What’s the red meat industry doing about animal welfare?
Australian red meat producers are committed to caring for their animals, and want them to be pain and stress-free. They’re also proud of the industry standards they’ve established to prioritise animal health and wellbeing.
The red meat industry has stringent animal welfare standards, and aims to be recognised as world leaders in animal health, welfare and production practices.
These standards apply to anyone who is responsible for the care and management of livestock, and are based on current scientific knowledge, recommended industry practice and community expectations.
Ensuring people who work with animals ensure that their primary purpose is to care for those animals is the top priority for red meat producers like the Smithfield Cattle Company:
How does the red meat industry promote animal wellbeing?
Animal welfare is backed by the law
Compliance with industry animal welfare standards and guidelines is a legal requirement.
Australia is working to improve animal welfare standards. The Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines address animal needs including feed and water; handling and management; and humane processing.
The standards include:
Ensuring livestock have reasonable access to adequate and appropriate feed and water
Ensuring prompt treatment for sick, injured or diseased livestock
Ensuring pain relief when castrating cattle
Ensuring dogs are under effective control during the handling of livestock.
In addition, the provision of good animal wellbeing in the Australian red meat industry is guided by the five domains of animal welfare, which is an internationally recognised standard for optimal animal health and welfare.
The five domains are:
Nutrition
Environment
Health
Behaviour
Mental state
What else is the industry doing about animal welfare?
The Australian red meat industry has been proactive in creating new programs and frameworks to support the industry’s commitment to best practice animal health and welfare. Programs such as the Livestock Production Assurance program demonstrate this commitment to animal welfare, biosecurity and food safety. Developed by the livestock industry, the program helps farmers demonstrate that their on-farm handling of livestock is consistent with the Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines.
Animal welfare national standards provide guidance for all people responsible for livestock during transport.
Based on current scientific knowledge, to meet recommended industry practice and community expectations, they include standards such as adhering to a 48-hour maximum time period in which livestock can travel before requiring a break.
Sustainability frameworks have also been created to meet the community’s changing expectations of the Australian red meat industry. The Australian Beef Sustainability Framework was launched in 2017 and The Australian Sheep Sustainability Framework was launched in 2021. These frameworks define sustainable production and track the performance of key priorities, including animal welfare, over time.
The Australian beef industry supports the use of pain relief in unavoidable procedures, and is working towards 100% use of pain relief by 2030.
These days, most cattle are born into seedstock are naturally polled. Almost 72% of calves born into seedstock herds in 2022 were naturally polled (hornless). This reduces the need to dehorn calves – a practice which helps prevent livestock injuring themselves, other livestock, and human handlers. 73% of the industry are now genetically polled (hornless).
