UTVÄRDERING AV ARBETSMETODER OCH KONTROLL AV BELÄGGNINGSGRAD BLAND MJÖLKKOR I LÖSDRIFT I HALLAND
Sweden is considered to have one of the world's highest animal welfare standards in agriculture. Despite this, there are shortcomings in animal husbandry. One example is overcrowding, which is a way to increase stock size without making costly investments in the buildings. It can be carried out systematically to increase profitability or due to, for example uneven calving during the year. The European Commission criticizes the fact that stocking density is not controlled under Swedish welfare inspections. One reason for this is the lack of routines to perform such controls. The aim was to evaluate different working methods to verify stocking density among dairy cows in free ranging housing systems. Various methods were suggested after literature review of laws and regulations, central registries, journals, and internal management systems. With the help of these working methods, stocking density was verified among free ranging dairy cows during public welfare controls performed by the County Administrative Board of Halland. The project covered 28 farms and 49 free ranging groups. The result shows that the most applicable working method to control the number of animals is to count by hand. Information from different management systems can be useful in some cases, and animal welfare inspectors could benefit from knowledge of these systems. 33 % of the verified groups had an overcrowding on beds, 33% were overcrowded at drinking places, and 4% were overcrowded at feeding places. A too high stocking density affects both production and animal welfare negatively.