Culling decisions in dairy farming carry significant welfare implications, and welfare-based frameworks improve both individual cow outcomes and herd sustainability.
Dairy cow culling welfare involves both the decision to cull and the welfare of the culling process itself. Premature culling of cows that could recover wastes welfare potential, while delayed culling of irreversibly compromised cows prolongs suffering. Welfare-based culling protocols provide systematic frameworks for identifying cows unlikely to recover - those with severe chronic lameness, intractable mastitis, or pronounced poor body condition - and prioritising their early culling over economic considerations. The welfare of transport to slaughter for culled cows requires active management, as unfit cows that cannot be transported must be killed on farm. Training farm staff to make welfare-centred culling decisions, rather than delaying until economic pressure forces the decision, is a key welfare improvement.