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Herd health and control costs of production diseases in dairy farming systems in Pays
de la Loire
C. Fourichon*, H. Seegers, N. Bareille, F. Beaudeau. Veterinary School – INRA, BP
40706, 44307 Nantes Cedex 3, France - [email protected]
Summary
The objective was to compare herd health in farming systems classified according to
dairy intensification. Herd health was assessed through costs of production diseases.
Data were recorded in 197 farms. Losses were calculated by partial budgeting. Farms
were classified into categories according to breed, calving age, concentrates, silage,
milk yield. Expenditures and losses varied from 62 to 94, and 125 to 184 €/cow-year
between categories. Intensification was not associated with higher disease costs. The
two most intensive categories had the highest expenditures and either the highest or
the lowest losses. Expenditures in intensive systems probably resulted from wider use
of preventive measures rather than from poorer health.
Introduction
Dairy farming systems show a wide variability between regions in Europe. In western
France, agronomic and climatic conditions give the way to farmers to choose between
variable levels of intensification of their dairy production. The question of possible
influence of farming systems on herd health is often raised and poorly documented.
Risks and health management options could differ. Higher risk may result from direct
effect of feeding (metabolic disorders), or indirect effect on the ability of cows to
cope with their environment. Relationships between feeding, health and milk yield at
the cow level were recently reviewed6. Increased risk for several diseases was
associated with high milk yield, high levels of concentrates and use of maize silage.
Farming systems at high risk, if any, would have impaired acceptability (animal
welfare, drug use) and profitability (disease losses). Herd health can be assessed
indirectly through disease costs. Disease costs are the sum of losses consecutive to
disease effects in affected cows and disease control expenditures for the whole herd.
The objective of this study was to compare the costs of production diseases in
farming systems classified according to intensification of the dairy production.
Material and methods
A prospective survey was carried out in 265 farms in Pays de la Loire from 1995 to
1998. In each farm, disease occurrence, health-control expenditures and farm
characteristics were observed across two years and collected by trained investigators
2,4
. The final dataset included 197 farms (11 drop-outs, 49 invalidated disease records,
and 8 invalidated expenditures). Farms were classified into categories of farming
systems according to dairy intensification. One group of non-Holstein herds was
defined. Among Holstein herds, groups of farms with comparable intensification were
obtained by hierarchical cluster analysis considering 4 variables (Table). In each
farm, health-control expenditures were collected from invoices and summed up to
calculate their amount per cow-year and per 1000 milk liters.
Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, 2003
Available at www.sciquest.org.nz
Table: Classification of farming systems according to dairy intensification (197 dairy herds)
Category
Name Nb Breed
Milk yield
Concentrates Maize silage Age 1st calving
Non Holstein
NH 35 Normande Low
Low
High
High
Non intensive
NI 15 Holstein Low
Low
None or low Low
Late 1st calving
LA 18 Holstein Relatively low Relatively low Moderate
Very high
Low concentrates
LC 27 Holstein Relatively low Low
High
Relatively low
Moderately intensive MI 26 Holstein Relatively high Relatively low Moderate
Relatively low
Intensive
IN 19 Holstein Relatively high Moderate
High
Relatively
high
Maize concentrates MC 28 Holstein High
High
Very high Low
Very intensive
VI 29 Holstein High
Very high
High
Relatively low
Losses were calculated for 21 diseases based on their incidences and expected
consequences on milk yield, reproduction performance, culling, mortality and carcass
values. Estimation of economic losses was obtained by partial budgeting and assumed
a quota constraint 3. In brief, decreased milk yield was assumed to result in an
increase of the herd size (cows and heifers) to produce the quota. Variations in
income considered variations in sales of animals (culling, mortality) and in milk price
(e.g. somatic cell counts). Variations in costs included only some variable costs
(concentrates, roughage, milk replacer, insemination, other costs…), excluding any
labor cost. An opportunity cost per hectare used for the extra animals was also added
(gross margin from possible beef cattle or crop production). Expenditures and losses
were compared between farming systems by rank ANOVA.
Results
Health-control expenditures per cow-year increased with intensification. They were
higher in the two most intensive groups than in the non-intensive Holstein group but
ranking of the groups was completely different for losses consecutive to diseases
(Figure 1). One of the two most intensive groups, experienced the highest disease
losses whereas the other one had the lowest ones. Overall, the groups with the lowest
costs of production diseases were farms with intensive use of maize silage and
concentrates (because of low losses), non-intensive Holstein farms (because of low
health-control expenditures) and non-Holstein farms (because of low losses).
Euros per 1000 milk liters
Euros per cow-year
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
VI MC IN MI LC LA NI NH
Figure 1. Costs per cow-year of production diseases
in 8 groups of farming systems defined according to
dairy intensification
40
30
20
10
0
VI MC IN MI LC LA NI NH
Figure 2. Costs per 1000 milk liters of production
diseases in 8 groups of farming systems defined
according to dairy intensification
Farming systems: VI very intensive, MC maize-concentrates, IN intensive, MI moderately intensive, LC low concentrates, LA
Bars:
losses consecutive to diseases health control expenditures
late 1st calving, NI non intensive, NH non Holstein.
Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, 2003
Available at www.sciquest.org.nz
Health-control expenditures per milk liter did not differ among Holstein groups
(Figure 2). The two most intensive groups showed the highest and the lowest losses
per milk liter. Total disease costs per 1000 liter of milk did not differ between groups.
Discussion
Health-control expenditures include both preventive actions and treatments of disease
cases. Therefore, expenditures depend on both disease incidences in the herd and on
farmer’s health management options. Summarizing losses consecutive to all
production diseases provides an information on the health status of a herd, easily
comparable between farms. This overall approach was not previously used and only a
few studies compared farming systems for their herd health. In our study,
intensification in Holstein herds was associated with higher health-control
expenditures per cow-year, but not systematically with higher disease losses. In
Nordic countries, increase in frequency of treatments for some diseases was reported
in a few studies although inconsistently. In Norway, no relation was evidenced at the
herd level between milk yield, use of grass silage, levels of concentrates and
treatments of milk fever, mastitis, ketosis and “all diseases” 7. In Sweden, at the herd
level, high herd milk yield was associated with increased frequency of treatments for
stillbirth, milk fever, retained placenta, silent estrus, cystic ovaries, metritis, mastitis
and ketosis 1,5. Our results suggest that some of the most intensive dairy farms do well
control their herd health as they experience the lowest losses consecutive to diseases
in the sample. Decision to treat (in a preventive or curative purpose) is part of the
herd management tools available to the farmers and could be preferred in more
intensive farming systems to increase the potential of the herd to produce milk. In the
range of variation of dairy intensification observed today in western France, there is
no evidence of higher risk of diseases associated with higher or lower intensification.
Significant differences in health-control expenditures probably result from differences
in health management options adopted by the farmers, which are very likely to vary
between farming systems and related to farmers’ preferences (e.g. to lower costs, to
save labor, to increase milk yield).
Acknowledgments : Data collection in farms was realized in collaboration with FRGDS, GTV and FRCL des
Pays de la Loire. Thanks to J.Y. Audiart, D. Billon and M. Leroux for technical support.
References
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Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, 2003
Available at www.sciquest.org.nz