Table 2.

Spearman rank correlations (Rho, ρ) and associated probabilities between hair cortisol concentrations, relevant parameters of the various welfare assessment protocols (end results) and the estimates of the veterinarians, from 58 different farms. Correlations with associated probability ≤ 0.05 are printed bold. The only correlation supporting the hypothesized negative relationship between hair cortisol levels and a welfare score is printed bold.

		Average Cortisol	WQ: End Result	WQ Mod: End Result	WI Tuyt-tens	WM: End Score	WW: End Score	CWM: End Result	KK: Sub-Score Welfare	CCSS: Total	SSI: Stand-ing idle	EV: Estimate Vets
Average cortisol	ρ	1.000	0.094	0.434	−0.167	0.455	−0.175	−0.132	−0.229	−0.016	−0.150	−0.284
	p≤		0.482	0.001	0.209	0.001	0.190	0.325	0.084	0.906	0.260	0.031
WQ: End result	ρ	0.094	1.000	0.413	0.209	0.484	0.190	0.098	−0.010	0.067	−0.051	0.139
	p≤	0.482		0.001	0.115	0.001	0.153	0.463	0.941	0.616	0.702	0.298
WQ: Mod: End result	ρ	0.434	0.413	1.000	−0.154	0.976	−0.019	−0.192	−0.303	−0.083	−0.096	−0.027
	p≤	0.001	0.001		0.250	0.001	0.887	0.149	0.021	0.536	0.472	0.842
WI Tuyttens	ρ	−0.167	0.209	−0.154	1.000	−0.122	0.569	0.481	0.638	0.562	0.209	0.587
	p≤	0.210	0.115	0.250		0.360	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.115	0.001
WM: End score	ρ	0.455	0.484	0.976	−0.122	1.000	−0.037	−0.214	−0.266	−0.050	−0.078	−0.070
	p≤	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.360		0.781	0.107	0.043	0.709	0.560	0.599
WW: End score	ρ	−0.175	0.190	−0.019	0.569	−0.037	1.000	0.337	0.497	0.399	0.085	0.692
	p≤	0.190	0.153	0.887	0.001	0.781		0.010	0.001	0.002	0.524	0.001
CWM: End result	ρ	−0.132	0.098	−0.192	0.481	−0.214	0.337	1.000	0.327	0.294	0.144	0.449
	p≤	0.325	0.463	0.149	0.001	0.107	0.010		0.012	0.025	0.282	0.001
KK: Sub-score welfare	ρ	−0.229	−0.010	−0.303	0.638	−0.266	0.497	0.327	1.000	0.662	0.433	0.441
	p≤	0.084	0.941	0.021	0.001	0.043	0.001	0.012		0.001	0.001	0.001
CCSS: Total	ρ	−0.016	0.067	−0.083	0.562	−0.050	0.399	0.294	0.662	1.000	0.576	0.448
	p≤	0.906	0.616	0.536	0.001	0.709	0.002	0.025	0.001		0.001	0.001
SSI: Standing idle	ρ	−0.150	−0.051	−0.096	0.209	−0.078	0.085	0.144	0.433	0.576	1.000	0.127
	p≤	0.260	0.702	0.472	0.115	0.560	0.524	0.282	0.001	0.001		0.344
EV: Estimate vets	ρ	−0.284	0.139	−0.027	0.587	−0.070	0.692	0.449	0.441	0.448	0.127	1.000
	p≤	0.031	0.298	0.842	0.001	0.599	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.344
			Correlations between hair cortisol and end results and selected sub-scores of different welfare assessments
			Correlations between the welfare assessment system WQ and its derivatives WQ Mod, WI Tuyttens, WM
			Correlations of WQ (derived) assessment systems with other welfare assessment scores
			Correlations between the all welfare assessments except the WQ and WQ derived systems

Note that after adjusting the p-values of the correlations between hair cortisol and the different welfare assessment systems using the Bonferroni adjustment as well as the less conservative False Discovery Rate (FDR) adjustment, the correlation between hair cortisol and the estimate of the veterinarians was no longer significant (Benjamini-Hochberg adjusted p-value: 0.103).