The health and wellbeing of animals is critical to the Australian dairy industry. Appropriate care for our animals is essential not only to the success of every farming business, but our moral responsibility. It is an expectation of our customers and stakeholders.

It is our commitment to continue to improve our practices and report transparently on how we are progressing and where we need to do more.

Our Goals

The 2030 goal we have set for ourselves around animal welfare in the Australian Dairy Industry Sustainability Framework is to:

• Provide best care for all animals for whole of life (Framework Goal 7). Targets include: compliance with welfare guidelines, animal care practices, consumer perceptions of dairy animal welfare and antimicrobial stewardship.

Key achievements in 2021

• 100 per cent of dairy farmers support compliance with animal welfare standards.
• The practice of routine calving induction has been phased out (1 January 2022).
• A decision was made to develop a whole-of-industry policy for managing surplus dairy calves.
• A review of the targets for compliance with legislated animal welfare standards and the use of recommended industry practices for animal care got underway.
• 76 per cent of consumers believe dairy farmers do a good job caring for their animals.

Check out our progress on our goals against baseline and 2030 targets in the 2021 Australian Dairy Sustainability Progress Report.