Farm health planning is crucial to any dairy enterprise. Ben Watts outlines the issues
How does farm health planning help dairy units?
Poor management of herd health can be a major cause of economic loss, affecting both physical and financial performance. No dairy herd is free of all diseases and some health issues are inevitable.
Only by monitoring the incidence of health and disease issues can we start to assess which areas require attention. Benchmarking in this instance is crucial. When disease incidence is measured against accepted standards, we know when to intervene. An understanding of the cost implications of each health issue is also paramount. Knowing which areas cost the most money helps direct effort and resources to the most important areas.
A farm health plan can then be created to reduce the risk of introducing new diseases and to recognise and help control any existing conditions.
The industry group for farm health planning is working with DEFRA and Reading University to develop a series of cost benefit models that will highlight the benefits of active health planning.
How does farm health planning fit in with regular vet visits?
The role of the farm vet is central to any farm health planning strategy. They are best placed to assess the implications of health issues and to advise on how best to prevent or eradicate them.
Every farm requires a herd health plan, but this is not a document purely to satisfy the needs of NDFAS, more over it is the starting point for any farm health planning strategy. Your plan should be drawn up with the involvement of your vet or adviser and monitored and reviewed against your targets. As you manage disease levels, these targets will change.
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TABLE 1. INTERVENTION LEVELS, BENCHMARKS & COSTS PER CASE |
|
Health Details |
Cost Per Case* |
Intervention Level** |
| Hypocalcaemia [Milk Fever] |
£90 |
5% |
| Hypomagnesaemia |
£87 |
1% |
| Acetonaemia [Ketosis} |
£126 |
1% |
| Displaced Abomasa [DA] |
£160 |
2% |
| Respiratory Disease |
£50 |
5% |
| Parasitic Infection [eg: Lungworm] |
£70 |
1% |
| Acidosis |
£70 |
1% |
| Dystocia [Difficult Calvings] |
£30 |
5% |
| Retained Cleansings/Membranes |
£36 |
10% |
| Metritis [Whites] |
£36 |
10% |
| Mastitis |
£110 |
35% |
| Lameness |
£46 |
20% |
| Downer Cows |
£250 |
1% |
| Source: Kite Health Monitor 2007*cost per case including vet times and other costs **Intervention Level % or number of cases per 100 cows in herd. |
Farm health plan checklist
Measure
- Identify the impact of disease and health issues on the performance of your stock
Manage
- Draw up an action plan for your control measures to prevent, eradicate or control these issues
- Monitor disease status of your herd (IBR, Lepto, BVD, Johne's Disease, Neospora etc)
- Implement biosecurity measures
- Only purchase stock from sources with a known health status
Monitor
- Review the plan regularly with your vet or adviser
Routine monitoring of disease status
Equally the vet's involvement should also focus on regular monitoring and testing for disease issues such as Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD), Leptospirosis (Lepto) and Infectious Bovine Rhinotrachitis (IBR). When herd vaccination is not taking place, regular testing (eg quarterly) is even more crucial.
How should we monitor and measure the costs of health and disease?
Ideally records should be kept of every incidence of health and disease. These should be assessed each month and compared to accepted vet intervention levels or Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) (see table 1). As soon as an intervention level is breached a prevention or control measure should be adopted (see graph 1).
The importance of records
Keeping up-to-date and accurate records of disease and health issues is a requirement of NDFAS, but historic records are vital for monitoring health and disease incidence.
Recording reasons for culling
It may seem strange to mention culling in an article on farm health plans, because when a health or disease issue results in culling the farm health plan has potentially failed. But every dairy herd will need to cull animals at one stage or another and equally by law we need to keep records of which animals have left the farm, so why not record the reasons why?
By knowing and monitoring the reasons for culling, and comparing these to accepted standards, we can start to understand the areas within the farm health plan that are potentially weak. By sharing this information we can improve these areas and so prevent future excessive culling.
The true cost of excess culling
For every animal which leaves the herd there is a net cost of about £700 to the farming business (cull cow at £300, replaced with heifer at £1000).
Accepted culling rates are in the region of <25% (<25 culls per 100 cows). But levels have been measured at below 12% and above 45%, for a 100 cow herd this equates to a saving of £9100 (12%) or an extra cost of £14,000 (45%), a difference of £23,100 a year on the bottom line.
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TABLE 2. CULLING LEVELS & BENCHMARKS |
|
Culling Details |
% |
| Mastitis/SCC/udder |
28 |
| Fertility |
26 |
| Lameness |
12 |
| Injury/trauma |
8 |
| Mortality |
2 |
| Disease |
6 |
| Production |
6 |
| Other [Including: yield,slow milking, age] |
12 |
| Source: Kite Culling Monitor 2007 |
Conclusion
Farm health planning is as crucial aspect of dairy farming today as preparing the cash-flow budgets or monitoring nutrition.
By gaining a thorough understanding of the health and disease issues affecting your farm and recognising the financial implications of these issues, we can improve cow health, welfare and dairy farm productivity.