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The AssureWel Manual - available NOW!

The AssureWel Manual - The AssureWel approach to improving farm animal welfare through the use of welfare outcome assessment in farm assurance. The manual outlines the key elements of our approach so that others wishing to undertake similar work can learn from our experience.

AssureWel Benchmarking Tool

AssureWel Benchmarking Tool allows you to compare your feather loss scores to other non-caged industry flocks*, aids self assessment, and provides guidance on addressing risk factors and improving performance on feather cover.

* Compares your scores to those collected during farm assessment visits on Freedom Food and Soil Association farms.

Assurewel

To ensure we are improving farm animal welfare we need to be able to measure it. Measuring welfare enables us to know what level is being achieved on-farm and therefore better understand what impact the resources being provided and management practices being implemented are having on the animals. To this end, the AssureWel project aims to develop a system of welfare outcome assessment for the major farm animal species, so welfare can be measured and provide a basis for improvements to be made. These assessments will be developed for use by both assurance schemes and producers.
More about the AssureWel project

Welfare outcome assessment

Welfare outcome assessment is a practical and scientifically informed way of assessing and measuring animal welfare. It aims to provide an objective, accurate and direct picture of animal welfare.
More about welfare outcome assessment

Working with the food and farming industry

Encouraging a consistent industry-wide approach, the AssureWel project is working with leading industry bodies including Red Tractor Assurance, Quality Meat Scotland, BPEX, UK Organic Certifying Bodies and major retailers.

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The AssureWel Manual - The AssureWel approach to improving farm animal welfare through the use of welfare outcome assessment in farm assurance. The manual outlines the key elements of our approach so that others wishing to undertake similar work can learn from our experience.

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It is a welfare assessment protocol developed to assess and improve farm animal welfare

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ER: It is a collaborative project that aims to develop a practical system of welfare outcome assessment for farm species

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ER: It is a collaborative project that aims to develop a practical system of welfare outcome assessment for farm species

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The protocol can be used to assess the level of welfare achieved for an individual animal, farming system or farm assurance scheme.

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Aim: to develop a practical system of welfare outcome assessment for major farm species, to be used in farm assurance schemes.

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collaborative project led by the RSPCA, Soil Associationand University of Bristol

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Its main aim was to develop a practical system of welfare outcome assessment for the major farm animal species, which can be used in farm assurance schemes.

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Its main aim was to develop a practical system of welfare outcome assessmentfor the major farm animal species, which can be used in farm assurance schemes.

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Objectives included:
- Develop training in welfare outcome assessment for vets, advisers, and inspectors (They have developed a training tool for those who have undertaken initial training, but it is unclear on how well-known this is).
- Encourage use of welfare outcomes in other UK and European farm assurance schemes (this objective is ambiguous with the term 'encourage'. It is unclear on how they expect to do this.)
- Research and develop a broiler chicken welfare label based on production method with outcome safeguards.

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The manual outlines show key  elements of approachable so that others wishing to undertake similar work can learn from our experience. this will help people to keep improving however could wrong information be put up?

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it is a protocol which works to improve the care of farm animals by developing and using different welfare assessments to assess the animals needs.
also how do i post this? is it already posted?? IM I FOURTH WALLING????

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Enrichment use, lameness, tail docking, nose ringing, ear & flank biting, pigs needing further care, hospital pen, body marks, tail lesions, shoulder lesions, 🤬 lesions, manure on the body, leg swellings, skin conditions, body condition and mortality. Protocols can impact animal welfare depending on the protocol, e.g - cows can 'cause damage' to their noses if they rub their noses on the ground, so a ring is fitted through the nose to prevent that, the welfare concern is that it is painful to get the ring fitted & when the cow tries to root with its nose it causes pain as the ring is there.

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different organisations working together to help improve the welfare standards within farm animals.

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the scheme is wanting to help people improve welfare, the RSPCA work alongside them which is good as it is a large industry which helps to spread the information. i feel that most schemes will always in improvements when new research comes out. overall i feel that it is a good thing for the farm industry.

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Encouraging a consistent industry-wide approach, the AssureWel project is working with leading industry bodies including:

Red Tractor Assurance

Quality Meat Scotland

BPEX

UK Organic Certifying Bodies

and major retailers

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Our AssureWel Benchmarking Tool allows you to compare your scores to other non-caged industry flocks*, aids self assessment, and provides guidance on addressing risk factors and improving performance on feather cover.

found this on the website, they have a traffic light system which seem easy to follow. it helps to compare with different cage styles which can further help with research to show which living conditions are better for the hens. using one health issue can show you many issues within the chickens thanks the the protocols

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There are protocols for:
- Laying hens
- Dairy cows
- Pigs
- Broilers
- Beef Cattle
- Sheep
Some protocols seem to be more extensive (pigs for example have 16 measures but laying hens and sheep have 7).
Also, other farmed animals such as turkeys do not have a protocol, which may mean that these animals are not appropriately assessed, and welfare may not be at a standard as high as others.

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The following measures have been identified by AssureWel as being important indicators of dairy cow welfare. The criteria to select these 'core' measures included consideration as to how practical they are to assess on-farm. The full set of measures is now being implemented on Soil Association and RSPCA Assured farms.

Mobility
Body condition
Cleanliness
Hair loss, Lesions
Swellings
Broken tails
Response to stockperson
Cows needing further care
Mastitis
Calf/Heifer survivability
Cull and casualty cows

129 farmers made 163 changes to improve 16,300 dairy cows’ welfare
28% of farmers made improvements to tracks and walkways
13% of farmers increased space and access to resources
21% of farmers improved cow comfort
9% of farmers improved housing
8% of farmers improved lameness prevention and treatment
7% of farmers improved the prevention of mastitis
6% of farmers improved calf welfare

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Prior to AssureWel, scheme audits focused primarily on welfare ‘inputs’, which are the resources farmers provide to their animals, such as food, water, space and light. Although it is important to assess welfare inputs, scheme audits also need to include an assessment of the animals’ welfare ‘outcomes’, which are characteristics of the animals themselves, such as their health and behaviour, as this type of assessment provides a more direct and therefore valid assessment of the level of welfare being achieved on a farm.  Assurewel therefore developed this, highlighting importance of welfare outcomes.

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Partnered with RSPCA Assured and the Soil Association. RSPCA is a well-known organisation, and is generally centered on animal welfare so their involvement in the AssureWel is beneficial in giving a more rounded assessment of welfare, including behavioural signs (such as enrichment use in pigs, and response to stockperson in dairy cattle).

Soil Association is an organisation relating to 'healthy, humane, and sustainable' farming. It has guidelines on animal welfare, for organic farms. This is good that the AssureWel are partnered with the Soil Association, but only 3.1% of the cattle population is reared organically (Gov, 2019). This means that farmers may disregard some guidance provided, as the vast majority of farms are not organic.

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As AssureWel work with many different organisations, farmers may only have to do just one welfare assessment. For example, Red Tractor and Soil Association registered farms  will only have to do AssureWel. This reduces confusion and different methods used, therefore, more reliable results may be produced. But, this may also mean that farms not registered will not be able to take AssureWel as easily, so welfare assessments may be inconsistent and not representative of animal welfare.