The Cows

Where delicious dairy begins

Your dairy goodness starts with healthy cows. They’re led by our farmer owners’ caring hands and science-based methods. They ensure the milk in your supermarket fridge is high quality through a holistic approach to animal welfare and farm standards. It’s an approach brought to life through our farm management program, Arlagården®*.

Giving cows the best life

A well-treated cow is generally healthy and produces high quality milk. So, caring for the ladies is a win-win for the cow and for the farmer. Our farmer owners are committed to animal welfare and to ensure this, they align to our farm management programme Arlagården®.

This means access to clean, comfortable places to rest and some farms also give the cows access to outdoor spaces, water beds or even automated massage brushes – because cows also enjoy a good massage.

Responsible with antibiotics

Just like healthy humans, healthy cows can become ill and need some extra care. But Arla cows only receive antibiotics as treatment, never preventatively. If a cow is treated with antibiotics it is withdrawn from milking.

Nonetheless, all milk is tested multiple times and if antibiotic residues are found, the milk is discarded. Caring for our cows and keeping them healthy through good farm management is always our focus.

Feeding our cows

Cows eat a lot of feed that we humans can’t eat and turn it into nutritious milk. That’s why we think cows are so amazing! Keeping cows well-fed is vital for their wellbeing. So, Arla farmers grow most of the feed they use themselves – securing feed quality and lowering costs.

And some farms (with the help of their cows) explore new feed technologies. Because continuously optimising what we feed Arla cows helps farms lower emissions and raise the quality and quantity of our milk.

our approach

At Arla, we have a team dedicated to animal welfare. This team manages our Arlagården® programme and proposes developments to ensure our standards remain relevant and progressive.

In this document you will find our approach and performance summary.