Key takeaways
- Cattle caretakers and transporters take great pride and responsibility in their roles caring for and ensuring cattle welfare and safety as part of the beef supply chain.
- Caretakers and cattle transporters are striving to improve their ability to care for cattle and look for opportunities to increase their knowledge and skill set via trainings and demonstrations.
- Although they are satisfied with their jobs, some job specific challenges exits that they face including but not limited to weather, equipment, supply chain communication, and labor availability.
- This research provides invaluable science-based information to the beef industry that can be used to focus strategic educational, research, and engagement initiatives.
Background
To have a truly robust approach to improving social sustainability within the beef supply chain, attention to animal welfare and caretaker well-being needs to be equitably addressed, as compared with economic and environmental components, within program frameworks. Additionally, animal welfare and human well-being are interconnected – the actions of each can impact the other – and recognizing this synergy can create a win-win opportunity to improve the social sustainability of a beef production system. To date, there does not exist an in-depth exploration of caretaker and transporter perspectives related to cattle welfare and worker well-being in feedyards in the United States. The objectives of the research were to: 1) characterize caretaker and transporter perspectives and attitudes towards management practices related to cattle care on feedlots and during transportation, 2) characterize caretaker and transporter perspectives and attitudes regarding training, work environment, and work community, and 3) identify areas for improvement and inform the development of practical strategies (e.g., training and educational resources) to improve animal and caretaker well-being on feedlots.
Methodology
Both a written survey and focus groups (i.e., group discussions) were used in this study to understand feedyard caretaker and transporter perspectives about their roles caring for cattle as a part of the beef supply chain. For the feedyard component, 329 individuals were interviewed at 29 feedyards across the United States. For the transporter component, 74 participants were interviewed at 3 transportation companies. The focus groups were conducted in Spanish or English depending on participant preference. The written survey included 6 Likert scale questions, and the focus groups included 22 predetermined questions. All the questions were related to job satisfaction, animal welfare and training, and work community and environment. Focus groups were audio recorded. Researchers transcribed (and translated if in Spanish) the focus group recordings. Researchers then reviewed all the transcripts and performed qualitative analysis which is the systematic process of interpreting and understanding non-numerical data (in this case audio recordings converted into text) and involves identifying patterns, themes, and meanings within the data to gain insight into the research questions and objectives.
Findings
For both the feedlot employees and the transporters, responses to agreement questions related to job satisfaction, cattle care, training, and work environment were positive, with the majority of participants expressing high agreement with most of the statements (e.g., “I have pride in the job I do,” “Animal well-being is a critical component of my job, and “The training I have received at this job has prepared me well for transporting/caring for cattle”). Similar sentiments were shared during the focus groups. Thematic analysis revealed 13 primary themes for the feedyard focus groups and 10 for the transporter focus groups. Although the themes were different across the two project components, they both included ideas related to: animal health, stockmanship, continuous improvement, external relations, safety, communication, personal experiences, physical environment, welfare, purpose, relationships, resources, and finance. Participants expressed pride in their work and an appreciation for their critical responsibility in ensuring animal welfare and safety. Participants also identified an interest in having more opportunities to learn and improve their skills, mentioning more hands-on learning and educational opportunities. Lastly, they mentioned some job specific challenges related to extreme weather, labor availability, and equipment.
Implications
The individuals who participated in this study understood the importance of their role in ensuring cattle welfare in both the feedyard and during transportation. Highlighted in the results of this survey were suggested improvements to training programs by recognizing and emphasizing this dedication to doing what is right in training materials (i.e., much like the recent BQA campaign of Right Time, Right Way). Although the clear message is job satisfaction, areas that posed challenges to caretakers were environmental impacts on them and the animals, labor availability, equipment, and communication. Although some factors are not always controllable, recognizing the challenges and providing supportive resources to combat or be prepared for them could improve both animal welfare and worker well-being. The research identified many areas for further exploration, and highlights worker and animal well-being, part of the social sustainability pillar, to be more fully integrated into a holistic approach for evaluating sustainability of a beef production system.