THE CO-OPERATIVE DIFFERENCE FRAMEWORK

Animals

This focus area is about ensuring our animals are healthy, productive, contented and cared for. 

Assurance of good animal wellbeing is increasing, and not just in New Zealand. 

The Co-operative Difference - Animals

2:44 mins

Animals are the heart of every dairy farm and their wellbeing is of utmost importance to our farmers. They are valued and treated with respect throughout their lives, ensuring they are healthy, productive, contented and cared for.

Fonterra Farmers can demonstrate how they prevent the introduction and spread of pests and diseases as a result of their business activities.

New Zealand's well regarded animal health and wellbeing regulations define our starting point. Ensuring each animal we look after is healthy, productive and well cared for is not only the right thing to do - it is at the heart of the success of our co-op.

The Animals achievement contributes to the first level of recognition under Our Next Steps, Te Pūtake.

Download the factsheet

Why is this important?

 
  • We care for our animals and want them to live healthy, disease-free lives.
  • Mō tatou, Mō Aotearoa. Kaitiakitanga, how we protect our natural environment today for the future generations.
  • Surveys consistently show that over 50% of consumers are concerned about the welfare of animals raised to provide food, and animal welfare concerns is one of the top three factors why consumers are limiting or stopping their purchasing of dairy products.
  • Recent consumer research has shown that animal wellbeing is important across our global markets due to consumers connecting this to product safety, quality or ethical preferences.

 
  • Our country and business prosperity is dependent on primary industry success and resilience, so being vigilant about biosecurity is critical for the country’s economy.
  • Risks relating to biosecurity are significant and increasing, with 10,000 suspected pests and diseases reported to MPI every year.
  • We need to play our part to support the national biosecurity network to protect the agricultural economy and our communities.
  • New Zealand is known as a relatively disease-free food-producing nation, which assists with selling our products at a premium to the world.
  • Preventing the introduction and limiting the spread of disease and pests protects our business, contributes to on-farm productivity with fewer sick animals, and protects human health.
  • Measures to prevent the introduction and spread of pests and diseases can fail, so we need to be ready and equipped to respond.

 
  • New Zealand has comprehensive animal welfare regulations that must be met by all primary producers.
  • Our customers, consumers and fellow New Zealanders expect animals to be healthy and treated with care and respect (reflected in our 'Cared for Cows' branding), and we must regularly report to them on the animal wellbeing practices we have in place.
  • Regulation is inevitably set to provide minimum standards, but customers and consumers are expecting evidence of practices exceeding these standards.

USEFUL TOOLS

Here are a few of our favourite useful resources from DairyNZ to help. 

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Body Condition Score Tracker (app)

Condition score your cows and view images at different score levels to improve consistency and accuracy.

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Feed Flow Feed Budget

A simple 12-month feed budget planner that helps you create a seasonal farm plan and test out different scenarios.

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Facts and Figures

Get access to a whole bunch of quick-reference vital stats and figures.