The Animal Welfare Initiative pursues the approach of improving animal welfare through an industry alliance along the meat value chain. The participating farmers implement animal welfare measures of a defined set of criteria in their livestock. In order to justify the extra cost to the farmer in terms of costs, a financial incentive is created by compensating for their participation. However, there is little research to date on whether these figures are sufficient to offset the costs incurred by the farmer. The subject of the present contribution is therefore the calculation of cost-effectiveness for the Initiative Tierwohl 2018 - 2020 in the area of pig fattening for a 960er fattening stable on the basis of performance-cost calculations. More specifically, full cost calculations were chosen. In the course of this, depending on the economic efficiency of the fictitious farm, scenarios were identified for the free of charge costs that serve as a guide for practical agriculture. The results represent the respective cost-benefit ratios of the various mandatory and eligibility criteria of the Animal Welfare Initiative on the basis of different levels of performance. It is shown that the implementation of mandatory requirements provides 10% more space and additional organic employment material, especially for middle and high-performance enterprises recommend. Furthermore, the implementation of the eligibility criteria and 20% more space, mandatory requirements and scouring possibility, compulsory requirements and drinking from open space as well as the mandatory requirements and air-cooling device are suitable for companies of all levels of performance. For a low level of performance, the implementation of the mandatory requirements and additional 20 % space is best recommended. Only in the case of compulsory requirements plus permanent access to roughage will negative performance be achieved at all levels of performance, which is why this criterion is not suitable for implementation. It is clear that participation in the Animal Welfare Initiative pays off for companies of all levels, especially those with low and high levels of performance. Further scenarios are useful for future research as well as a way to integrate changing, dynamic slaughter prices into the calculations.
