It is not sufficient to merely publish regulations and strictly control them to improve the living conditions of farm animals. The farmer must receive precise information, understand the individual measures and be able to act with personal responsibility. A new animal welfare law has been in force in Austria since the 1st of January 2005. A system of self-evaluation is being developed for putting these new legal requirements into practice. The aim of this self-evaluation system is to enable every farmer to personally check his animal housing system against the given standards. This independent work motivates the farmer and makes him aware of animal welfare issues. This new strategy for the implementation of animal welfare law was originally developed, tested and found to be successful by the Federal Administration of the Austrian Province of Vorarlberg. Self-evaluation is to be carried out by means of specific checklists and manuals. Checklists and manuals are currently being drawn up for cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep and goats. The checklists and manuals will include all of the requirements of Austrian animal welfare legislation and will be formulated in easily understandable questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. The manuals will describe the methods for assessing legal requirements on the farm as well as the conditions for compliance with legislation, and give advice on how to improve the state of animal welfare on the farm. This paper gives an example of the self-evaluation system for cattle farming.

Suitable systems for the assessment of animal welfare are in increasing demand. In Austria, the TGI 35 L Animal Needs Index is widely used and has been shown to be a feasible and reliable tool for animal welfare assessment on farms. Here we focus on the validity of TGI 35 L assessments, and explore the correlation between animal welfare as assessed by the TGI 35 L and animal health and behavioural parameters. From the results, it can be determined whether the criteria assessed by the TGI 35 L are preconditions for a high level of health and normal behaviour. Behaviour and health were examined in 11 cattle houses, totalling 169 animals. Behaviour was observed for two days on each farm. Data on resting behaviour, comfort behaviour, social behaviour, feed intake behaviour and eliminative behaviour were collected. Health was assessed using veterinary examinations carried out according to the General Clinical and the Orthopaedic Examination Proceedings. Significant correlations were found between the TGI scores and behaviour and health, including results for skin lesions and injuries. This indicates good validity of the TGI 35 L assessment system for cattle. A comprehensive system for the assessment of animal welfare on farms must comprise parameters of housing, climate, management and stockmanship, and animal-related parameters.

The aim of this study was to investigate several production parameters and the level of welfare of organic dairy cows kept in two different geographical and social contexts. The study group included 1,751 cows from 19 organic dairy farms, 11 of which were situated in hilly areas and 8 in plains areas. After an examination had been made of the general characteristics of each farm, the following data were collected: milk production; milk protein and lipid content; somatic cell count (SCC) and microbial count; lameness score (LS); body condition score (BCS) and udder cleanliness score (UHS). Welfare level was assessed using Bartussek's ANI-35-L system and the van Roessel ‘prototype for clinical welfare scoring’. Our data indicate that remarkable organisational and management differences exist between the two types of farms: farms in plains areas have a larger number of cattle and are corporate in structure rather than family run. The levels of welfare, health and production were shown to be high in both types of farms, though in some cases higher welfare scores were observed in farms situated in plains areas. The two types of ‘welfare scores’ we used were positively correlated. Our data indicate that organic farming of dairy cows successfully combines, in the large majority of cases, good levels of productivity, animal health and animal welfare; this latter aspect may be a valuable marketing point for organic milk, considering the propensity displayed by a significant portion of European consumers to buy food produced using systems that assure a high degree of animal welfare.