Recognising pain in cattle has been transformed by validated assessment tools, enabling more effective pain management and improving welfare across dairy and beef systems.
Pain recognition in cattle has historically been poor because they are stoic prey animals that mask discomfort. A cow with a severely fractured foot may continue to eat and produce milk while experiencing constant pain. Validated pain assessment tools — particularly the BovFACS and behaviour-based scoring systems — give stockpersons and vets objective frameworks for recognising pain that previously required intuition and experience. Training stockpersons in pain recognition is one of the most direct welfare interventions available, immediately improving the identification and treatment of conditions that were previously suffering unrecognised.