Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what steps he plans to take to improve the animal welfare standards of cattle; and if he will make a statement;
Answer
The welfare of cattle is provided for by way of the general provisions of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007, which has specific schedules relating to cattle and calf welfare. DEFRA also has a welfare code for cattle which provides good husbandry advice, which producers have by law to be familiar with and have access to.Animal Health enforces on-farm welfare legislation and conducts regular programmed inspections of farmed premises to check the welfare of livestock, as well as investigating all complaints and allegations about poor welfare on-farm.DEFRA is currently considering the Farm Animal Welfare Council's Opinion and the European Commission's European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reports on the welfare of dairy cows which have been recently published. The findings of both will feed into the UK's negotiating line for the Council of Europe's Convention on the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes current discussions on revising its cattle recommendation.DEFRA has a contract with ADAS to run an advisory programme for farmers in England to encourage good animal welfare. Each year ADAS run, on DEFRA's behalf, a series of awareness campaigns for producers to promote good standards of animal welfare and husbandry. This year's cattle campaign will focus on promoting best practice in managing the dairy cow around calving. In previous years, successful campaigns have included lameness and herd mobility scoring, avoiding losses and improving welfare in cattle rearing systems and housing the modern dairy cow.DEFRA's animal welfare research programme also funds research into welfare issues affecting dairy cattle. Recent projects include: alleviation of lameness in dairy heifers; development of a lameness control plan; and investigating the management and welfare of the continuously housed cows.