Proposed Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Cattle

A2.19 Standard 10.3 – Unquantifiable cost savings of ensuring feed is available daily to beef cattle

Under proposed Standard 10.3, a person in charge must ensure feed is available daily to cattle in the beef feedlot. This would result in an incremental cost savings to beef feedlots not in the NFAS²⁴¹ (estimated to be around 1,762²⁴²) in not being required to remove stale or spoilt feed, although in many cases this would probably be done anyway. Given that the frequency of this is unknown – this cost savings remains unquantifiable.

Public consultation question 31: Do you know the number or percentage of cattle in unaccredited feedlots that are affected by adverse welfare outcomes due not being fed fresh feed each day as required under the proosed standard S10.3?

A2.20 Standard 10.4 – Risk assessment for heat load risk at feedlots

Under proposed Standard 10.4, a person in charge must do a risk assessment each year for the heat load risk at the feedlot and implement appropriate actions to manage ongoing heat load risk. This issue relates to smaller feedlots and it is assumed that 10%²⁴³ of non-accredited feedlots would be affected (estimated to be around 1,762). This would involve the annual cost of documenting an excessive heat load action plan and implementing appropriate actions in the event of a heat load emergency. A conservative estimate is one day (7.5hrs) per annum per feedlot and it is assumed that this would cover both documentation and implementation with one emergency per annum per feedlot.

Public consultation question 32: Do you know the number or percentage of feedlots affected under proposed standard S10.4 to conduct annual heat risk assessments or any information to improve the estimation of costs of this risk assessment?
As shown in Table 2.22, the 10-year incremental cost of documenting and implementing heat load action plans under proposed Standard 10.4 would be approximately $0.66m or $0.43m in 2012-13 present value dollars.
Table A2.22 – 10-year incremental cost of documenting and implementing heat load action plans by state and territory under Standard 10.4 –2012-13 dollars

Jurisdiction	No. non-accredited feedlot farmhands (w2) = (t2)^244*10%	Annual record keeping cost (x2)=(w2)*10%*7.5hrs*(h)^245	10-year cost (y2)=(x2)*10
NSW	366	$13,909	$139,088
VIC	161	$6,922	$69,216
QLD	846	$31,376	$313,761
SA	75	$2,755	$27,549
WA	133	$5,476	$54,757
TAS	32	$1,547	$15,469
NT	149	$3,725	$37,248
ACT	1	$21	$208
Australia	1,762	$65,730	$657,296
Present value 7% discount rate			$431,455
3% discount rate			$544,356
10% discount rate			$367,163

A2.21 Standard 11.5 – Age constraint for killing calves by blow to forehead

Killing of animals is an expert skill and is often regarded as controversial; but humane standards of killing must be agreed to provide the most appropriate welfare outcome where a cow or calf needs to be euthanased. Given the reduced availability of guns and captive bolt slaughter devices, the use of blunt trauma by a single blow to the head of a calf is regarded as a humane and practical method of killing very young animals.

Under proposed Standard 11.5, a calf must be less than 24 hours old for a person to kill it by a blow to the forehead.
Whilst the expert application of blunt trauma in calves less than 24 hours old is a cheap and practical method of killing, its limited window of application means that other methods must be used in calves older than one day. This standard would involve a the one-off cost of switching to alternative killing methods for dairy calves older than 24 hours, and would require that persons in charge have access to suitable rifle or captive bolt. Dairy calves commonly develop scours at 3 days of age so delay means they need to be killed with a captive bolt²⁴⁶. This would be relevant to 10%²⁴⁷ of dairy farmhands. Captive bolt guns can be purchased in Australia for around $400²⁴⁸. The firearm licence would be $200 over 5 years, as required in WA and TAS.²⁴⁹ Training would be for half a day with an estimated cost of registration of $100 for an adult²⁵⁰ plus a time cost 4.25hrs (including 1hr travel time). The cost in the first year would therefore be $500 for all jurisdictions except for WA and TAS where it would be $700 (including the firearm licence).
Travel would also involve a cost of $0.74 per km. Assuming total travel of 100km in 1hr, this would bring the average transport cost to $74. Whilst this does not include storage cost it is assumed that a farm would already have a secure storage area for valuable belongings under lock and key.
In years 2 to 4 and 6 to 10 there would only be the registration cost of $100 plus the time and travel cost of the farmhand. However in year 5 there would be an additional cost of $200 for renewal of the firearm licence in WA and TAS.
As shown in Table 2.23, the 10-year incremental cost of switching to an alternative killing method for calves greater than two days old would be approximately $3.14m or $2.12m in 2012-13 present value dollars.
Table A2.23 – 10-year incremental cost of switching to an alternative killing method for calves > 24hrs by state and territory under Standard 11.5 –2012-13 dollars

Jurisdiction	Dairy farms (i)^251	Annual cost in year 1 of captive bolt, licence and training plus farmhand’s time plus travel cost (1hr) (z2) = ((i)*10%*$500) + ((h)*(i)*10%*4.25hrs)+ ((i)*10%*$74) or (z2) = ((i)*10%*$700) + ((h)*(i)*10%*4.25hrs)+ ((i)*10%*$74) for WA and TAS	Annual cost in years 2 to 4 and years 6 to 10 of training plus farmhand’s time plus travel cost (z2^) = ((i)*10%*$100) + ((h)*(i)*10%*4.25hrs)+ ((i)*10%*$74)	Annual cost in year 5 renewal of licence plus training plus farmhand’s time plus travel cost (z2^^) = ((i)*10%*$100) + ((h)*(i)*10%*4.25hrs)+ ((i)*10%*$74) or (z2^^) = ((i)*10%*$300) + ((h)*(i)*10%*4.25hrs)+ ((i)*10%*$74) for WA and TAS	10-year cost (z2^^^) = (z2)+ [(z2^)*8]+ (z2^^)
NSW	807	$63,713	$31,433	$31,433	$346,608
VIC	4,588	$375,322	$191,802	$191,802	$2,101,540
QLD	595	$46,662	$22,862	$22,862	$252,419
SA	286	$22,339	$10,899	$10,899	$120,435
WA	170	$17,131	$6,931	$10,331	$82,912
TAS	437	$45,909	$19,689	$28,429	$231,853
NT	-	$0	$0	$0	$0
ACT	-	$0	$0	$0	$0
Australia	6,883	$571,077	$283,617	$295,757	$3,135,766
Present value 7% discount rate					$2,120,325
3% discount rate					$2,629,672
10% discount rate					$1,828,074

Public consultation question 33: Do you know the number or percentage of cattle affected under proposed standard S11.5 for humane killing; or any information to improve the estimation of costs?