The ecosystem services framework describes the benefits that natural environments provide to human
populations. Mountain ecosystems are extremely diverse and in fact support about one quarter of terrestrial
bio-
diversity. The provision of ecosystem services in mountain areas depends upon good animal welfare and
vice
versa
. Thus, proper assessment methods are needed to measure and ensure good welfare levels in moun-
tain areas. In this study, we have tested five animal-based measures collected in eight mountain dairy farms
and compared them to data collected in 124 small-scale dairy farms. Despite obtaining better mean results
when looking at selected animal-based indicators in comparison to reference data, great variability was
observed between farms similarly to what reported in other studies. Future research should aim at creating
a reference database of animal-based measure collected in mountain farms only as well as measuring dairy
cow welfare on pasture conditions considering that is a common practice in mountain dairy farms and often
involves an abrupt change in husbandry and management systems.
