Summary
To maintain profitability, dairy cows are removed from herds for a variety of reasons and often sent to livestock markets. Information gathered from weekly visits to two Canadian livestock auction markets from May 2017 to April 2018 found that 29.2% of cows had one or more conditions that could affect fitness for transport. Specifically, 10.3% were very thin, 11.9% were overweight, 59.5% displayed abnormal movement, 87.2% had a loose udder, 9.7% had an engorged udder, and 3.0% had a swollen/inflamed udder. Cows with these health conditions were observed more frequently in some summer and fall months, suggesting that when milk demand is higher, farmers keep cows that would otherwise be removed. A strength of this study was using multiple observers to rate the condition of the cattle, allowing for inter-rater reliability ratings. A limitation is that data are limited to livestock markets that were willing to participate in the study, which might not represent all markets. As the authors note, these results suggest that the supply-management system can encourage farmers to keep cows to the point that their welfare is significantly compromised. Furthermore, fitness-for-transport guidelines should be used to help farmers’ improve their decision making regarding animal transport and to promote other options (e.g., emergency slaughter).
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