A vision on herd health management on large dairy farmsHenk Hogeveen
This is a presentation I gave this spring (four times) for groups of veterinarians active in the field of herd health management programs. Dutch dairy farms are growing rapidly in seize and that means the attitude of dairy farmers is changing. Dairy farmers are less and less people that accept what you say, but are becoming more and more people that work in partnerships. Veterinarians have to adapt to that new situation. In my opinion, herd health management programs should move beyond the classif monthly farm visits for pregnancy checks and talks about production records. Tailor made programs should be created to meet the farmers requirements around dairy cattle health. Requirements might differ between farmers and veterinarians should move away from the "one seize fits all approach". Modern cattle veterinary practice is about making life of farmers with regard to animal health easier. The costs and benefits of the offered programs become more important, although that is not the only decision criterium of the farmers. Slides are in Dutch
De veterinaire dag was onderdeel van het eerste internationale congres over Precision Dairy Farming in het WTC in Leeuwarden. Deze dag was speciaal voor de Nederlands rundvee dierenarts die meer wilde weten over het gebruik van sensoren in de melkveehouderij. Deze presentatie gaat specifiek over het gebruik van uiergezondheidsattenties gegenereerd door melk robots.
Monday April 22, 2013, the Veterinary Cattle Breeders Club (VVFC; www.veefokkers.com) did organize a symposium on the end of the milk quota era in the EU. Three speakers were invited: one on the history (Mr ketelaars), one on the farmers view (Kees Romijn, LTO) and one on the effects for the veterinary business (me). In my analysis I have distinguished three effects: 1: more variation in milk prices; and thus on the state of mind of your clients. 2. an effect on the seize on thefarm, which has cosequences for the returns of a veterinary practise, becacuse larger farms spend less money per cow on veterinary services. The challenges is how to deal with that. I think that there are opportunities, but veterinary practises have to become entrepeneurs, think about new "products"to market to their clients (and to new clients) and 3 the costs of animal diseases will increase quite a lot because the costs of milk production losses will become higher. This opens opportunities for more prevetnive medicine.
A vision on herd health management on large dairy farmsHenk Hogeveen
This is a presentation I gave this spring (four times) for groups of veterinarians active in the field of herd health management programs. Dutch dairy farms are growing rapidly in seize and that means the attitude of dairy farmers is changing. Dairy farmers are less and less people that accept what you say, but are becoming more and more people that work in partnerships. Veterinarians have to adapt to that new situation. In my opinion, herd health management programs should move beyond the classif monthly farm visits for pregnancy checks and talks about production records. Tailor made programs should be created to meet the farmers requirements around dairy cattle health. Requirements might differ between farmers and veterinarians should move away from the "one seize fits all approach". Modern cattle veterinary practice is about making life of farmers with regard to animal health easier. The costs and benefits of the offered programs become more important, although that is not the only decision criterium of the farmers. Slides are in Dutch
De veterinaire dag was onderdeel van het eerste internationale congres over Precision Dairy Farming in het WTC in Leeuwarden. Deze dag was speciaal voor de Nederlands rundvee dierenarts die meer wilde weten over het gebruik van sensoren in de melkveehouderij. Deze presentatie gaat specifiek over het gebruik van uiergezondheidsattenties gegenereerd door melk robots.
Monday April 22, 2013, the Veterinary Cattle Breeders Club (VVFC; www.veefokkers.com) did organize a symposium on the end of the milk quota era in the EU. Three speakers were invited: one on the history (Mr ketelaars), one on the farmers view (Kees Romijn, LTO) and one on the effects for the veterinary business (me). In my analysis I have distinguished three effects: 1: more variation in milk prices; and thus on the state of mind of your clients. 2. an effect on the seize on thefarm, which has cosequences for the returns of a veterinary practise, becacuse larger farms spend less money per cow on veterinary services. The challenges is how to deal with that. I think that there are opportunities, but veterinary practises have to become entrepeneurs, think about new "products"to market to their clients (and to new clients) and 3 the costs of animal diseases will increase quite a lot because the costs of milk production losses will become higher. This opens opportunities for more prevetnive medicine.