A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index
Schemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementat...
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doaj-fe5e6a6963cf4afaa2574f887d69096c2020-11-24T23:58:16ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152014-07-014344646210.3390/ani4030446ani4030446A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field IndexIan G. Colditz0Drewe M. Ferguson1Teresa Collins2Lindsay Matthews3Paul H. Hemsworth4CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences, FD McMaster Laboratory, Armidale, NSW 2350, AustraliaCSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences, FD McMaster Laboratory, Armidale, NSW 2350, AustraliaCollege of Veterinary Medicine, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, AustraliaLindsay Matthews & Associates Research International, Scerne Di Pineto, Teramo 64025, ItalyAnimal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, AustraliaSchemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementation. Here we propose the concept of welfare performance based on a broad set of performance attributes of an enterprise and describe a tool based on risk assessment and benchmarking methods for measuring and managing welfare performance. The tool termed the Unified Field Index is presented in a general form comprising three modules addressing animal, resource, and management factors. Domains within these modules accommodate the principle conceptual perspectives for welfare assessment: biological functioning; emotional states; and naturalness. Pan-enterprise analysis in any livestock sector could be used to benchmark welfare performance of individual enterprises and also provide statistics of welfare performance for the livestock sector. An advantage of this concept of welfare performance is its use of continuous scales of measurement rather than traditional pass/fail measures. Through the feedback provided via benchmarking, the tool should help farmers better engage in on-going improvement of farm practices that affect animal welfare.http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/4/3/446animal welfareassessmentunified field indexbenchmarkingwelfare performance |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ian G. Colditz Drewe M. Ferguson Teresa Collins Lindsay Matthews Paul H. Hemsworth |
spellingShingle |
Ian G. Colditz Drewe M. Ferguson Teresa Collins Lindsay Matthews Paul H. Hemsworth A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index Animals animal welfare assessment unified field index benchmarking welfare performance |
author_facet |
Ian G. Colditz Drewe M. Ferguson Teresa Collins Lindsay Matthews Paul H. Hemsworth |
author_sort |
Ian G. Colditz |
title |
A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index |
title_short |
A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index |
title_full |
A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index |
title_fullStr |
A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Prototype Tool to Enable Farmers to Measure and Improve the Welfare Performance of the Farm Animal Enterprise: The Unified Field Index |
title_sort |
prototype tool to enable farmers to measure and improve the welfare performance of the farm animal enterprise: the unified field index |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Animals |
issn |
2076-2615 |
publishDate |
2014-07-01 |
description |
Schemes for the assessment of farm animal welfare and assurance of welfare standards have proliferated in recent years. An acknowledged short-coming has been the lack of impact of these schemes on the welfare standards achieved on farm due in part to sociological factors concerning their implementation. Here we propose the concept of welfare performance based on a broad set of performance attributes of an enterprise and describe a tool based on risk assessment and benchmarking methods for measuring and managing welfare performance. The tool termed the Unified Field Index is presented in a general form comprising three modules addressing animal, resource, and management factors. Domains within these modules accommodate the principle conceptual perspectives for welfare assessment: biological functioning; emotional states; and naturalness. Pan-enterprise analysis in any livestock sector could be used to benchmark welfare performance of individual enterprises and also provide statistics of welfare performance for the livestock sector. An advantage of this concept of welfare performance is its use of continuous scales of measurement rather than traditional pass/fail measures. Through the feedback provided via benchmarking, the tool should help farmers better engage in on-going improvement of farm practices that affect animal welfare. |
topic |
animal welfare assessment unified field index benchmarking welfare performance |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/4/3/446 |
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