Organic Cow Comfort - an advisorytool to secure animal welfare on organic dairy farms in Norway

Summary

Organic Cow Comfort is an advisory tool in animal welfare, developed to secure animal welfare on organic dairy farms in Norway. The farm advisory tool consists of
• A farm visit by a veterinarian and a production advisor both specialized in animal welfare and organic farming
• An evaluation of herd health and welfare through welfare assessment
• Advice on disease prevention and improve-ment of animal welfare
• Follow up visit by an advisor looking at im-plementation of new initiatives
• Counselling meetings with groups of farmer
The evaluation of herd health and welfare is done with the help of checklists where animal based pa-rameters, farm management and operating systems, and human-animal relationship are recorded. A report is prepared after every farm visit with a health and welfare plan where specific measures for improve-ment of animal welfare are outlined.