Farmed Animals

Welfare Benchmarking in Livestock Farming

Benchmarking welfare performance against industry peers enables farms to identify areas for improvement and track progress over time.

Key Facts

Welfare benchmarking compares farm performance against industry average and best practice standards
Data from multiple farms enables identification of risk factors and effective interventions
Farms that receive benchmarked welfare data show faster improvement than those with absolute targets only
Benchmarking programs have been implemented for dairy, pig, and poultry sectors
Participation requires data sharing which some producers find concerning from a competitive perspective

Welfare Considerations

Welfare benchmarking provides farms with comparative data that motivates and guides improvement. Knowing that peer farms achieve lower lameness rates or better feather cover scores is a more actionable prompt than absolute targets alone. Well-designed benchmarking programs protect participant data confidentiality while providing meaningful comparison data that drives welfare improvement across sectors.

What You Can Do

Support industry-wide welfare benchmarking programs in livestock sectors
Advocate for participation incentives and data protection in welfare benchmarking schemes
Raise awareness about benchmarking as an effective welfare improvement tool
Support research evaluating the impact of benchmarking on farm welfare outcomes
Encourage farm advisers and veterinarians to use benchmarking data in welfare consultations