Livestock transport is a significant welfare event for cattle, with journey duration, space allowance, and vehicle conditions determining welfare outcomes.
Cattle experience transport as a stressful event combining novelty, motion sickness, social disruption, and temperature stress. Welfare degradation increases with journey duration beyond 4-8 hours. Dehydration during long journeys causes physiological stress and is a primary welfare concern. Mixing unfamiliar animals during loading causes fighting. Poorly designed vehicles with inadequate ventilation cause heat stress in summer. Welfare-focused transport includes loading pen design that minimises fear, space allowances that allow cattle to stand comfortably, and journey durations kept to the minimum necessary.