Separating mother cows and calves immediately after birth is common practice in milk production in order to use the milk intended for the calf for human consumption. Alternatively, mother- or foster-based calf rearing systems enable more natural husbandry and offer significant advantages for animal welfare. In addition, research shows that mother-bonded and foster-bonded calf rearing has positive effects on animal health, including lower antibiotic use. Despite these advantages, there are currently no clear minimum requirements for this system, which leads to uncertainty among agricultural farms and the risk of deception on the market.

The retail sector is increasingly responsive to its customers' growing interest in more animal-friendly milk production. However, the term ‘mother- or foster-based rearing’ is sometimes also used to promote dairy produce where calves are kept for only a few days or with very limited contact with their mother or foster mother and/or are separated from their mother at a particularly unfavourable time. Such practices do not meet consumer expectations and can even cause additional animal suffering and increased antibiotic use.

Rearing calves with their mothers and wet nurses entails significant income losses for the farms concerned, which is why their milk inevitably comes at a higher cost. The current lack of clarity between actual animal welfare measures and merely minimal cow-calf contact poses an existential threat to farms that consistently produce in an animal-friendly manner.

Together with the Cowpassion association, the MuKa specialist unit and the animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS, TIR has drawn up and published a brief report on the subject. This is intended to serve as a basis for discussion with decision-makers and help to implement the demands.