Arla Foods Annual Report 2020
Management Review Our Strategy Our Brands and Commercial Segments Our Responsibility Our Governance
Our Performance Review
Our Consolidated Financial Statements
Our Consolidated Environmental, Social and Governance Data
FACILITATING BETTER
ANIMAL WELFARE
In Arla, we strongly believe that all animals should be treated well. Animal welfare and sustainable milk production are two
sides of the same coin: Healthy cows that are well cared for produce more milk in a more sustainable way. That makes it a
key focus for Arla and our farmer owners to thoroughly monitor and constantly improve the health and welfare of our cows.
Our efforts towards better animal welfare are coordinated through our
ArlagårdenⓇ platform. ArlagårdenⓇ initially focused mainly on milk quality
and food safety, but it has been expanded to include more and clearer
standards, also for animal welfare, the environment and people on the
farm, to reflect our priorities as well as the ones of our customers and
consumers. We have developed a comprehensive digital tool to more
efficiently and transparently conduct and align assessments, reporting
and data utilisation across all seven owner countries. It is now mandatory
for Arla's cooperative farmers to assess their herds and facilities every
three months and report the data in the new digital tool.
Among the 120 questions that all of our 9,406 farmers in 2020 submitted
data on, were questions covering housing, feeding, grazing and the
general wellbeing of the cows. To have an even clearer picture of animal
welfare on farms, Arla also gathers data from the National Herd Databases
of our owner countries to obtain information concerning the average
lifespan, mortality and the average age of the cows at first calving.
Farmers complete the animal welfare questionnaires based on their
self-assessment and receive regular visits from auditors to validate all data
submitted, including animal welfare questions. In 2020, the audit process
was upgraded and harmonised across all owner countries to ensure that
auditors follow the same procedure and standards everywhere. Each
year, 30 per cent of all farms are audited. In 2020, we disclosed the
percentage of farmer owners reporting on animal welfare, audited farms,
and somatic cell count. Read more in the ESG note 1.4. From 2021, we
will report the results of the animal welfare questionnaires from audited
farms, focusing on the measures we find the most important to work with
to improve animal welfare. We will also disclose the ratio of audited
farmers complying with our animal welfare standards.
We measure the general wellbeing of the cows using four indicators developed
based on scientific research into the most common dairy cattle issues.
Cows with good body condition Fit cows have the perfect amount
of fat reserve on their bodies: not too little and not too much. Our
farmers determine if their cows are fit by using body condition scoring,
which is a visual and tactile evaluation of the cows. They categorise the
animal into three categories: normal, thin and very thin.
Clean cows have a lower
risk of being infected by
disease. Farmers assess the
cleanness of the cows by
looking at the size of dirt
and muck patches on their
COWS WITH GOOD
BODY CONDITION
MOBILE
COWS
CLEAN
COWS
bodies and categorise the cows into three
categories: normal (clean), slightly dirty and dirty.
COWS WITHOUT
INJURIES
Mobile cows walk without
any problems, and have no
pain in their legs and feet.
If mobility is impaired, cows
limp, which can be caused
by a range of conditions,
like disease, poor manage-
ment and environmental
factors. Farmers categorise
the cows into three
categories: normal, slightly
lame, and obviously lame.
Cows without injuries An injury on a cow can
be a lump, bump, ulcer, sore or coloured area
on the skin. Farmers categorise the cows into
three categories: normal (without injuries), with
small injuries, and with bigger injuries.
35 ARLA FOODS ANNUAL REPORT 2020View entire presentation