477 Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 22 (No 3) 2016, 477–481 Agricultural Academy ESTIMATION OF BEEF AND DAIRY CATTLE WELFARE ON ORGANIC FARMS OF LITHUANIA I. STUOGĖ * , V. RIBIKAUSKAS, D. RIBIKAUSKIENĖ, R. JUODKA and Z. JOMANTAS Institute of Animal Sciences of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Street R. Žebenkos g. 12, LT-82317 Baisogala city, Radviliškis district, Lithuania Abstract STUOGĖ, I., V. RIBIKAUSKAS, D. RIBIKAUSKIENĖ, R. JUODKA and Z. JOMANTAS, 2016. Estimation of beef and dairy cattle welfare in organic farms of Lithuania. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 22: 477–481 Organic farming is a very important sector of agriculture in Lithuania. The adoption of organic farming is important be- cause this method of farming creates potential possibilities to solve the issues of competitiveness of husbandry production, employment and additional income in the rural areas. Besides it helps to reduce the negative effects on the environment of Lithuania and supplies the consumer with healthier food products. The welfare of animals concerns not simply stress, experienced by an animal, but its ability to manage stress, whether it is physical or mental stress. Welfare can be ranked; there is not simply good or bad welfare, but many gradations of wellbeing of animals. The aim of the study was to analyze and evaluate the environment and welfare of beef and dairy cattle on organic farms. The studies were conducted on four organic farms located in different regions of the country and at the Institute of Animal Sciences of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Deep litter and cubicle housing technologies were applied for beef and dairy cattle, respectively. Cattle welfare and health studies were carried out on the basis of ANI 35 L/2000 system. Deep litter housing was evaluated more favourably in comparison with cubicle housing on the organic farms. The estimation of barns with deep litter housing was average 35.25 points or “very suitable” versus 24.33 points or “suitable” for cubicle housing. Correspondingly, animal welfare was evaluated as “excellent” and “very good”. The microenvironment of barns, cleanliness of equipment, and animal health of all four organic farms were similar in evaluation. Key words: organic farming, animal welfare, beef and dairy cattle *Corresponding author: Ina.Stuoge@gmail.com Introduction There are many ways by wich animal welfare could be improved, such us means of legislative enactment, scientific research or better stockbreeding. Awareness about animal welfare sems to have increased since the early 1990s. An important awaking factor has been the various scandals in- volving the meat sector and debates in the mass media, fol- lowed up by an increasing amount of legislation to improve the welfare of farm animals within the European Union (Skudenienė, Ribikauskas, 2006; Kuscinsky et al., 2003). Broom (1986) says, that the welfare of an animal is its state as regards to its attempts to cope with this environment. Animals have to cope with a complex environment, such as high temperature, hunger, fear of predation. Animals have a range of menas of coping with this stressors, principally throught the adrenal stress response. Strees is therefore an entirely normal response to challenges from the environ-