Dairy farmers and stockmen needed! Complete the Royal Veterinary College’s ‘Assessing the Welfare of
Dairy Cows: Surveying UK Dairy Farmer and Cattle Vet Opinion’ survey for the
chance to win £500.
The survey is approx. 15 minutes in length and can be completed online (or downloaded for printing and return via email, fax or post) at the following web address: http://edu.surveygizmo.com/s3/841866/assessing-the-welfare-of-dairy-cows-surveying-uk-dairy-farmer-and-cattle-vet-opinion. All data collected will be stored securely and anonymously in line with the UK data Protection Act (1998) and EU directive 95/46/EC. The survey will close on the 31stMay 2012 and the £500 prize winner will be notified by 30th June 2012.
The survey is
part of a four year DairyCo-funded research project currently underway at The
Royal Veterinary College (RVC). Current on-farm welfare assessment protocols can
be lengthy and time-consuming to complete; featuring a very large number of welfare
assessment criteria. The RVC project aims to improve the efficiency of dairy
cow welfare assessment, by developing and trialling the use of more succinct
assessment protocols, based on a small number of highly informative welfare
assessment criteria.
To assist with
the development of these succinct – but highly informative – assessment
protocols the RVC survey aims to identify the different criteria which UK dairy
farmers and cattle vets use to assess the welfare of dairy cows, and to
identify which criteria are considered to be the most informative.
It
is expected that, along with enhanced dairy cow health and welfare as a result
of improved assessment techniques, the RVC’s dairy cow welfare assessment project
will help reduce on-farm welfare assessment time and costs, as well as reducing
the amount of associated paperwork.
If you would like any additional
information about the survey, or the RVC’s dairy cow welfare assessment
project, please contact Sophie Collins (PhD student) at scollins@rvc.ac.uk.
Thank you for your
time and much valued input.
Sophie Collins
PhD student, The Royal
Veterinary College.