Dairy goats are farmed globally for milk, cheese, and fiber but receive far less welfare research and regulatory attention than cattle. Key welfare challenges include disbudding, kid separation, and housing on inappropriate flooring.
Dairy goat welfare occupies a regulatory blind spot. Many countries have detailed dairy cattle welfare standards but minimal or no goat-specific regulations. The welfare challenges are significant: painful disbudding practices, early kid separation, inadequate housing, and a lack of browse provision are common across the industry. Goats are intelligent, curious, social animals with specific behavioral needs that intensive indoor systems frequently fail to meet. Growing consumer interest in goat dairy products creates a market incentive to improve welfare standards, but regulatory frameworks must also catch up to the scale of production.