Waste not, want not: Value chain stakeholder attitudes to surplus dairy calf management in Australia.

The management of surplus dairy calves in Australia has traditionally been influenced by the economic viability of different practices. When beef prices are favourable, more surplus calves are raised for beef, and when beef prices are low, more calves are killed in the first few days of life. Early life killing of surplus calves may however threaten the dairy industry's social licence to operate. The aim of this study was to describe the views of value chain stakeholders regarding the management of surplus calves. Representatives from seven post-farm gate organisations participated in semi-structured interviews and were asked about their views on current practices, alternatives to early life killing and how best to implement change. Responses were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and were organised into three themes: (1) ethics of surplus calf management; (2) economics of surplus calf management; and (3) moving towards solutions including approaches to affecting change. We conclude that stakeholders widely recognised early life killing of surplus calves as a threat to the industry's social licence. Whilst technical solutions such as beef on dairy breeding programmes were cited as important, participants emphasised that implementing sustainable solutions will require collaboration, leadership, and commitment by all stakeholders along the value chain.

Automated, longitudinal measures of drinking behavior provide insights into the social hierarchy in dairy cows.

Dairy cows compete for feed and water access on commercial farms. In this study we used EloSteepness to assess the summed Elo winning probabilities (i.e., dominance) of 87 cows housed in a dynamic group and compared the resulting social hierarchies based on their steepness (i.e., the average degree of differences in winning probability between adjacently ranked individuals in the group, ranging from 0 to 1). We identified a hierarchy at the drinker with a steepness of 0.55 ± 0.02 (SD), whereas the hierarchy detected at the feeder during the same time period was 0.45 ± 0.02, indicating smaller dominance differences among cows when competing for feed compared with competing for water. Individual cows' winning probabilities at the feeder and drinker were moderately correlated (rs = 0.55), and cows at the lower and upper ends of the hierarchy showed good agreement. We compared the drinker hierarchy between hot (i.e., temperature-humidity index [THI] ≥72) and normal (i.e., THI <72) periods. The hierarchy steepness was similar in both hot (0.54 ± 0.03) and normal conditions (0.56 ± 0.03), and there was a strong correlation in cows' individual winning probabilities across these periods (rs = 0.87). Cows with higher winning probability visited the drinker less frequently (hot: rs = -0.40, normal: rs = -0.33) but had a higher average daily water intake (hot: rs = 0.38, normal: rs = 0.37). We also found evidence that individual cows' drinking times differ depending on their winning probability; cows with lower winning probability shifted their drinking times to before or after the visit peak after milking. Automatically identifying cows with consistently high or low winning probabilities using drinkers may help inform grouping decisions and water provision on farms.

Social housing improves dairy calves' performance in a competition test.

On most dairy farms, calves are housed individually until weaning. However, depriving calves of an early social environment impairs behavioral development. We studied the effect of early-life social housing on calves' competitive skills. In this study, Holstein heifers were pseudorandomly assigned to either individual housing (n = 9) or pair housing (with a nonfocal companion, n = 9) at the age of 11 d. After 14 d of housing treatment, calves underwent a competition test for milk access against a group-reared calf; consisting of 2 test sessions per day for 5 d (session duration: 74.42 ± 2.29 s; mean ± standard error). Pair-housed calves performed better than individually housed calves: throughout the competition days, individually housed calves increased their latency to approach the milk bottle and decreased their time spent drinking in contrast to pair-housed calves, which exhibited stable latencies to reach the milk bottle and increased their time drinking. To control for the influence of personality on their competitive abilities, all calves were subjected to personality tests assessing boldness before being exposed to the housing treatment. Our findings indicate that calves assessed as bolder during the pretreatment personality test tended to approach the milk bottle faster. Our results provide additional evidence of the beneficial effects of social housing on dairy calves' behavioral development.

Brazilians' attitudes to meat consumption and production: Present and future challenges to the sustainability of the meat industry.

Brazil is a main global producer, exporter, and consumer of farm animal products. Information about the knowledge and attitudes of Brazilian citizens and consumers towards the different dimensions of meat production sustainability can support policy discussions and guide the industry to adopt production systems compatible with societal expectations. Here we provide a historical, social, and economic overview of meat production and consumption in Brazil, review the scientific literature on Brazilian public attitudes towards meat production and consumption, and discuss some actions Brazil is taking to develop more sustainable production systems. We show that Brazilians expect affordable meat products with high organoleptic, sanitary, nutritional qualities and produced under high ethical standards. The pace of discussions and changes in policies and in meat production systems needs to accelerate to follow domestic and international demands and the changes in ethical expectations of society. Constructive dialogue between all interested stakeholders, including citizens and consumers, needs to be fostered to design more sustainable meat production systems.

"Mothers Should Have Freedom of Movement"-Citizens' Attitudes Regarding Farrowing Housing Systems for Sows and Their Piglets.

Farrowing crates are the most common housing for lactating sows throughout the world, despite known public opposition to housing systems that deprive animals' freedom to move. This study aimed to investigate Brazilian citizens' attitudes towards three farrowing housing systems (crates, loose pens, and outdoors). Data were obtained via an online questionnaire containing open- and close-ended questions. Participants' (n = 1171) attitudes were most negative towards the crates and most positive towards outdoor farrowing, and positively correlated with perceived sows' quality of life. Participants overwhelmingly rejected the use of farrowing crates, and most supported a proposal to move from farrowing crates to loose pens, even when informed that this entailed an increased risk of piglets' mortality. Participants' views were underpinned by concerns about sows' freedom of movement, behavioral freedom and naturalness, and the belief that it is possible to develop and manage housing that prevents piglet crushing that does not involve confining the sow. Furthermore, loose farrowing pens may not fully address all concerns expressed by participants regarding farrowing housing, which included the possibility of allowing sows to socialize and express maternal behaviors. We conclude that maintaining farrowing crates may erode the pig industry's social license.

Erratum: Hötzel, M.J.; et al. On the Road to End Pig Pain: Knowledge and Attitudes of Brazilian Citizens Regarding Castration. Animals 2020, 10, 1826.

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...].

On the Road to End Pig Pain: Knowledge and Attitudes of Brazilian Citizens Regarding Castration.

We explored the attitudes of Brazilians towards different methods to deal with boar taint in pork (surgical castration without pain control, SC; surgical castration with pain control, SC+PC; immunocastration, IC; raising entire males, EM). Two surveys (Sv1, n = 441 and Sv2, n = 768) containing closed and open questions were conducted. Nearly 70% of Sv1 and Sv2 participants were unaware that meat of entire males may have boar taint and that SC is widely used in pig production in Brazil. In Sv1, acceptability of SC+PC (63%) and IC (53%) was greater than of SC (15%). In Sv2, acceptability of IC (55%) and EM (52%) was greater than of SC (18%). Open-ended responses indicated that participants objected to inflicting pain to pigs to attain a production goal, and were concerned with organoleptic traits and risks of exogenous residues in pork. Participants' views regarding the potential increases in the cost of meat due to adoption of alternative methods varied; some argued that avoiding pain justifies an increase in the price of pork and others that this would impact especially lower income citizens. Our findings indicate that participants opposed surgical castration without pain control, and supported alternative methods. However, the concern with potential risks of presence of residues in meat, expressed by a few participants, may need to be addressed among consumers.