A three year herd health and management program on thirty Dutch dairy farms. I. Objectives, methods and main results

A herd health and management program was carried out from May 1974 to May 1977 on thirty Dutch dairy farms which did not have specific herd or management problems. The number of cows per farm varied between 40 and 160. There was a control group of thirty-one comparable farms. The farms were visited every six weeks by the veterinarian of the Animal Health Service Institute, the local agricultural adviser of the NAAS and the local veterinarian. The aim of the program was a whole farm approach. The program had a mainly advisory character and it was up to the farmer to follow the advice given, which was based on the theoretically optimal solution but adjusted to the farm situation. The basis of the administration of herd health was the Herd Fertility Chart. Farm inspection was by detailed observation. The program was primarily practical, and could be carried out by a well-trained local veterinarian. The data of the first (preparatory) year were compared with the results of the following two years. The improvement in income feedcosts margin on the program farms exceeded that on control farms by Dfl. 176 per cow (therefore Dfl. 460 per ha. and Dfl. 12,535 per man). Factor Analysis showed that the herd health and management program influenced especially data concerning fertility. However this did not affect the income feedcosts margin per cow. The program also had an important influence on culling due to health problems and on feedcosts per cow, both of which considerably affected the income feedcosts margin per man.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)