Monitoring and analyzing on-farm livestock mortality provides essential welfare intelligence, revealing the conditions and management failures that lead to preventable suffering and death.
On-farm animal mortality represents the most severe welfare outcome and provides a measurable indicator of underlying welfare problems. Animals that die prematurely on farms have typically experienced welfare compromise before death — from disease, injury, or metabolic failure. Mortality auditing and post-mortem programs transform dead animals from economic losses into welfare information that can prevent future suffering.