The second half of the 19^th century witnessed a significant change in Danish agriculture from reliance on crops to intensive animal production of meat and dairy products. The wellbeing of the animal stock was a central theme in the journals on agriculture and husbandry in this period, but with emphasis on the output of the animal. Fresh air, clean skin and nourishing feed were the conditions for a profitable production, and the wellbeing of the animal was not a question of animal ethics but of a good economy. During the late 19^th century this attitude seems to change with the creation of the first Danish animal protection movements. The paper will describe the changing discourses on the well-being of farm animals through an analysis of the Danish agricultural journals 1850-1900.