22 pregnant heifers jump out of the car and onto Utvikfjellet. – This is important for animal welfare. – You see that the animals want to go out, says Anders Felde, who follows his cows to the pasture. It’s the first day of vacation and summer is young. It is still a long time before he lies exhausted and a little tired of himself in the meadows. Just as the pupils run out of the school yard on the last day before the holidays, the cows run out in an endless series of holiday weeks. Or? Because exactly how many holiday weeks should they have? There is a lot of controversy about this, and strong interest groups are pulling in different directions: the Farmers’ Association, Tine, the government, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and the Animal Protection Alliance. The fundamental question is what provides the best animal welfare: Strict regulations and rigid requirements that the cows must have 16 weeks in the pasture – regardless of the weather, road and region. Or are the cows better off if the farmer himself decides. 22 heifers will holiday on Utvikfjellet in Vestland. – If animals have to walk in mud, it is not good animal welfare – It should be an absolute requirement to let the cows out for 16 weeks in the summer if they are in stalls for the rest of the year, says Live Kleveland in the Animal Protection Alliance. She adds: – If the farmer can’t do it, he simply shouldn’t be involved in milk production. Deputy owner of Norway’s farmers’ association, Bodhild Fjelltveit, replies that the Norwegian climate has natural limitations and “did not allow 16 weeks in all parts of the country”. – All animals must exercise and it is good that feed is taken in through grazing. But if animals have to walk in mud, it is not good animal welfare, she says. Today, regulations for keeping cattle state that all cows must be allowed to graze outdoors for at least eight weeks a year. The requirement applies to cows in free-range barns. For cows in stalls, the requirement is stricter: These have a requirement of 16 weeks in the parts of the country with “normal” amounts of rainfall. And 12 weeks in the area where it rains a lot (West Norway), and the pasture becomes loose and muddy. – Norway is a very diverse country. There are big differences in how long the growing season is, and how well the soil tolerates animal trampling, says Johnny Ødegård, director of Tine. – Unclear how the regulations are to be interpreted On top of the main rule comes a “thousand” of dispensation possibilities and local adaptations. After feedback that the rules are confusing, Agriculture and Food Minister Geir Pollestad has commissioned the Norwegian Food Safety Authority to clarify how many holiday weeks Norwegian cows are entitled to. – It has been unclear how the regulations are to be interpreted, Pollestad explains to news. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority does not have exact figures, but occasionally receives tips about cows that are in stalls all year round. The minister clarifies that it is each individual farmer who is responsible for the cows getting their statutory exercise. – Livestock farmers have to ensure that the rules for grazing requirements are followed, he says. The consultation deadline for the new rules is set for 26 July. – A clean-up and preparation seems to be sensible. We are happy that we can get a set of regulations that are easier to apply, says Nortura director Kjell S. Rakkenes. – May is too early, and September too late In the meantime, the debate rages on about what is the “right” amount of holiday weeks, and what the farmers should get for the extra work. Milking a “stationary” cow is a faster operation than milking a “free-running” cow, which also produces less milk. – One of the biggest challenges is getting the cows to leave an attractive grazing area to go in for milking, says Grete Jørgensen at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy (Nibio). She has researched the operational challenges of grazing in loose-run barns (see below). Nibio: – If the number of holiday weeks is correctly calibrated, we can ask the cow about Grete HM Jørgensen, researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Bioeconomy – Some studies have already been done and they are quite unambiguous: grazing is preferred over open-air farms without grazing and the preference for walking out is modified by the weather (Smid et al., 2020). If it gets too hot or too wet, they prefer to go inside. Grazing at night is preferred in areas with a warmer climate and the cow is willing to work at least as hard for access to pasture as for access to new feed (von Keyserlingk et al., 2017). Here the researchers point out that more studies are needed, and such motivational studies where cows are asked to “work” for access to pasture are exciting and can provide answers to which specific characteristics of the pasture are