Challenges and Solutions to Supporting Farm Animal Welfare in Ireland: Responding to the Human Element

Over recent decades, changes in agriculture have pushed animal welfare as a topic of concern into mainstream public, policy and political conversations (Buller and Morris, 2003; Fraser, 2014; Broom, 2016). Despite the relationship between farmers and farm animals being important for farm animal welfare standards, there is limited understanding of how the nature of this relationship influences welfare outcomes. Understanding the complexities of this relationship and the wider context in which these complexities are situated is central to forming and implementing interventions that can be effective in improving farm animal welfare on individual farms.