Income on Farm increased by £9,000 per annum

Mastitis and Ketosis Risk decreased by 25% and 80% respectively

Income from Vet Advice increased by £3,000 each 3 months

How was this achieved?

Visits to farms showed the current management on the dairy farms. Vets monitored the disease levels from the farm and the practice. Inspire Cattle Solutions provided an Evidence Based Report supporting the costs of mastitis and ketosis/case and showed the best scientific interventions to reduce the risk of these diseases. Examples were evidence supporting the use of dips and forestripping milk against mastitis outcomes and the use of body condition scoring and BHBA testing to predict ketosis in cows. 

Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine is the practice of searching available scientific literature supporting a clinical question (such as “What is the average cost of a case of mastitis?” or What is the evidence supporting the use of pre-dips to reduce new cases of mastitis?”) and then applying this in practice.

Evidence-based interventions could then be put in place and data recorded after 3 months to show the differences seen on farm.

Visits to the farms showed that mastitis and the numbers of sick cows after calving were at unacceptable levels, at 12% new cases of mastitis/year and 8% Displaced Abomasum (DA)/year. 

Farmers were spending too much of their time caring for sick cows rather than concentrating on health and productivity. The vet practice was believing the herd dairy data recorded by the farmer rather than actually measuring mastitis tube sales or monitoring BHBA levels in fresh cows. 

Altering Fibre length and content in dry cows and increasing feed space access reduced ketosis to <10% for the next 3 months and inctroducing pre-dip and clean wiping techniques reduced mastitis to 8%. 

The vet practice achieved more consultation opportunities from the feedback of their customers and they could rest in the knowledge that their interventions wwere supported by the latest scientific research.

All of this was possible because the data was able to capture real situations on farm and tie this to best practices elsewhere in the Globe.

Evidence-based veterinary medicine can create Opportunities for producers, practices and consultancy!