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J.p.t.m. Noordhuizen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Role of vaccination in dairy Herd Health and productivity.
The Veterinary record, 2015Co-Authors: J.p.t.m. NoordhuizenAbstract:IN the early 1970s and 1980s, vaccination schemes were considered as the primary Herd Health programme implemented by veterinary surgeons on dairy farms to reduce the risk of disease introduction and spread (Boersema and others 2010, Noordhuizen 2012). This was and still is the case for dairy farms in the USA. Discussions between farmers and veterinarians ultimately lead to the choice of vaccination and the best time to apply vaccines properly. Hence, each dairy farm has its own tailor-made vaccination scheme. At about the same time dairy Herd fertility schemes were being implemented in various countries throughout the world (De Kruif 1975, Esslemont and others 1985). These schemes were a combination of veterinary hands-on activities in the domain of Herd reproduction (such as rectal palpation of ovaries and the uterus to determine the stage of the oestrous cycle, the detection of potential disorders such as metritis and cystic ovarian disease; and the diagnosis of pregnancy) and the more analytical work of data evaluation and the search for risk factors contributing to reproductive disorders. The objective was to reduce the economic losses associated with poor reproductive performance of …
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Herd Health management and quality risk control on large dairy farms.
2009Co-Authors: J.p.t.m. Noordhuizen, J. S. C. Boersema, J. C. Da Silva, A. Aland, F. MadecAbstract:ABSTRACT Large dairy farms commonly differ from small-holder or medium-sized farms in the sense that they need to be well-structured and organized, and should be considered as enterprises. The entrepreneur-like dairy farmers show other characteristics than average dairy farmers. They also have other demands regarding the veterinary services on their farm. The “sick cow approach” is no longer valid. If veterinary practitioners like to play a substantial role like consultant-coach on these large farms, they have to invest in new knowledge, skills and technologies which are currently not part of European curricula. Among the investment domains are Herd Health & production management (HHPM) services focussing on reducing costs and/or increasing income through operational management advice, farm economics, marketing & communication. In addition, new programmes of quality risk control based on the HACCP (hazard analysis critical control points) concept and principles emerge as a consequence of new EU regulations like the General Food Law and the Hygiene Directives. In these programmes, quality comprises both the product (milk) and the production process, while animal Health, animal welfare, and food safety/public Health are exponents of such production process. Both HHPM and HACCP are addressed in this paper. Moreover, as a practical link between the two programmes SWOT (strengths–weaknesses–opportunities–threats) assessment sheets and GDF (good dairy farming) guidelines are presented. It is concluded that HPM and HACCP can be rather easily integrated on the dairy farm, and that the veterinary practitioner is best positioned to play a pivotal role, provided that he/she is well prepared and willing to invest in the new skills and knowledge presented. Then, a sustainable, new veterinary market segment lays ahead.
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The marketing of Herd Health and production management services on Dutch dairy farms: perceptions of dairy farmers and their veterinary surgeons
Irish Veterinary Journal, 2008Co-Authors: J.j. Lievaart, J.p.t.m. Noordhuizen, D. Buckley, S.c.l. Van WindenAbstract:A questionnaire-based survey on veterinary Herd Health and production management services was conducted on 194 specialist dairy veterinarians and 466 dairy farmers. The farmers were randomly selected from greater than 6,000 farmer clients of the surveyed veterinarians. This paper reports these survey findings and the findings of an earlier survey conducted among the veterinarians. The survey included questions on the attributes of the service itself, the practitioners delivering the service, reasons for participation and the expected future of Herd Health and production management services. Reasons farmers participated in Herd Health and production management programmes included; access to routine screening of their Herd; increasing profits; and receiving regular veterinary advice or solutions to remedy existing problems. Advantages of participation named included: good management support; higher profits; structural solutions to problems; and being better informed. Differences between farming styles were observed, pointing to the different needs and goals of farming styles. Farmers cited high costs and the time investment required as major disadvantages. The proportion of farmers citing these reasons was lower than expected by the veterinarians. In the future, preventive Healthcare will be the main reason of farmers to participate. Farmers who are not using the service can potentially be encouraged to engage the services after gaining increased insight into the Herd Health and management service structure, the planning of activities, the cost-benefit of the service, veterinary surgeons being more co-operative with other farm advisors and veterinarians being more willing to pay attention to quality issues on the dairy farm.
