Animal Welfare

Regulation on Facilities, no. 438 from 2002, ensures that facilities for Icelandic cows are as good as anywhere in the world. Among other things, it stipulates that every year all cattle shall get to be outdoors for at least 8 weeks. The regulation also contains provisions on the minimum space for cattle, i.e., the minimum size of stalls, pens and space for lying down. In recent years barn construction has improved. Farmers have built new barns or altered older ones, enlarging them, so that the cows can move about freely in the barn and lie down in their stalls as it suits them. There are mats or mattresses in the stalls that are softer and better than the old ones. Many barns have automatic milking machines, robotic milking machines that milk cows when they walk through the milking stall. In many respects these are good machines, for example, because the cows come more than twice a day for milking, which lightens the strain on the udders of the most productive cows. Farmers have become very aware of the importance of taking good care of calves while they are growing, and the treatment of Icelandic calves is very exemplary. An interesting fact is that the regulation specifically states that cats may again hunt in barns, for the 1997 regulation banished cats from barns!

The use of growth hormones and steroids in raising cattle is completely banned in Iceland.

There are very strict rules regarding the use of and access to antibiotics in agriculture in Iceland.

All of the milk MS receives is tested for traces of medicinal products/drugs before being pumped from the trucks into the dairies. If medicinal products/drugs are found, the milk is destroyed.