Species information - Cattle
| Cattle initiative - Defra is funding 27 projects in the beef and dairy sectors which aim to show the benefits of farm health planning. |
Herd health planning is designed to foster the maintenance of good health in individual herds, but in such a way as to gain maximum economic advantage.
Proactive herd health planning is based on four key principles:
- Measure - identify the impact of health on the performance of your stock, use good record keeping so that you can benchmark and identify problem areas
- Manage - prioritise control measures for problem areas using cost/benefits calculations and the most effective management methods. Develop action plans for specific issues
- Monitor - review health plans and records to assess whether measures have been effective and revise plans as necessary
- Seek advice – prevention is better than cure
The main benefits of this approach are:
- Improved farm profits and sustainability
- Better stock health and welfare
- A farmer/vet relationship focused on improving performance
In practice herd health planning means that you need to:
- Record incidents of disease in and performance of your livestock so that you can determine key performance indicators
- Consult with your vet/adviser so that you can jointly identify existing health problems, rate them in economic importance and make evidenced based health and economic decisions on which problems to target
- Make management, husbandry, treatment or vaccination changes to achieve your targets
- Monitor and review your results against your targets and adapt them in the light of experience
Health planning in a dairy herd
For a dairy herd a health plan template should cover the following six areas:
- Fertility
- Milk quality and mastitis
- Lameness
- Infectious and parasitic disease
- Nutritional
- Calves and youngstock
Health planning is about setting targets with your vet or other adviser that suit your individual circumstances and working towards achieving these. By measuring disease in your herd, managing treatment and monitoring results you will make health planning work for you. Disease is not always inevitable and with some thought and help you can plan to avoid as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to ask and make sure everyone knows what to do.
Page last modified:
December 13, 2007
Page published: 17 May 2007