preferred by the cow (Smid et al., 2020). The marketing of good animal welfare in Norwegian dairy cows takes place via nice pictures of cows grazing on good grass. This is in line with the expectations of consumers who are constantly influenced by social media. In the EU, too, we are seeing a tightening of the regulations for animal welfare. Nibio colleague Lars Johan Rustad makes a point that the Norwegian summer is seen as a framework for how many holiday weeks the cows can have. – In some places, only June-August is suitable for cattle grazing. May is too early, and September too late. – Then the summer is only 12 weeks long. Oddgeir Øystese Bodhild Fjelltveit, Norwegian Farmers’ Association The rules have been unclear, and it is good that there now seems to be a clarification. This is something our members have been concerned about and it also means that we are being listened to. We believe that it can be problematic with 16 weeks of grazing by cows in some parts of the country. The climate in all parts of the country did not allow this. Martin Roalsø Live Kleveland, Dyrevernalliansen All cows should be free-range and have the longest possible grazing time each summer. 8 weeks is far too scarce for cows in free-range farming, and 12 weeks is far too scarce for barn cows. Båskyr hardly have room to move all winter, and grazing is therefore particularly important for them. Cows are social animals, and grazing is particularly important for them to be in groups. Private / news Grete HM Jørgensen, Nibio researcher It is unclear what the Norwegian Food Safety Authority thinks. Several terms are used interchangeably in the regulations. Is aeration and exercise most important or is it grazing? If the cow is to be able to obtain large parts of its diet from green grass that he harvests himself on a production pasture, this becomes demanding to fulfill when herd sizes increase. Many still manage to do it, and the farmers can be proud of it! Even Lusæter Johnny Ødegård, director of TineWe are very concerned that the grazing requirement is maintained and are happy that the regulations have now become clearer. We appreciate our suppliers extra for documenting their use of pasture. The additional requirement will probably still be challenging for some producers, especially in areas with high rainfall, but we are confident that our suppliers will do their utmost to meet the requirement. Nortura Kjell S. Rakkenes, Executive Director Nortura SAG In general, we want grazing resources to be fully used throughout Norway so that the milk we drink and the meat we get from animals utilizes the natural resource base in Norwegian nature in the best possible way. Large differences in climatic conditions and geography still make it demanding to have the same rules for the whole country. news Sindre Årsvoll, chairman of Norsk Jersey I don’t think we should call the grazing period a holiday – because the cows work on the cutting gear when they go outside. The grazing period is a better description. All Norwegian cows should go out to pasture with all the positive effects it has. Nevertheless, I think 16 weeks can well be reduced to 14. It is more important that the grazing period works optimally than an absolute number of weeks. news Bjørn Lende, farmer at Jæren At my place, the cows have had much longer grazing time than required anyway. I have therefore not been too concerned with the regulations. It is clear that it quickly becomes problematic if the regulations are based too much on discretion. But it is not necessarily the case that the longest possible grazing period provides the best animal welfare. Private Bjørnar Stavenes, acting section head for animal welfare in the Norwegian Food Safety Authority The rules on 12 to 16 weeks of grazing for cattle in stalls are unclear and should be simplified. The rules came into force on 1 January 2024. We are therefore in the middle of the first grazing season with extended grazing time for cattle in stalls and have no basis to say whether the rules are followed. But it will be much easier to give the animals the right grazing time with the simplification that we are proposing. news Emilie Aleksandra Karindatter, National Competence Center for Production Animals It is good animal welfare that cattle are allowed to graze during the summer months. There is a big difference between grazing conditions and grazing season in Finnmark and Rogaland. When the aim of the grazing requirement is for cattle to have the opportunity to graze, it is natural that the grazing requirement is adapted to the length of the grazing season. It is the livestock farmers who must follow the rules and it is they who must assess whether the rules are difficult to understand. Published 13.07.2024, at 20.53
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Full dispute about the length of the summer holidays for Norwegian cows – news Vestland
