Are Norwegian dairy cows doing well?
23 March 2026
3 minute read
By: To assess whether there is good animal welfare in Norwegian dairy cow farms, data from TINE's Animal Welfare Indicator is not enough, shows a new doctoral thesis from NMBU - We cannot avoid having to visit the animals.
Having a good overview of animal welfare in Norwegian dairy cow farms is very important. In his doctoral thesis, Conor Barry has investigated whether the welfare assessments in Norway are good at telling us anything about animal welfare in Norwegian barns.
Tine SA has developed an Animal Welfare Indicator and in his work, Conor Barry has looked at this against the international Welfare Quality protocol.
The WQ protocol was developed through an international EU project from 2004 to 2009, which aimed to create standards for measuring animal welfare in a range of production animals. A total of 44 universities in 17 countries participated in the project.
Traveled around to dairy farms
Conor began his PhD work by visiting 97 dairy farms to assess animal welfare using the WQ protocol. The Cow Well-Being project visited 157 dairy farms in total.
“Animal welfare in Norwegian dairy cows is quite good, but there are also some challenges. I discovered that different herds had different animal welfare challenges,” says Barry.
The animal welfare indicator has data on health
Most milk producers in Norway use a database called Kukontrollen. It collects large amounts of data, such as information about milk quality, how long a dairy cow lives, whether the animal has been treated by a veterinarian and much more. Based on this data, Tine SA has then selected a number of variables and created an Animal Welfare Indicator to be able to say something about animal welfare in Norwegian herds.
Part of the project has been to determine whether this Animal Welfare Indicator is a good tool for actually assessing animal welfare.
The Animal Welfare Indicator of Tine SA tells a lot about the health situation of the cows, but when we define animal welfare, the cows' opportunity for natural behavior, good feeding and a good environment are also important. Since this Animal Welfare Indicator as it stands today does not have this information, it is not suitable for assessing animal welfare in its entirety, says Barry.
The animals need supervision
In addition, Conor took a closer look at a very special health challenge.
Lameness is a major animal welfare challenge. Since lameness is one of the points in the Animal Welfare Indicator that could perhaps be used to say something about the prevalence, i.e. how many cows are lame, we chose to investigate exactly that, he says.
The thesis shows that there is a significant correlation between the variable that tells something about hoof health in the Animal Welfare Indicator and how many cows were actually lame in Norwegian herds.
Although we saw a correlation, the Animal Welfare Indicator still cannot be used for accurate predictions of lameness, says Barry.
We have to accept that if we want to make good assessments of animal welfare in a herd, we have to visit them. We have to see the animals. Some of the records can be used to map which parts of animal welfare need to be improved in a herd, but the veterinarian or other advisors must be physically present in the barn and make a thorough assessment in order to be able to make a comprehensive assessment of animal welfare, says Conor.
Animal welfare is more than good health
He says that in the past, many people thought that if the animals were healthy and they produced well, then animal welfare was good.
Animal welfare is so much more than good health. To improve animal welfare, you need to find the improvement points that are specific to each individual farm, and work closely with the producer to find good measures. The Animal Welfare Program for Cattle launched in 2022 is a perfect opportunity to develop this collaboration.
Conor points out that the Animal Welfare Indicator can still be a good tool for use by private veterinarians.
Everyone just needs to be aware of what the indicator can tell us, and what limitations it has, he says.
