Investments for implementing an animal welfare system in breeding-fattening bovine on pasture and confined

Abstract

Animal welfare has the purpose of determining the best management practices, with respect to the natural needs of the animal and certification for animal welfare is a way of credibly communicating the consumer, consequently, adding value to the product, associated with Willingness-to-pay, which consists of the consumer’s willingness to pay a differential, as well as meeting sustainability goals. The transition to the animal welfare system involves adjustments to the structure of the property and changes in management, consonantly associated with financial investments. The specific objectives of this work are: (i) to identify the adaptations of pasture and feedlot cattle production systems to obtain animal welfare certification in the five-domain model; (ii) quantify the financial investments needed to adapt production systems. The exploratory and descriptive case study method was used, with a field research strategy, qualitative observation and document analysis. Investments in adjustments were classified using the observation costing method proportional to the production unit (animal). As a result of this case study, in pasture handling, each animal certified with animal welfare has an incremental investment of 4.16%, in pasture, with the largest investments resulting from labor and social charges, for the confinement, the investment was estimated at 9.48% per bovine, due to infrastructure adaptations. The size of the investments allows the farmer to assess the possibility of exploring a differentiated market niche.