Voiceless breaks dairy's silence

The animal protection think-tank says its latest publication - The Life of the Dairy Cow: A Report on the Australian Dairy Industry - results from two years of “rigorous analysis of current scientific evidence and relevant legal frameworks”.

“This report highlights the need for change in the way these emotionally complex animals are treated,” a statement promoting the report says.

“To date, the Australian dairy industry has avoided much of the scrutiny that has been levelled against other animal industries due to the false perception that dairy is a 'no-harm' product.

“The purpose of this report is to reveal what is happening to dairy cows and calves and to break the silence about industry practices, no matter how unpalatable they may be.”

A summary of the 88-page document – obtained by Fairfax Media – said the modern dairy cow “commonly suffers from mastitis, lameness, metabolic disorders, mutilation procedures and the inevitability of repeatedly losing her calf”.

“It is also clear that much of her suffering and poor welfare is made worse by the demands placed on her by high-production dairying and the growing consumer expectation for cheap milk,” the report said.

“Reform is needed to address this situation, particularly if the current growth in milk output and the pressures toward intensification of dairying continue.”

Voiceless said it wrote the report with the assistance of contributing author Dr Deidre Wicks and it contains recommendations for legislators, industry and consumers.

They said it had also been reviewed by five leading animal welfare experts from the Voiceless Scientific Expert Advisory Council (SEAC) and was endorsed by leading global animal protection groups.

Voiceless spokesperson Elise Burgess said the animal welfare group’s latest report was scheduled to be publicly released electronically, on January 28.

She said a “soft launch” was held yesterday in Sydney where specific journalists were invited to a roundtable discussion.

However, despite a media article surfacing late yesterday detailing specific allegations contained in the report, its contents are yet to be scrutinised by key dairy industry stakeholders.

Speaking to Fairfax Media, Australian Dairy Farmers (ADF) president Noel Campbell said it was difficult for ADF to talk about the new report or understand the full context of specific allegations “when we haven’t got it in front of us”.

But Mr Campbell said ADF had held discussions over the last couple of years with Voiceless including two face-to-face meetings.

He said they’ve also held numerous email exchanges and other conversations, “trying to give them a view of what the Australian dairy industry looks like”.

Mr Campbell declined to comment on the capabilities of the Voiceless SEAC which compiled the dairy report.

But he said ADF was concerned Voiceless had an initial understanding of the Australian industry which was based on practices used in the world industry, where many cows are kept in confined conditions.

However, the local dairy industry is pasture-based “so basically we have free-range cows”, he said.

“What we need to do is be accurately assessing what happens in the Australian dairy industry and not comparing it to what happens in other places around the world,” he said.

“Our cows aren’t really consigned like those in many other parts of the world.

“We’re genuinely invested in animal health and welfare.

“Our animals need to be in good health and welfare conditions for us to milk sufficiently well to run our small businesses.

“The only way that cows produce milk effectively is for them to be healthy and well-treated.”

Mr Campbell also rejected an assertion made in initial reporting on the Voiceless report which implied Australian dairy cows are “bred to the point of exhaustion to make them lactate, forcefully impregnated so they give birth every 13 months for up to seven years”.

“If our cows are overworked I believe they would break down and they do not break down in the normal circumstances,” he said.

“There may be some conditions where something happens where a particular animal may have a disease or issue but we always deal with it quickly and effectively.”

The report’s summary said Voiceless had “aimed for accuracy and truthfulness”.

“We have not sought to exaggerate the issues but nor have we been willing to deny the very real welfare reality for the dairy cow and her calf, neither of whom can speak for themselves,” it said.

“Our aim in writing this report has been to lift the marketing and publicity veil, to look beyond the endless photos of cows chewing away, seemingly without a care, in lush, green fields.

“While this is a true picture for some cows, for some of the time, taken alone it provides a distorted and inaccurate picture of the life realities for the majority of high production dairy cows.

“Our report has shown, that for most dairy cows, life is hard, sometimes painful and invariably short.”

However, Victorian federal Liberal MP Dan Tehan said the Voiceless report was inherently biased and sought to damage the reputations of hard working Australian farmers.

“Dairy farmers understand cows are the most precious asset on their farms and do everything they can to look after them,” he said.

“These alarmist reports should have no place in public debate.

“It’s about time these groups learnt that through these types of reports they are impugning the good reputations of hard working Australian families.”

Mr Tehan said he understood Voiceless was targeting legal farm production methods in its campaigning to try and influence consumers and law-makers.

But he disagreed with efforts to portray legal and scientifically approved production practices as being typically inhumane.

“Farmers are dedicated to the welfare of their animals and the practices that take place are within the law,” he said.

“It’s about time these groups stopped accusing farmers of wrongdoing when they are simply providing our nation and the rest of the world with a quality product.

“Coming from the electorate (Wannon) which producers more milk than any other and having visited countless dairy farms, I know farmers are always looking to improve how they look after and care for their cows because they understand they’re the most important asset when it comes to their livelihood.”

Mr Tehan is chair of the Coalition’s agricultural backbench committee and said he was unlikely to be influenced by the Voiceless report once it was released publicly.

“The problem with these reports is they start form a given premise, and therefore the findings are always the same and therefore it’s very hard to see how they can be given any credibility, due to their inherent bias,” he said.

The Voiceless report said the dairy industry was Australia’s third-largest agricultural sector with a combined farm, manufacturing and export value of $13 billion in 2013.

It said dairy production is focused in eight main dairy regions, most of which are located in the southeast of Australia with Victoria alone accounting for approximately 66pc of Australia’s milk production.

It also said the national producing herd - which comprises some 1.65 million dairy cows - was expected to produce between 9.1 and 9.2 billion litres of milk in 2013/14, with industry projections for 2014/15 reaching as high as 9.4 billion litres.

“Australian milk production has increased dramatically since the 1980s,” it said.

“During this period in Victoria, milk production more than doubled, while individual cow numbers remained constant and effective grazing area reduced by 35pc.

“In the same time period, the average national herd size jumped from 85 to 220 cows per farm, with an increasing number of farms milking over 1000 cows.

“This shows that there are fewer dairy cows in Australia - but that farm herd sizes have increased.

“Essentially, Australian dairy farms are producing more milk using fewer cows and less space than ever before.”

Voiceless is also opposed to live exports and has released several other reports relating to intensive farming practices including one in 2013 promoting abolishing sow stalls in the pork industry.

“As the science strongly indicates that housing sows in stalls for the first six weeks of pregnancy decreases welfare, compared to group housing, it is apparent the Commonwealth government ought to revise the Pig Code accordingly to ban sow stall use,” the report said.

Ms Burgess said Voiceless conducted research and published reports on animal industries and the law, prompting debates in both federal and State Parliaments and receiving coverage in key national media outlets.

She said previous reports were developed by experienced researchers, lawyers and scientists, and included; Science and Sense: The case for abolishing sow stalls; The Animal Law Toolkit; and From Label to Liable: Lifting the veil on animal-derived food product labelling in Australia.