Dairy: Revised dairy code proposes a ban on tail docking

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The draft code, now consideration by the National Farm Animal Care Council, also requires pain control for dehorning and castration

by DON STONEMAN

Do you leave tails undocked, and use anesthetics and analgesics when dehorning and castrating cattle? If so, you are already on the right side of a revised Dairy Code of Practice under consideration by the National Farm Animal Care Council.

The draft revision of the Code, which was last updated in 1989, proposes to ban tail docking of cows and heifers and require that pain control measures be put into place when dehorning and castration takes place.

"Dairy cattle must not be tail-docked unless medically necessary," says a draft of the new code of practice. When it is done, "a licenced veterinarian must perform the tail amputation."

The document, available on the website of the National Farm Animal Care Council at www.nfacc.ca spells out the reasons. Tail docking cattle, either calves or adults, causes pain and discomfort. Moreover, docked heifers show signs of chronic pain, as indicated by greater sensitivity to cold and heat on the stump.

Dairy Farmers of Ontario, the Ontario Veal Association, Holstein Canada and the Ontario agriculture ministry all contributed to recommendations sent to the national organization by the Ontario Farm Animal Council, says its executive director, Crystal Mackay. The draft document does recommend switch trimming, Mackay notes.

"We recommend a phase-in period," says Mackay, "to allow time to get buy-in" from producers.

The good news is that milk quality isn't likely to suffer if docking is stopped. "Research has not identified any differences in udder or leg hygiene, somatic cell count or prevalence of intramammary pathogens that could be attributed to tail docking," says the draft report.

The codes are voluntary in Ontario. In Manitoba, they are automatically rolled into regulation as they are updated under the province's Animal Care Act, says Terry Whiting, office of the chief veterinarian, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. Violating a code is punishable with a fine of up to $5,000 for a first offense.

Brian Lang, an Ontario agriculture ministry dairy production specialist based in Woodstock, thinks tail docking is on a downward trend since Dairy Farmers of Ontario conducted a survey of production practices in 2000. It's likely that 10 per cent of cows in the province had their tails docked then and there are fewer now, he says.

The code recommends that strategies be adopted to reduce pain before and after procedures such as castration and dehorning, she says.

That means anesthetics and analgesics must be used.

At the time that the code was first adopted in 1989 adopted, says Mackay, Canada was a "world leader" in developing codes for the care of farm animals. "In the bigger picture," she says, consumers "don't like invasive procedures."

Mackay says that a number of cattle veterinarians surveyed "felt a large percentage of producers were already practicing pain reduction strategies." BF