Farm animal welfare is now an obvious goal for all livestock stakeholders. However, the ways to improve it are neither easy nor evident for animal caretakers or their advisers. Most welfare assessment tools are not designed to be used by farmers but by scientists, vets, breeding advisers or certification bodies. Our project hypothesised that animal welfare could be improved more markedly if farmers could assess the welfare of their pigs themselves, and discuss it with their breeding advisers. Sixteen voluntary farmers, five voluntary breeding advisers, three scientific experts on pig welfare, a pig veterinarian and a specialist in co-design worked together to develop a pig welfare evaluation tool that could be used for self-assessment on pig farms. The tool was constructed in four steps: 1) identifying pig welfare indicators, 2) selecting the best indicators and developing a measurement protocol, 3) testing the tool on farms, 4) giving farmers feedback and validating the tool. All the steps were carried out through working groups. Discussions on welfare indicators led to a list of the most important indicators according to the farmers and advisers, focusing on Welfare Quality® Protocol items “good feeding, good housing, good health and appropriate behaviour”. To be useful on farms, each indicator selected was reformulated into one or more measurements. The tool, known as “BEEP”, currently consists of a folder of documents to be brought onto farms. It focuses only on growing pigs and was designed to take no more than two hours to implement. The BEEP tool makes farmers aware of animal welfare issues and helps them to improve the welfare of their livestock. BEEP is currently being disseminated in France, where the farmers are trained to use it. It is positively welcomed by other farmers and their representatives as it was developed with and for farmers. The next step is to develop an electronic application.

对于所有畜牧业利益相关者而言，农场动物福利现已成为一个显而易见的目标。但是，对于动物饲养者或其顾问而言，改善它的方法既不容易也不明显。大多数福利评估工具并不是为农民设计的，而是由科学家，兽医，育种顾问或认证机构使用的。我们的项目假设，如果农民可以自己评估猪的福利并与育种顾问讨论，则可以更加显着改善动物福利。十六名自愿农民，五名自愿育种顾问，三名养猪福利科学专家，一名养猪兽医和一名共同设计专家共同努力，开发了可用于养猪场自我评估的养猪福利评估工具。该工具分为四个步骤：1）确定猪的福利指标，2）选择最佳指标并制定测量方案，3）在农场上测试该工具，4）向农民提供反馈并验证该工具。所有步骤都是通过工作组执行的。农民和顾问对福利指标进行了讨论，得出了最重要的指标清单，重点是《福利质量®议定书》的条款“良好的饮食，良好的住房，良好的健康和适当的行为”。为了对农场有用，将所选的每个指标重新制定为一个或多个度量。该工具被称为“ BEEP”，当前包含要带入服务器场的文档文件夹。它只针对生长中的猪，实施时间不超过两个小时。BEEP工具使农民意识到动物福利问题，并帮助他们改善牲畜的福利。BEEP目前正在法国进行传播，该国的农民已接受使用BEEP的培训。它是与农民共同开发并为农民开发的，受到了其他农民及其代表的积极欢迎。下一步是开发电子应用程序。