Herd Health and Economics

Question 1

what are the goals of herd health?

Answer 1

1. animal performance
2. product quality
3. profitability

instead of aiming to reduce disease we should aim to move the herd on the spectrum closer to increased health and production

Question 2

describe the main aspects of farm economics

Answer 2

1. economics drive our decision making
   -exception: animal well-being
2. farms must be profitable and sustainable
3. veterinarians should be an asset, not a cost
4. the allocation of scarce resources to competing uses for the greatest benefit
5. equimarginal principle:
   -disease control input costs should be increased to the level at which the cost of an additional input equals the return from the additional output

Question 3

what are the 3 M’s of health?

Answer 3

1. mitigate: when disease happens
   -early detection
   -accurate diagnosis
   -treat correctly: based on science and economics
   -cull early
2. monitor: find disease before it becomes clinical
   -individual cows: monthly DHIA, lameness scoring, BCS, heifer body weight
   -groups of cows: feed intake, milk production, udder health, urine or serum ketones, close-up cow urine pH, repro efficiency
   -select monitors carefully: easy, inexpensive, minimal lag
3. management: removing obstacles
   -SOPs
   -people, materials, equipment, and cows all oriented towards the product
   -specific to farm, not one size fits all
   -if there is a bottleneck, find it and remove it
   -seek outside input, frequent re-training and consistency

Question 4

how do you decide where to spend money?

Answer 4

1. frequency of disease
2. cost of each case of disease

3 cost of prevention:
-new building or parlor
-change in routine

Question 5

describe the costs of disease

Answer 5

1. direct costs:
   -diagnostics
   -drug costs
   -non-saleable milk
   -veterinary service
   -labor
   -death

2 indirect costs: hard to estimate, too many confounders
-culling and replacement
-long term production
-reproductive efficiency

Question 6

using the 3 M’s of health, how do you deal with the cost of clinical mastitis?

Answer 6

1. management:
   -SOP for free-stall bedding maintenance
   -SOP for milking procedures
   -SOP for dry-off procedures
2. monitoring:
   -monthly DHIA SCC plus time devoted to review report
   -milk culture for pathogen prevalence
3. mitigation:
   -SOP for mastitis treatment
   -culling of chronically affected cows