HERD HEALTH PLANNING
HERD HEALTH PLANNING
At Cheshire Farm vets we are very keen to work with all our farms to look to prevent rather than offer reactive veterniary care where possible. A well thought through herd health plan is a vital first step towards preventing disease and striving to improve animal health and welfare. A herd health plan should outline the disease status of the farm identifying the key challenges and areas of risk.
The well being of all the animals we work with, in Dairy this is paramount as healthy cows are productive cows. Our farm vets can help advise on all aspects of herd health planning. We can help produce plans and protocols for your farm as well as assisting in training for the on-farm team. Within the practice we hold regular meetings and training in medicine management as well as offering bespoke courses for your farm.
We prefer to see herd health planning as an ongoing, active process but we also know that ensuring that your written herd health plan is up to date is an essential part of your Red Tractor inspection. We encourage all our farmers Red Tractor or otherwise to have a robust dynamic Health Plan in place so that we are able to support your vaccine requirements. We also have extensive experience in working with our dairy farmers to ensure they meet the requirements of their milk buyers.
We have a fantastic admin and vet tech team that are experienced in producing reports on your annual medicine usage as well as bespoke reports as they are required. This information is very useful when carrying out your annual vet review.
HERD HEALTH PLANNING IN CATTLE:
Herd health planning is an essential part of any cattle farming business, but it is often underutilised and undervalued. To be effective it is not only important factors affecting herd performance are identified, but a clear plan is in place to reduce their impact.
AN EFFECTIVE HEALTH PLAN
Despite the revised scheme, the HHP itself is still viewed by many farmers as a red tape exercise necessary only to comply with assurance requirements, rather than one that could potentially benefit their business.
The importance of health planning is reflected in the changing role of the farm animal vet in the past 40 years, from the traditional “fire brigade” role to one more managerial or advisory in nature.
This has particularly been the case in dairy farming due to the increased pressure to become more efficient in production (Brand et al, 1996).
While the HHP is a physical document, for herd health planning to be effective it needs to be an active and continuous process rather than something discussed on an annual basis only. However, the perception of the HHP itself and health planning management is often poor, as documented in the 2012 study by Hall and Wapenaar
