The relationship between milk yield and animal welfare in dairy cattle farms evaluated with ClassyFarm protocol

Consumer interest in animal welfare has grown considerably in recent decades, leading to the development of standardised tools for the evaluation of welfare conditions on farms. In Italy, a standardised tool has been developed by the Italian Centre of Reference for Animal Welfare, and it is called ‘ClassyFarm protocol’. It is used to categorise farms based on risk, focusing on four key areas: animal welfare, biosecurity, antimicrobial usage, and antimicrobial resistance. This study aimed to assess the multiple effects on average milk yield of: (i) the different areas of the Animal Welfare Score (Area A, B, C, D), (ii) Total Welfare Score assessed by the ClassyFarm protocol in dairy cattle farms located in Tuscany, central Italy. A total of 33 dairy farms, housing 2.576 lactating cows (Italian Holstein Friesian, Brown Swiss, Jersey and Crossbreed cows) and employing cubicle, open-bedded, or outdoor-access housing systems, were included in the study. A regression tree analysis was conducted to assess the influence of the ClassyFarm scores with milk yield. Farms were then grouped according to the regression results, and differences were analysed using ANOVA. The analysis revealed that farms with a Total Welfare Score above 73.6 produced significantly higher milk quantity (27.3 L/day) than those scoring below this threshold (21.2 L/day). Key drivers of this difference included animal-based measures such as human-animal interaction, body condition score, animal cleanliness, incidence of injuries, as well as litter and milking hygiene. In conclusion, the study demonstrates a positive association between ClassyFarm scores and milk yield.