On-farm self-assessment of animal welfare: Feasibility of animal welfare indicators in on-farm self-assessment, development of a framework with reference values and technical implementation in digital applications (project ‘EiKoTiGer’)

Since 2014 German livestock farmers are required to carry out on-farm self-assessments of animal welfare by law. • The guideline ‘Animal Welfare Indicators: Practical Guide – Dairy Cows/ Calves/ Beef Cattle’ enables livestock farmers to systematically assess animal welfare on their farms. • A freely available online training courses on the contents of the guideline was developed to allow a reliable assessment of the animal welfare indicators. • An Excel® application and record sheets for data collection in the stable were developed and are available as a free download. • Involving numerous experts, reference values were elaborated in a multi-stage process. Livestock farmers can compare and classify their results and thereby determine, if action to improve animal welfare on their farms is needed.