The welfare of farm animals is increasingly of concern to meat producers as well as consumers and the broader community; however these groups conceptualize animal welfare in different ways, which is likely to present a barrier to effective communication and resolution of conflicts between these groups particularly as livestock producers face increasing scrutiny by community members. Since most research to date on producer understandings of animal welfare has been based in Europe and North America, we used qualitative methods to examine producers’ understandings of animal welfare in the red-meat (beef and sheep-meat) sectors in Australia. Through the use of interviews, we found that Australian producers linked “good welfare” with productivity and profitability and were willing to adopt new practices to improve animal welfare. Producers were concerned about negative public perceptions of their industry and suggested that education was needed to correct misinformation about the industry. Australian producers place significant emphasis on the relationship between climatic conditions and farm animal welfare, often describing their attempts to do the best they can in periods of adverse weather, a significant finding as awareness of climate change and its effects continues to increase. Our findings contribute to a broader effort to identify shared values between different stakeholder groups (i.e. producers, consumers, and the broader community) to highlight areas of commonality between these groups and provide more effective pathways for improving conversations about how to produce meat humanely and how animal welfare practices can continue to evolve and improve.

肉类生产者以及消费者和广大社区日益关注农场动物的福利；但是，这些群体以不同的方式对动物福利进行概念化，这可能为有效沟通和解决这些群体之间的冲突带来障碍，尤其是在畜牧生产者面临社区成员日益严格的审查时。由于迄今为止，大多数关于生产者对动物福利的理解的研究都是基于欧洲和北美，因此我们使用定性方法来检验生产者对澳大利亚红肉（牛肉和羊肉）部门对动物福利的理解。通过访谈，我们发现澳大利亚的生产者将“良好的福利”与生产力和利润联系在一起，并愿意采用新的方法来改善动物的福利。生产者担心公众对其行业的负面看法，并建议需要教育以纠正有关该行业的错误信息。澳大利亚生产者非常重视气候条件与牲畜福利之间的关系，经常描述他们在不利天气期间尽力而为的努力，随着对气候变化及其影响的认识不断提高，这是一个重大发现。我们的发现有助于做出更大的努力来确定不同利益相关者群体（即生产者，消费者和更广泛的社区）之间的共享价值，以突出显示这些群体之间的共同点，并提供更有效的途径来改善有关如何人道地生产肉类以及如何进行肉类生产的对话。动物福利实践可以继续发展和改善。