[Veterinary herd health consultancy on dairy farms: guidelines for starters]

This paper presents a guideline which can be used when setting up a professional veterinary herd health and production management advisory programme for dairy farms. Earlier research showed that dairy farmers prefer a structured professional programme and ask their veterinary surgeons to provide an optimal veterinary advisory programme for their dairy farms with a clear structure and contents, and well-planned activities. The guideline presented here should aid in providing the farmers with that clarity, structure, and planning. This should ultimately lead to a more professional implementation of veterinary advisory programmes.