How do Italian farmers perceive their dairy cows.

How do Italian farmers perceive their dairy cows? Theme: cowness D. Baroli1*, M. Minero1 , D. Zucca, S. Waiblinger2, S. Mattiello1 E. Canali1 1 : Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Milan, Italy, 2 : Institute of Animal Husbandry and Welfare, University of Veterinary Medicine Wien, Austria Dr Daniela Baroli Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan. Italy. daniela.baroli@unimi.it The human–animal relationship (HAR) is a core issue to improve the welfare of farmed animals. The quality of HAR depends on how animals and humans perceive each other. Particular attention has been paid in recent years to the role that the attitudes of stockmen play on their behaviour towards dairy cattle and the reactions of these animals towards people i.e their level of fear or confidence (Breuer et al., 2000; Rushen et al., 1999; Hemsworth et al., 2000 Waiblinger et al., 2002; Waiblinger et al. 2006). Objectives of subtask 3.1 of the EU funded Welfare Quality® project were to determine the variability of the farmers’ practices and attitude and behaviour in order to understand the HAR in European countries (Italy and Austria) characterised by different dairy production systems. Austrian partner dealt with small medium size family run farms while we dealt with larger, employee run farms with large herd size. The research consisted of two parts performed on dairy farms in Italy: a questionnaire survey in order to collect information on variability of handling practices and attitudes; and on farm study in a sample of dairy farms to relate these practices to farmers attitudes and to animal behaviour towards humans. In this paper the results of the survey will be analysed. The questionnaire was developed by Austrian partner with questions regarding, among others, housing, and management and the farmers’ attitudes and their assessment of the own animals behaviour. Farmers were asked to answer statements about general characteristics of caw, heifers and calves, the importance of gentle contact during daily work and the importance of characteristics of cows for ease of handling. They could answer on a 7-point Likert scale from “agree totally” (=7) to “disagree totally” (=1) or from “very important” (=7) to “not at all important” (=1). 155 dairy farms (loose housing) were randomly chosen in Northern. The questionnaire was handed over to the farmers by the technicians of the Breeders Association. The main stockperson responsible for the cattle on the farm was asked to fill in the questionnaire. All the farmers gave the questionnaires back to technicians who delivered the filled questionnaires back to the Department. Farmers knew that the questionnaires were anonymously treated when they gave back to technicians anonymous sealed envelopes. Collected data were analysed to obtain descriptive analysis regarding the variability of handling practices, specific attitudes and opinion of the farmers. This is the first study performed in Italy where a systematic questionnaire survey and farm visits show farmer attitudes, handling practices and the cows-human relationship in Italian dairy farms. Data from all the 155 returned questionnaires were used for the statistical analysis. Persons that filled in the questionnaire (owners who works with the cows) ranged in age from 19 to 64 years (mean: 41.2 ). 2.6% of the questionnaires were filled in by women, 97.4 % by men. From the questionnaires comes 2 out that these farms with large herd size (120 lactating cows as average) are usually run by a farmer although other people do part of the job and milking is always done by a milker in 44,5% of these farms. 69.3% of the farmers think that dairy cows can recognize humans, 30.4% agree that cows are intelligent and 36.2% that learn quickly. Few farmers think that is difficult to handle cows (6.3%) and calves (4.0%). Only 7.2 % of farmers think that calves are not very sensitive to pain and 10.5% neither the cows. Vocal contacts when approaching animals (calves, heifers or cows) are important for 60% of interviewed farmers. Farmers vary in their attitudes towards cows in general and regarding the importance of contact. Despite large herd size, most farmers show a positive attitude, and agree both on the importance of gentle contact during daily work and the significance of the cows’ being easy to handle and confident in contact humans, there is still a percentage showing different attitude. Only 11 % of them state that cows must have fear of humans to be easy handled Moreover farmers think that regular contact to the animals in different age categories is important or very important, but still some of them give less importance to such contact. Daily management practices showed that many farmers have often contacts with their calves during the first month of life, and these contacts diminish when the calves grow. 66 % of the farmers never talked to their heifers, while many of them are accustomed to use voice with their cows. These data suggest that there are still some difficulties in transforming positive attitude in positive handling.