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Imbedding HACCP principles in dairy Herd Health and production management: case report on calf rearing
Irish Veterinary Journal, 2008Co-Authors: J. S. C. Boersema, J.p.t.m. Noordhuizen, J.j. Lievaart, A. Vieira, W. BaumgartnerAbstract:Driven by consumer demands, European legislation has suggested the use of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) as the quality risk management programme for the whole dairy chain. Until now, an exception has been made for primary producers, but as regulations evolve, on-farm HACCP-like programmes should be ready to assure food safety as well as animal Health and animal welfare. In our field experiment, the HACCP-concept was used to combine both optimal farm management and formalisation of quality assurance in an on-farm situation in the Netherlands. The process of young stock rearing was chosen, since its importance for the future of the farm is often underestimated. Hazards and their associated risk factors can be controlled within the farm-specific standards and tolerances, as targets can be controlled by corrective measures and by implementation of farm-specific worksheets. The veterinarian is pivotal for the facility-based HACCP team, since he/she has knowledge about on-farm risk assessment and relations between clinical pathology, feed and farm management. The HACCP concept in combination with veterinary Herd Health and production management programmes offers a promising approach to optimise on-farm production processes (i.e., young stock rearing) in addition to a structural approach for quality risk management on dairy farms.
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Veterinary dairy Herd Health management in Europe: constraints and perspectives.
The veterinary quarterly, 2006Co-Authors: J Cannas Da Silva, J.p.t.m. Noordhuizen, C-c Gelfert, M Vagneur, R. Bexiga, Walter BaumgartnerAbstract:The nature of veterinary work in dairy Health management in Europe has changed over the past years and will change even more dramatically in the near future. The consumers and the media show increasing concern about animal welfare, safety of products of animal origin and traceability of animal products. Farmers in Europe have to produce under strict, often expensive and laborious regulations, while still commercially competing with farmers outside the EU and not subject to the same rules. Veterinarians should adapt their knowledge and skills to the new challenges and developments of the dairy sector. Dairy farmers nowadays ask for support in areas that go beyond clinical activities: environmental protection, welfare, nutrition, grassland management, economics and business management. Bovine practitioners should be able to advise in many different areas and subjects--that is the challenge to our profession. Veterinary education with regards to cattle Health management should start with individual animal clinical work, which constitutes the basis of Herd Health advisory programmes. The bovine practitioner should then look beyond that and regard the Herd as the unit. Each diseased cow or group of cows should be detected early enough to avoid financial losses or such losses should be prevented altogether by detecting and managing risk factors contributing to disease occurrence. Herd Health and production management programmes represent the first level to optimise dairy farm performance. Expansions to that should further be considered, comprising both animal Health and welfare issues, as well as food safety and public Health issues. The latter could be addressed by quality risk management programmes following the HACCP-principles. Cattle veterinarians should follow recent developments and invest in new skills and knowledge in order to maintain their usefulness to the modern dairy farmer. Finally we are convinced that the cattle practitioner should evolve into this direction, otherwise the veterinarian as we know him will miss the train in the next years.
H. Lomander - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Veterinary Herd Health management-Experience among farmers and farm managers in Swedish dairy production.
