Animal health and welfare

Our policy

Animal health and welfare are in everyone's interest. Humane husbandry, healthy calves, improved vitality, good transport and the prevention of stress and pain are important themes in this respect. We cannot commit to this alone, which is why we work intensively with veal farmers, vets, dairy farmers, cattle dealers and transporters.

Animal health and welfare within the chain

Safety Guard

We ensure animal health and welfare throughout our chain by treating animals carefully. This includes the responsible use of antibiotics and minimising distress by ensuring the so-called ‘Five Freedoms’ (freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear and distress).

Good care of calves in calf husbandry

To record the welfare of calves in our chain, an Animal Welfare Code (DWC) has been included in Safety Guard, the VanDrie Group's quality system. In various links of our chain, compliance with this code is recorded in that DWC monitor. It is a tool that uses animal-specific indicators (behavioural and health characteristics) to make a reliable estimate of animal welfare at the primary holding up to the moment of stunning. The monitor is based on the methodology of the European research project Welfare Quality^®. It helps us to gain an insight into the welfare of animals and provides support with the management of the farm.

Mainly Dutch calves

Within the VanDrie Group’s integrated approach, calves are taken from dairy farms. Cows have to give birth every year in order to produce milk. The VanDrie Group buys calves that become available from dairy farmers, mainly bull calves. After all, those animals will ultimately not provide any milk. The calves in our integration are mainly from the Netherlands, namely 62 per cent. This also means that the VanDrie Group purchases calves from abroad, 27 per cent of which come from Germany and the remaining 12 per cent of animals from other EU Member States.

Reduction of antibiotic use

By 2022, the reduction in the use of antibiotics in our chain was 62.9 per cent compared to 2007. This is 1.3 per cent higher than the result achieved for 2021.

From milk to more solid feed

The right animal feed is essential for good animal health and welfare. Whereas before the turn of the century, calves received extremely uniform feed, primarily calf milk, that has changed dramatically in the past decade. On average, a calf in 2022 received 250 kilos of veal milk powder in the form of milk, 360 kilos of muesli and 40 kilos of chopped straw.

The shift from milk to more solid feed leads to a better developed digestive system in calves and therefore a fitter and healthier calf. The rumen creates more vitamin B and there is iron in the roughage. More roughage contributes to the species-specific behaviour of rumination. It promotes health at the same time and this is also one of the reasons why (clinical) anaemia hardly occurs anymore. For many years, anaemia has been a considerable problem in calf husbandry. We therefore fully understand that the subject is inextricably linked to the sector. If the haemoglobin level in the blood of the calves is too low, this can cause health problems such as anaemia. To safeguard the health of our calves, we do what we can to actively prevent anaemia. We have been doing this successfully for several decades now. We actively focus on significantly higher haemoglobin levels than the European requirement of at least 4.5 millimoles per litre on average.

Agreement on Humane Livestock Farming

An amendment to the Animals Act was tabled by the Dutch Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren, PvdD) on 11 May 2021. The amendment, now ratified by the Parliament and Senate, is a tightening of the ban on animal cruelty. An important part of this amendment is that animals should not be adapted to a stall system, but the stall system should be adapted to animal behaviour. However, the government ruled that the amendment was impossible to comply with and unenforceable. Therefore, in November 2022, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality opted for the amendment to be fleshed out with an order in council following the agreements made in the Convenant Dierwaardige Veehouderij (Agreement on Humane Livestock Farming). Through the Dutch Veal Industry Association (SBK) and the Central Organisation for the Meat Sector (COV), we are participating in the talks on this Agreement. A first version of the Agreement is expected in the second quarter of 2023.

Proper care of calves during transport and slaughter

As a result of collaboration with veal farmers and transporters, knowledge about animal behaviour when loading, unloading and transporting is being exchanged on a continuous basis. After an intensive journey in 2020 and 2021, we again actively shared best practices with contract veal farmers and transporters in 2022.

In addition, when it comes to transportation, it is important to avoid heat stress. In the event of high temperatures, we take the following measures:

• Calves are loaded and transported earlier and the load factor is reduced;

• If drivers have to wait for a while on our companies' premises, they use shaded areas created for that purpose;

• By working with a tight time scheduling for the transporters, waiting times when unloading at our companies are minimised;

• All calves are checked individually when unloading to see if all measures are working properly;

• Climate-controlled lorries are used as much as possible to actively improve the indoor climate in the lorries;

• No transportation will take place in temperatures of 35 degrees or more.

Animal Welfare Officers

To comply with animal welfare requirements even during slaughter, Animal Welfare Officers have been appointed at all our meat processing companies. These employees know animal behaviour, know everything about animal welfare and the processes at the farm in question. We also want to ensure that in addition to human understanding with regard to animal welfare, we apply systems that can support assurance. All meat processing companies therefore have continuous camera surveillance. The regulatory authority can view these images. In 2021, a pilot started at Ekro in Apeldoorn with smart camera surveillance that can signal aberrant behaviour – this pilot was continued in 2022.

These are cameras linked to a computer running a program that recognises certain images (artificial intelligence). To this end, VanDrie Group is working with Deloitte to optimise these computer models, so that they can independently track incidents. For example, a computer can learn to recognise lameness, signal overcrowded stalls, restlessness or unnecessary physical contact between an employee and an animal.

Smart camera surveillance should be rolled out to other VanDrie Group meat processing companies in 2023. In addition, the VanDrie Group has aligned its policy to the animal welfare code of conduct of the Central Organisation for the Meat Sector (COV). The code of conduct includes annual training for slaughterhouse employees, intensive camera monitoring, the use of artificial intelligence when deploying cameras and knowledge sharing between companies to increase learning ability. The code of conduct also requires external specialists to assess the safeguarding of animal welfare in slaughterhouses.

Inspection results NVWA

Our Dutch meat processing companies, Ameco, ESA, Ekro and T. Boer & zn are under permanent supervision of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). This means constant inspections on important issues such as animal welfare or hygienic work are in place. In addition to this permanent supervision, The NVWA carries out inspections (a total of 10,159 for the aforementioned companies) and publishes its data publicly on its own website. We see over 2022 that the four companies comply by as much as 99.77%. To a large degree the demands made upon us are met. Ensuring animal welfare in our meat processing companies is a serious matter for us. Nevertheless, one deficiency was found in 2022 that is finable under the Animals Act.