SAC has made comparisons of the costs and benefits to welfare of dairy housing systems in the UK. These pages will explore the benefits of each system, giving advice on how to minimise the negative welfare impacts in each case. Changing farming methods and the use of higher producing cattle are responsible for greater intensification of dairy production where the rationale is that high yielding cows may be unable to meet their nutritional demands through grazing. This has resulted in some management systems housing herds permanently, leading to zero grazing continuous housing. In these cases, particular attention must be paid to conditions and management to minimise the challenges to welfare in such systems.

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