Moving beyond measuring only disease and injury, cattle positive welfare science identifies behavioral indicators of good emotional states that provide more complete welfare assessment on farms.
Traditional cattle welfare assessment focused on identifying and recording disease, injury, and behavioral problems — providing a picture of suffering but no information about positive wellbeing. Positive welfare science for cattle has identified that play behavior, exploration, and social affiliation are reliable indicators of good welfare states. Farms where cattle regularly show these behaviors have measurably better welfare outcomes across multiple dimensions. Incorporating positive welfare indicators into farm assessment provides more complete welfare information and clearer targets for improvement.