The organic livestock production standards are defined in Chapter 2 Section II and Chapter Section IV of EU Regulation (EC) N° 889/2008. They include the following requirements:
- Organic stockfarming must be land related, housing, free range areas have to correspond to minimum requirements.
- All livestock must be under organic management (certain exceptions defined in Chapter 2 Section V of EU Regulation (EC) N° 889/2008).
- Definition of the minimum conversion period regarding the land used and the animals regulated per species and livestock products marketed
- Animal feed must be organic and the animals must be fed on organic feed coming from the farm unit itself, the purchase of a certain amount of conventional feeding stuff (certain exceptions defined in Chapter 2 Section V of EU Regulation (EC) N° 889/2008) is still allowed for certain species.
- The feed must consist of a certain amount of roughage, fresh or dried fodder or silage (depending on the species).
- Disease prevention must be based on principles such as appropriate choice of breeds etc., the preventive use of chemically synthesised allopathic veterinary medicaments and antibiotics is forbidden, they may only be used acc. to the restrictions and under the responsibility of a veterinarian as outlined in Chapter 4 Section II of EU Regulation (EC) N° 889/2008.
- Purchased animals must originate from organic production units (certain exceptions defined in in Chapter 2 Section V of EU Regulation (EC) N° 889/2008).
- Dehorning, tail cutting and other operations must not be carried out systematically.
- Tethering of animals is forbidden, housings and stables must meet the biological and ethological needs of the livestock, densities of animals in the housings are laid down in the Annex III and V of EU Regulation (EC) N° 889/2008.
- Genetically modified organisms or their derivates must not be used.
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