Exploring uses for an algorithmically generated “Animal Welfare Indicator” for welfare assessment of dairy herds

On-farm welfare assessment is time-consuming and costly. Assessing welfare using routinely collected herd data has been proposed as a more economical alternative. The online “Animal Welfare Indicator” (AWI), developed by a Norwegian dairy cooperative, applies an algorithm to routinely collected health, production, and management data to “indicate” aspects of animal welfare at herd level. The overall AWI score is based on 10 AWI sub-indicator scores, representative of elements of animal welfare such as claw health, udder health, and mortality. Our cross-sectional study explored 2 ways in which the AWI may enable more efficient welfare assessment of Norwegian dairy herds. First, we investigated using the AWI to reduce the duration of on-farm assessments by replacing on-farm measures. Second, we examined reducing the number of on-farm welfare assessments by using the AWI to predict which herds have poorer welfare with respect to specific on-farm measures.