Animal welfare on the farm: Legislation, certification standards and assessment frameworks

This chapter aims at comparing weighting factors of animal welfare aspects for cattle kept in Austria and Germany as they are regulated by private, national and European legislation, as they are determined by on-farm compliance and as they are assigned by animal welfare and risk evaluation systems. To achieve this goal, the methodological approach of Annen et al. (2011) based on the Austrian “Animal Needs Index 35L” framework, enabling the assessment of pig fattening standards without cost-intensive on-farm measures, is refined and adapted for the evaluation of cattle standards. The comparison of legislative and private certification scheme standards for calves indicates only slight differences between the minimum animal welfare obligations existent in Austria and Germany. For adult cattle kept on German conventional non-certified farms considerably lower minimum requirements are detected than on comparable Austrian farms. Whereas on-farm measured results indicate substantial voluntary compliance with requirements concerning the animals’ social interaction, access to free range and the quality of stockman care, for those relating to floor and space allowance