The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium in 2021 inaugurated the call "animal welfare" to measure and increase the quality of life of dairy cows in the chain.
The welfare parameters are identified and measured on a scientific basis. The National Reference Center for Animal Welfare (CReNBA) has produced a checklist divided into 105 criteria that, once compiled by properly trained veterinarians, has allowed to assign a score that quantifies the level of animal welfare of a barn.
Other factors were added to the checklist to reward and evaluate more subjective aspects such as the size of the area available to the animal, the possibility of movement, maternal contact for calves.
The results of the first year of census photograph a significant path of improvement in animal welfare. Bearing in mind that the CReNBA score ranges from 1 to 100 and that 60 represents sufficiency, in 2021 Parmigiano Reggiano farms achieved an average score of 74.02 compared to 67.2 in 2018, recording a growth of 6.4 points.
The Consortium intends to renew the call also for 2022 and announces that a third year will follow in 2023, for an expenditure that in the three-year period will reach 15 million euros: "It is a journey that will not end soon and will require courage and dedication, but that is not why we will stop facing it," commented the president of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, Nicola Bertinelli.