Preventive veterinary medicine, 2018Co-Authors: Catarina Svensson, Karin Alvåsen, Ann Catrine Eldh, Jenny Frössling, H. LomanderAbstract:Abstract A preventive Herd Health approach will most likely reduce incidences of clinical and subclinical disease. Swedish veterinary organizations offer specific veterinary Herd Health management (HHM) programs, but these services are not used to a large extent. The aim of this study was to investigate dairy farmers’ experience of HHM and the conditions for collaboration with veterinarians in HHM. Six focus group discussions were conducted in March 2015 in West Sweden. In total, 33 dairy farmers participated. The recordings were transcribed and coded using thematic analysis, and the transcripts were reviewed to identify potential factors indicating barriers for farmers to engage a veterinarian in HHM. The participants reported HHM to be important, but they had difficulty defining the actions included in the concept. They described a wide range of their work duties as preventive. The farmers’ list of potential contributions by the veterinarians in HHM was strikingly short compared to the considerable number of preventive measures they performed themselves. Four main obstacles for farmers and farm managers to engage a veterinarian in HHM on their farm were identified in the analysis: “costs”, “veterinary knowledge, skills, and organization”, “farmer attitudes”, and “veterinarian-farmer relationships”. Costs were proposed as the main reason against engaging a veterinarian in HHM and included a high veterinary bill, low cost-benefit of veterinary services, and high costs to implement advice. Poor veterinary competence in HHM and poor knowledge about effective measures, practical farming, and farm economics were other important obstacles. Veterinarians were perceived to insufficiently describe their services and their benefits, and several participants felt they had never been offered veterinary HHM. Although veterinary HHM may be initiated by the farmer, the participants expected the veterinarian to have special responsibility for the initiation. A firm trust between farmer, staff, and veterinarian was considered crucial for veterinary HHM, but such trust takes a long time to build and can easily be disrupted by, for example, a veterinarian’s poor communication skills or lack of time. Our findings suggest that Swedish dairy farmers and Herd managers find disease prevention important and that they perform a wide range of tasks to prevent disease in their animals. However, they do not see what role the veterinarian can play, and veterinarians were mainly associated with treating unHealthy cows. In order to increase the use of veterinary HHM programs the services and potential benefits of such programs need to be communicated more proactively.
Catarina Svensson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Training in motivational interviewing improves cattle veterinarians’ communication skills for Herd Health management
The Veterinary record, 2020Co-Authors: Catarina Svensson, U. Emanuelson, Hans Wickström, Alison M Bard, Kristen K Reyher, Lars ForsbergAbstract:Background Communication skills to promote changes in management routines are especially important in veterinary Herd Health management (VHHM). Motivational interviewing (MI) is a communication methodology shown to be effective in stimulating client behaviour change. This study aimed to evaluate a 6-month MI-training programme for veterinarians. Methods Thirty-eight cattle veterinarians gathered in groups of four to eight at six workshops separated by 3–4 weeks, during which they read literature and practised their skills. MI skills were evaluated before and after training using audio recordings of role-play conversations with professional actors. Recordings were coded using the MI Treatment Integrity Code (MITI) V.4.2.1. The effect of training was evaluated by 16 regression models. Participants filled in questionnaires about their experiences. Results All participants improved their MI skills after training in at least one parameter and significant improvements were found in all but 3 of the 16 statistically evaluated MITI variables. The mean (25th–75th percentiles) ratings of the veterinarians’ perceived relevance of MI skills in their work was 4.9 (4.0–6.0) and of their satisfaction with the programme was 5.1 (5.0–6.0) on a 6-point Likert scale. Conclusions Results show that MI training was perceived to be useful and relevant and successfully improved veterinarians’ communication skills in VHHM.
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Veterinary Herd Health management-Experience among farmers and farm managers in Swedish dairy production.
