Our Sustainable Path

Humane Animal Treatment

“Everything that’s good for us is good for cows.” That’s what Dr. Wendy Fulwider, animal husbandry specialist, will tell you when she talks about Organic Valley's Animal Wellness initiative. Since joining the Co-op in September, 2008, Dr. Fulwider has worked to develop a system that dairy farmers can use to “score” their herds and help them determine what’s going well and what might need improvement. She began work on the scoring system while studying with renowned animal behaviorist, Temple Grandin, which involves assessing cows in 4 major areas: Hocks, Hygiene, Locomotion, and Body Condition.

Farmers who take advantage of the scoring process by an objective representative from the Co-op benefit the Co-op as a whole, as well as themselves and their animals. Not only do they gain valuable knowledge and increased production, but they are able to measure that performance to prove to our customers that we’re doing a good job. For instance, we have learned our pasturing policy is better for cows, better for the soil, and better for the water. Ultimately, Fulwider’s scoring system gives us a way to compare the health of organic cows to conventional cows. Essentially, humane care is profitable.

Herd health

In 2008, Farmers Advocating for Organic (FAFO) funded the initial request to the Organic Center (www.organic-center.org) to carry out a herd health study. The Center developed a comprehensive research project that assesses the factors impacting the health of organic and conventionally managed dairy cows. The success of this seed grant was leveraged into a $950,000 USDA grant over 4 years for 3 universities to expand and validate the significance of pasture-based organic dairy farming as compared with conventional herd management.

Steps to Sustainability

introduction
on the farm
humane animal treatment
operations
water stewardship
employees
partnerships
giving
sustainable trade

Excerpted from the Organic Valley/ CROPP Cooperative 2008 Annual Report.