The present study was carried out to assess the level of dairy cattle welfare in different types of dairy farm in Haryana. The fundamental basis of the scale was adopted from Calamari and Bertoni (2009) and was modified as per Indian dairy farming conditions. For the development of dairy cattle welfare assessment scale 3 major components viz. housing and otherr facilities (Component ‘A’), feeds and feeding practices (Component ‘B’), and animal health, physiology and behaviour (Component ‘C’) were selected and assigned welfare score of 30, 30 and 40 respectively out of total of welfare score of 100. From these 3 components 20 welfare indicators were identified having 6, 4 and 10 indicators in each component respectively. For assessment of welfare level of dairy farms in Haryana 50 commercial dairy farms were purposely selected and were categorized into small (10–20 cows), medium (21–50 cows) and large (>50 cows) dairy farms based on adult herd size. The overall welfare status of large and small commercial dairy in Haryana was found to be ‘very good ’and the welfare status of medium dairy farms was ‘average ’. The welfare ranking of peri-urban large commercial dairy farms was the highest with welfare score of 75.60 and a rural medium dairy farms was the lowest with welfare score of 57.90. Feeding space, feeding and watering system with frequency; mastitis incidence; cow comfort and reproductive efficiency were the most compromised welfare indicators in case of small and medium dairy farms, whereas human-animal relationship, mastitis incidence and reproductive efficiency were the most compromised welfare indicators in case of large commercial dairy farms.