Preventive veterinary medicine, 2018Co-Authors: Catarina Svensson, Karin Alvåsen, Ann Catrine Eldh, Jenny Frössling, H. LomanderAbstract:Abstract A preventive Herd Health approach will most likely reduce incidences of clinical and subclinical disease. Swedish veterinary organizations offer specific veterinary Herd Health management (HHM) programs, but these services are not used to a large extent. The aim of this study was to investigate dairy farmers’ experience of HHM and the conditions for collaboration with veterinarians in HHM. Six focus group discussions were conducted in March 2015 in West Sweden. In total, 33 dairy farmers participated. The recordings were transcribed and coded using thematic analysis, and the transcripts were reviewed to identify potential factors indicating barriers for farmers to engage a veterinarian in HHM. The participants reported HHM to be important, but they had difficulty defining the actions included in the concept. They described a wide range of their work duties as preventive. The farmers’ list of potential contributions by the veterinarians in HHM was strikingly short compared to the considerable number of preventive measures they performed themselves. Four main obstacles for farmers and farm managers to engage a veterinarian in HHM on their farm were identified in the analysis: “costs”, “veterinary knowledge, skills, and organization”, “farmer attitudes”, and “veterinarian-farmer relationships”. Costs were proposed as the main reason against engaging a veterinarian in HHM and included a high veterinary bill, low cost-benefit of veterinary services, and high costs to implement advice. Poor veterinary competence in HHM and poor knowledge about effective measures, practical farming, and farm economics were other important obstacles. Veterinarians were perceived to insufficiently describe their services and their benefits, and several participants felt they had never been offered veterinary HHM. Although veterinary HHM may be initiated by the farmer, the participants expected the veterinarian to have special responsibility for the initiation. A firm trust between farmer, staff, and veterinarian was considered crucial for veterinary HHM, but such trust takes a long time to build and can easily be disrupted by, for example, a veterinarian’s poor communication skills or lack of time. Our findings suggest that Swedish dairy farmers and Herd managers find disease prevention important and that they perform a wide range of tasks to prevent disease in their animals. However, they do not see what role the veterinarian can play, and veterinarians were mainly associated with treating unHealthy cows. In order to increase the use of veterinary HHM programs the services and potential benefits of such programs need to be communicated more proactively.
Henk Hogeveen - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Financial aspects of veterinary Herd Health management programmes
The Veterinary record, 2014Co-Authors: V. I. Ifende, M. Derks, G. A. Hooijer, Henk HogeveenAbstract:Veterinary Herd Health management (VHHM) programmes have been shown to be economically effective in the past. However, no current information is available on costs and benefits of these programmes. This study compared economics and farm performance between participants and non-participants in VHHM programmes in 1013 dairy farms with over 40 cows. Milk Production Registration (MPR) data and a questionnaire concerning VHHM were used. Based on the level of participation in VHHM (as indicated in the questionnaire), costs of the programmes were calculated using a normative model. The economic value of the production effects was similarly calculated using normative modelling based on MPR data. Participants in VHHM had a better performance with regard to production, but not with regard to reproduction. Over 90 per cent of the VHHM participants were visited at least once every six weeks and most participants discussed at least three topics. In most farms, the veterinarian did the pregnancy checks as part of the VHHM programmes. There was a benefit to cost ratio of about five per cow per year for VHHM participants, and a mean difference in net returns of €30 per cow per year after adjusting for the cost of the programme. This portrays that participation in a VHHM programme is cost-efficient. There is, however, much unexplained variation in the net returns, possibly due to diverse approaches by veterinarians towards VHHM or by other factors not included in this analysis, like nutritional quality or management abilities of the farmer.
