesian information criterion. Both selection methods were implemented using bootstrapping. This novel approach has not previously been used in a cow-level or herd-level risk factor analysis in dairy cows, to the authors' knowledge. The binary outcome variable was lameness status, whereby cows with a lameness score of 0 or 1 were classed as non-lame and cows with a score of 2 or 3 were classed as lame. Cow-level risk factors for increased lameness prevalence were age and genetic predicted transmitting ability for lameness. Herd-level risk factors included farm and herd size, stones in paddock gateways, slats on cow tracks near the collecting yard, a sharper turn at the parlor exit, presence of digital dermatitis on the farm, and the farmers' perception of whether lameness was a problem on the farm. This large-scale study identified the most important associations between risk factors and lameness, based on the entire year (grazing and housing periods), providing a focus for future randomized clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]