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PRO. ACCESS |
THE APPROACH
Identifying herd health disorders
The first step is to identify the presence of problems in the herd. However, in this initial phase it is important not to over-focus on the obvious, visible, and most serious symptoms. It is just as important to focus in on the 'satellite disorders' as these can give us the important hint to the source of the problem.
This approach requires a very rigorous analysis to reveal all the problems that the herd in question might encounter.
We have developed an approach based on the observation of the animal in its environment and the analysis of breeding documentation. This allows us to highlight the principal alerts emitted by the animals according to our Early Health Indicators.
These risks are then confirmed and the financial impact estimated.
These are the phases of our approach.
For each one of the steps we have simple-to-use on-farm tools (see page 'Our tools') which will in turn confirm our initial evaluations and help direct the farm in the follow-up monitoring.
All the documentation is available at NBVC, and we are very happy to organize an on-farm visit to explain the approach and assist you in carrying out the audit and in using our simple analysis tools.
Testimony
Mr. Bontemps, farmer in the French region of 'Saône et Loire'
When 10% of the animals suffer from reproductive disorders and another 10% have poor locomotion, we simply renew them. When levels are more than 20% we need to alter the management practices.
When my colleagues told me that I have too many vet bills, I replied "Well, in fact, we don't have enough !" and I called my Vet for all these reasons !
"It was two years ago when everything was going wrong on my farm: the cows showed signs of lameness, the heifers too, and when they were introduced to the milking herd, the reproduction was a disaster and I even had several cases of mortality of adult animals.
With my Vet, we decided to call on the help of NBVC. The consultant carried out an inspection of the herd. I was very pleased with their approach, know-how and methods. The team supporting the Vet consultant was extremely efficient. In addition, they commited themselves to re-examine the herd five months later for free in order to see if everything came back to normal. I applied all their suggestions and with my Vet, we put in place a regular monitoring program.
The results speak for themselves. We have now removed all our hoof inspection equipment - we no longer need it. Concerning reproduction, the level of AI 1 has increased from 40% to 60%, while the number of AI/AI f has reduced from 2.3 to 1.6. All this in a herd of over 90 cows and in just two years. I am extremly happy."