Taking stock - developing herd health planning
Irene Downey, Senior Dairy Development Adviser, CAFRE (Ballyclare)
Herd health planning is becoming more important on the dairy farm particularly with the move towards larger units and higher yielding cows. The goal of optimising profit through performance means that all aspects of management come under the spotlight. The health and welfare of livestock plays a key role in overall farm profitability and this has been emphasised with the current high costs of replacing culled animals from the herd.
Due to time pressures, most producers adopt an ad-hoc approach to animal health on the farm – animals are treated when sick, with the vet only called out if the problem persists. There is little consideration given to the pattern of the disease or of the underlying factors that may cause further spread to other animals. Herd health planning involves reviewing all practices on the farm that impact on health and identifying areas where improvements can be made. A two-year herd health and management programme in the Netherlands produced an 8 percent increase in farm income. As farm incomes are being squeezed is it not time for NI dairy farmers to put a health plan into action?
What should a herd health plan include:
- Record instances of disease in a system that makes analysis easy. This may be a detailed medicines book or a more complex computerised system. Good records are particularly important to monitor on-going issues such as mastitis,for example, somatic cell counts at individual cow and herd level and the treatment of individual cows/quarters. This allows any trends to be identified and will provide your vet with much more information, assisting in treating problem cases. But the records will also provide a better picture of how to control the disease on your farm long-term.
- Prioritise. Dairy cow infertility is recognised as a significant cost to the dairy industry. However mastitis and lameness are increasingly becoming a problem leading to major economic loss in terms of reduced milk production, treatment expenses and replacement costs. In the average dairy herd 25 out of every 100 cows are affected by clinical mastitis per year. Each cow affected has an average of 1.6 cases of clinical mastitis at a cost of £200 per affected cow per year when you include direct and indirect costs. It is estimated the loss to the NI industry is £14 million annually. The costs of lameness in the NI dairy herd is put at £11 million and therefore every effort needs to be made to minimise their impact. Control of both diseases should take precedence. Many dairy farmers are investing in new cubicle housing and milking parlours and previous articles in United News have considered layout and design features to improve cow flow and minimize animal stress leading to improved cow welfare and thus better herd performance. Of equal importance is to incorporate features such as foot baths etc to minimise the risk of these diseases. Remember if cubicles are of the correct dimensions with a suitable surface, encouraging cows to lie comfortably in a clean environment this will reduce both mastitis and lameness.
- Consult your vet and work in partnership to improve all aspects of herd health. Plan a specific time with the vet (for example, after completing a regular fertility visit) to review records and discuss the correct course of action. This will be more cost effective in the longer term and reduce the risk of a disease outbreak. Also discuss housing and management issues with your Dairy Development Adviser to ensure that all aspects of disease control are covered.
- Review the situation on an ongoing basis to check that changes made have been successful.
Aspects of herd health planning are included in the Animal Health Challenge for Dairy Farmers, which aims to enhance the health and welfare of dairy stock and consequently improve farm performance. The Challenge is developed and delivered by CAFRE Advisers, focusing on small groups of producers, and deals with strategies to prevent and treat disease. A key feature of the programme is the involvement of Private Veterinary Practitioners in delivering the veterinary sections, for example, mastitis treatment. This partnership is beneficial as it encourages adoption of a more planned, preventative approach to herd health management. If you are interested in more information on this, please contact your local CAFRE Dairy Development Adviser.
Disease on the farm is not always inevitable. With some thought and planning risks will be reduced, and healthy stock will realise their full potential.