Eligibility and criteria

You need to be a well-known or notable food company that can satisfy the welfare criteria below, either as a current policy or on a five year commitment basis.

There are four types of award available:

1. Good Dairy Award for meeting the welfare criteria for both dairy cows and calves.
2. Good Dairy Commendation for meeting the welfare criteria for dairy cows
3. Good Calf Commendation for meeting the welfare criteria for dairy calves
4. Good Calf Award for specialist calf rearers that meet the criteria for dairy calves

Welfare criteria for Dairy Cows

A current policy or a 5 year commitment to achieve the following criteria:

1. Grazing policy:
   • Cattle must not be housed permanently indoors during the grazing season
   • A written grazing policy must be in place (for a minimum of 120 days access to pasture and 6 hours/day)
   • No milk to be sourced from large scale dairy farms where access to adequate grazing is prohibited or limited due to the size of the operation
2. No tethering is permitted
3. Comfort around resting:
   • At least one cubicle per cow (or 11 m2/cow  in open yards)
   • Provision of comfortable bedding
4. Active monitoring* of key welfare outcomes, including:
   • Lameness (e.g. mobility score)
   • Culling rate (expressed as a culling %)
   • Longevity (age of the cow or number of lactations from first calving)
   • Mastitis (number of clinical cases per year in relation to herd size)
   • Cow condition (Body Condition Score)
   • Flight Distance (or other relevant indicator to measure human-animal relationship)

*The regular monitoring of welfare outcomes should be part of a proactive programme to encourage continuous improvement, with clear targets for progress and action plans in place to reach the set objectives.

Welfare criteria for Dairy Calves

A current policy or a 5 year commitment to achieve the following criteria:

• All calves from your dairy supply chain must be reared in higher welfare systems, featuring:
  • group housing
  • provision of adequate bedding
  • appropriate diet ad-libitum fibres 
• Good quality colostrum must be provided within the first six hours after birth.
• Transport time limited to a maximum of 8 hours (export from the UK is not permitted).

Welfare criteria - Good Calf Award

A current policy or a 5 year commitment to achieve the following criteria:

• All calves must be reared in higher welfare systems, featuring:
  • group housing
  • provision of adequate bedding
  • appropriate diet ad-libitum fibres 
• Good quality colostrum must be provided within the first six hours after birth.
• Transport time limited to a maximum of 8 hours (export from the UK is not permitted).
• Commitment to encourage the respect of the above criteria in supplying dairy farms

Good Dairy Award Categories

Companies can apply in one or more of the following categories:

• Liquid milk (fresh and UHT)
• Dairy products (butter and cream; cheese; yoghurt, ice cream and other dairy desserts)
• Dairy ingredients (such as powdered milk)

How to apply

Companies can apply for an award via their engagement with the Food Business team and on completion of an application form signed at Director level.

Where an application is made on a commitment basis, Compassion will remain in contact with award winners over the commitment period, to assess progress made and provide continued support. 

If you would like to apply for one of the above awards please contact the Food Business team.

Find out more about dairy cattle welfare 

• Find out more about how to improve the welfare of dairy cows and calves here
• Explore all our Dairy resources here