Dairy Cow and Calf Higher Welfare Award Criteria

To apply for this award, 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.

Companies can receive the award in one of two categories:

Current Policy: awarded to companies that already meet the award criteria.
In Transition: awarded to companies that have made a public commitment and are working towards meeting the criteria within five years.

There are three types of award available:

Higher Welfare Award - Dairy Cows and Calves for meeting the welfare criteria for both dairy cows and calves.
Higher Welfare Award - Dairy Cows for meeting the welfare criteria for dairy cows
Higher Welfare Award - Dairy Calves for meeting the welfare criteria for dairy calves

Welfare criteria for Dairy Cows

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

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 six 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
No tethering is permitted
Comfort around resting:
- At least one cubicle per cow (or 11 m²/cow in open yards)
- Provision of comfortable bedding
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 five-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 eight hours (export from the UK is not permitted).

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)

Why apply?

Winning an award enables you to:

Demonstrate leadership on farm animal welfare and responsible sourcing.
Show how your policies and commitments align with your company's values and sustainability goals.
Strengthen supply chain transparency and traceability, helping to manage business and reputational risk.
Build trust and confidence among customers, investors and other stakeholders.
Gain recognition for your achievements from a globally respected farm animal welfare organisation.
Respond to growing consumer demand for food produced to higher-welfare standards.

Support on your journey
We can help you identify welfare improvements through our expert technical advice and support, through our case studies which share best practice and we have a bank of resources to help you make the case for choosing higher-welfare systems.

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, companies are required to provide annual progress reports against their commitment. Compassion will maintain regular contact with award winners throughout the commitment period to monitor progress, offer ongoing support, and help ensure commitments are met within the agreed timeframe.

Ready to apply? Contact us today to start the conversation.

Find out more about dairy cattle welfare

Higher Welfare Award - Dairy Cows and Calves: Criteria