Improving animal welfare on farm can sometimes require substantial financial investments. The Canadian dairy industry recently updated their Code of Practice for the care of dairy animals and created a mandatory on-farm animal care assessment (proAction Animal Care). Motivating dairy farmers to follow the recommendations of the Code of Practice and successfully meet the targets of the on-farm assessment can be enhanced by financial gain associated with improved animal welfare. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the association between meeting or not meeting several criteria from an on-farm animal welfare assessment and the farms' productivity and profitability indicators. Data from 130 freestall farms (20 using automatic milking systems) were used to calculate the results of the animal care assessment. Productivity and profitability indicators, including milk production, somatic cell count, reproduction, and longevity, were retrieved from the regional dairy herd improvement association databases. Economical margins over replacement costs were also calculated. Univariable and multivariable linear regression models were used to evaluate the associations between welfare and productivity and profitability indicators. The proportion of automatic milking system farms that met the proAction criterion for hock lesions was higher compared with parlor farms and lower for the neck lesion criterion. The proAction criterion for lameness prevalence was significantly associated with average corrected milk production per year. Average days in milk (DIM) at first breeding acted as an effect modifier for this association, resulting in a steeper increase of milk production in farms that met the criterion with increasing average DIM at first breeding. The reproduction and longevity indicators studied were not significantly associated with meeting or not meeting the proAction criteria investigated in this study. Meeting the proAction lameness prevalence parameter was associated with an increased profitability margin per cow over replacement cost by $236 compared with farms that did not. These results suggest that associations are present between meeting the lameness prevalence benchmark of the Animal Care proAction Initiative and freestall farms' productivity and profitability. Overall, meeting the animal-based criteria evaluated in this study was not detrimental to freestall farms' productivity and profitability.

改善农场的动物福利有时可能需要大量的财政投资。加拿大奶业最近更新了《奶牛饲养守则》，并建立了一项强制性的农场动物饲养评估（proAction Animal Care）。通过提高与动物福利有关的经济收益，可以激励奶农遵循《行为守则》的建议并成功达到农场评估的目标。本研究的目的是评估满足或不满足农场动物福利评估中的几个标准与农场的生产力和获利能力指标之间的关联。来自130个速冻农场的数据（使用自动挤奶系统的20个农场）用于计算动物保健评估的结果。生产率和获利能力指标，包括牛奶产量，体细胞数，繁殖能力和寿命，均从区域奶牛群改良协会数据库中获取。还计算了超过重置成本的经济利润。单变量和多变量线性回归模型用于评估福利，生产率和利润指标之间的关联。满足proAction准则的飞节病危害的自动挤奶系统农场的比例高于客厅农场，而颈部病害的标准则较低。Action足患病率的proAction标准与每年平均校正奶产量显着相关。初次繁殖时的平均牛奶天数（DIM）可以作为这种关联的效果调节器，导致符合标准的农场的牛奶产量急剧增加，初次繁殖时平均DIM有所增加。研究的生殖和寿命指标与满足或不符合本研究中研究的proAction标准无显着相关性。与没有这样做的农场相比，满足proAction me足流行率参数可使每头奶牛的利润率比更换成本高出236美元。这些结果表明，在达到动物保护行动倡议的me行流行基准与freestall农场的生产力和盈利能力之间存在关联。总体而言，满足本研究中评估的以动物为基础的标准不会损害速冻农场的生产力和利润率。