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Veterinarian awareness of farmer goals and attitudes to Herd Health management in The Netherlands
Veterinary journal (London England : 1997), 2013Co-Authors: M. Derks, Bram Van Woudenbergh, Monique Boender, Wim D.j. Kremer, Tine Van Werven, Henk HogeveenAbstract:Abstract In providing advice on Herd Health, veterinarians need to be aware of farmers’ goals and priorities. To determine the level of awareness, 29 veterinarians from 15 practices completed questionnaires during visits to dairy farms within the scope of veterinary Herd Health management (VHHM) programmes. The farmers (n = 30) were asked to complete a questionnaire and their discussions with the veterinarian were recorded using a voice recorder. Herd performance goals were set by the farmer and veterinarian in 24% of cases. Veterinarians who did not set goals indicated that they and the farmer ‘intuitively knew’ what each wanted to achieve, and that the setting of performance goals was considered ‘too formal’. Veterinarians often could not identify a farmer’s main goal, and typically found milk production and nutrition significantly more important (P The findings of this survey suggest that veterinarians need to focus more on goal setting, since awareness of goals and priorities is important for both communication and compliance with advice given. The needs of farmers with respect to Herd Health should also be more actively sought by veterinarians as the findings indicate that most farmers do not readily volunteer such information.
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Short- and long-term effects of a 2 year dairy Herd Health and management program
Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 1992Co-Authors: Henk Hogeveen, A.a. Dykhuizen, J. SolAbstract:Abstract From 1974/1975 to 1976/1977, a 2 year dairy Herd Health and management program was carried out in the netherlands, including 30 program and 31 control farms. The year 1974/1975 was used as a base year, before the program started. After 2 years of program application, the gross margin per cow per year (calculated as total returns minus feed costs) increased Dfl. 176 more on the program farms than on the control farms. This increase equalled about 8% of the initial income level. To gain insight into the level of income after the experiment had finished, data from both groups of farms were gathered for the years 1980/1981 and 1985/1986. Data became available from 15 program and 20 control farms, and were analyzed to see whether the initial effect on income had increased, decreased or stayed the same. In the first few years after the program had finished (1976/1977–1980/1981), the gross margin per cow increased Dfl. 322 more on the control farms than on the program farms as a result of higher milk production and lower feed costs. In the period 1980/1981–1985/1986, the increase in income for both groups was almost the same (slightly more than Dfl. 1000 per cow). Hence, the initial increase in income disappeared soon after the program had finished. It seems to be profitable, therefore, to apply Herd Health and management programs to farmers on a more than temporary basis.
Herman W. Barkema - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Factors associated with dairy farmers' satisfaction and preparedness to adopt recommendations after veterinary Herd Health visits.
Journal of dairy science, 2019Co-Authors: Caroline Ritter, Cindy L. Adams, David F. Kelton, Herman W. BarkemaAbstract:ABSTRACT Herd Health and production consultancy are important aspects of the modern dairy veterinary practice; therefore, veterinary farm visits will likely be more successful if veterinary practitioners communicate effectively and meet farmers' expectations. Objectives were to assess dairy farmers' satisfaction with veterinary advisors and their perceived preparedness to adopt veterinary advice. Furthermore, we assessed whether farmers' satisfaction and preparedness to adopt advice were associated with specific predictor variables; that is, general (demographic) factors of veterinarians or farmers, communication tools used by veterinarians, and veterinarians' affective attributes during the farm visit. Audio-video recordings of 14 dairy veterinarians during 70 Herd Health and production management farm visits were analyzed using the Roter interaction analysis system. Demographic data, farmers' satisfaction, and farmers' preparedness to adopt advice were obtained by using questionnaires. Overall, farmers were satisfied with their veterinarian's communication during farm visits and 58% of farmers felt “absolutely” prepared to follow veterinary recommendations. Based on multivariable regression analysis, farmers' satisfaction was positively associated with their level of education and the amount of talk the veterinarian dedicated to counseling the farmer. However, satisfaction was negatively association with the ratio between veterinarian talk and farmer talk. In addition to various demographic variables, farmers' preparedness to adopt veterinary advice was positively associated with their satisfaction. Other predictor variables for farmers' preparedness to follow recommendations included increased veterinary counseling and frequent Herd data discussions, whereas there was a negative relationship between number of farmer questions and dominance of the veterinarian during the farm visit. Identification of factors influencing farmers' satisfaction and preparedness to adopt advice will make veterinary communication more effective and could inform training of veterinarians in communication.