FARM Health Planning (FHP) has been a hot topic for the livestock industry during 2007. As part of the brief to deliver on the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy (AHWS), DEFRA has provided pump-priming funds to promote the importance of FHP across the industry.
In many sectors, veterinary surgeons have been peripheral to this initiative. Not so cattle! A national campaign by the BVA to raise awareness was followed by a strong showing of veterinary tenders for the FHP Cattle Initiative (CI). A range of strong regional projects have championed the role of cattle vets as central in training farmers in health planning to deliver more healthy and productive cattle.
To support cattle veterinary surgeons in this initiative, the BCVA successfully tendered to provide CPD which would essentially “train the trainers” in health planning techniques. During November and December 2007, more than 120 veterinary surgeons from over 100 practices attended the foundation courses in farm health planning at Tiverton, Warwick, Preston and Swindon.
The course focused on control of infectious disease and biosecurity as an example of farm health planning in action. The structure for delegates included:
- guidance on strategic use and interpretation of laboratory techniques from Gareth Hateley (VLA Thirsk);
- cutting-edge academic input on BVD from Professor Joe Brownlie and on Neospora from Professor Sandy Trees;
- discussion of health planning concepts and tools from past BCVA presidents Dick Sibley and Peter Orpin;
- workshops on communication and marketing techniques by Roddy Webster (Merial).
The structured approach to farm health planning involves three steps: measure, manage and monitor. Measurement is the essential first step in any health planning process. Many disease and infertility problems are subclinical and without measurement of performance may be overlooked. However, this does not have to be onerous and veterinary practices may provide bureau recording systems that greatly facilitate this process.
Management firstly involves assessment of risk. Resources – time, money and labour – are often limited. Benchmarking recorded data allows prioritisation of action on a particular farm, as well as motivating change – nobody likes to be outdone by their neighbours! Secondly, management then involves a plan of action tailormade to that farm. This requires teamwork built around the vet-farmer partnership and a real understanding of the farm system.
Finally, performance should be monitored to encourage regular reviews of progress and allow further changes to be made on the basis of real evidence. Again, this does not have to be high-tech as long as certain key indicators are being recorded in some retrievable format.
Promote the concept
At the end of the course, vets were encouraged to return to their practices to promote the cascade of the health planning concept to their clients in the form of practice meetings for farmers as well as on an individual basis.
This second stage of the BCVA project is currently in progress with cattle vets engaging their clients in the concept of infectious disease health planning. Support in the form of financial subsidy as well as technical back-up is available from the BCVA.
A range of health planning tools is currently available independently of the BCVA: from CIS, NMR (InterHerd), Better Health Plans, SAC and MyHealthyHerd.
MyHealthyHerd (MHH), an independent company owned by Peter Orpin and Dick Sibley, is currently developing a web-based product in conjunction with National Milk Laboratories (NML). BCVA provides education support for this product in the form of CPD.
The cattle industry is changing rapidly and with it so is cattle veterinary practice. Farm health planning is an approach to managing the challenges posed by modern cattle farming. It represents an opportunity for veterinary surgeons to remain central to the farm business and promote cattle health and welfare. BCVA is pleased to support the initiative and its members.
The cattle initiative courses represent the start of a new look to BCVA education and it is hoped that this new “foundation course” in health planning will provide natural links to many other levels of CPD.
