By Burke, J. and Huxley, J.N. and Main, D. C. J. and Roderick, S. and Whay, H. R., Cattle Practice, 2003
Description
This paper describes the assessment of herd health plans (HHP) carried out as part of a larger study evaluating the usefulness of health and welfare benchmarking in the development of HHPs. Fifteen farms were visited during the winter of 2002-2003. The assessment was composed of three parts, an inter-view, inspection and scoring of the records and herd health plan and an assessment of the milking cows in their winter housing environment. Preliminary results suggest that there is currently no clear link between the quality of the records and HHP and cow health and welfare. This is probably because currently, despite the presence of a HHP, most farms do not fully implement the contents of the plan on farm. So whilst herd health planning is now widespread, the impact on animal health and welfare is unclear. Attitudes towards HHPs and possible reasons for our findings are discussed.
This paper describes the assessment of herd health plans (HHP) carried out as part of a larger study evaluating the usefulness of health and welfare benchmarking in the development of HHPs. Fifteen farms were visited during the winter of 2002-2003. The assessment was composed of three parts, an inter-view, inspection and scoring of the records and herd health plan and an assessment of the milking cows in their winter housing environment. Preliminary results suggest that there is currently no clear link between the quality of the records and HHP and cow health and welfare. This is probably because currently, despite the presence of a HHP, most farms do not fully implement the contents of the plan on farm. So whilst herd health planning is now widespread, the impact on animal health and welfare is unclear. Attitudes towards HHPs and possible reasons for our findings are discussed.
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