Identifying barriers to successful dairy cow transition management

Abstract

Many dairy cows become ill in the weeks after calving, a period when cows also experience numerous environmental and physiological changes. Most research on this transition period has focused on biological factors including nutrition, immunology, and physiology, but little work has examined sociological factors affecting how farmers care for their cows. The aim of the current study was to describe barriers preventing the adoption of more successful management practices. We used individual and group interviews, paired with photo elicitation, to understand the perspectives of farmers (n = 11) and veterinarians (n = 8) living and working in the lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada. Participants viewed transition period management as difficult. The lack of a single definition of the transition period emerged as one barrier to improvement; providing a clear and consistent definition for the transition period may be an important first step to improved practices on dairy farms. Participants also identified other barriers hindering improvement, including variation in both farmer attitude toward transition cow management and veterinarian involvement, stocking density of cows, and nutrition management. Barriers to improved practices varied by farm, suggesting that a tailored approach is required to make meaningful change.

A focus group study of Ontario dairy producer perspectives on neonatal care of male and female calves

“…Veterinarians were identified as an important information source on calf health, but other industry professionals also played a role on some farms. Similarly, veterinarians and nutritionists were important advisors for transition cow management on dairy farms (Mills et al, 2020), and veterinarians were reported as valuable resources regarding pig and sheep biosecurity (Garforth et al, 2013). Despite this, producers do not always think of veterinarians as calf advisors (Santman-Berends et al, 2014), and increased discussion between veterinarians and producers through benchmarking reports has been shown to enhance their perceived value as advisors (Sumner et al, 2020).…”

Effect of Prickly Pear Cactus Peel Supplementation on Milk Production, Nutrient Digestibility and Rumen Fermentation of Sheep and the Maternal Effects on Growth and Physiological Performance of Suckling Offspring

“…Noteworthily, nutrition during lactation is critical for milk production [48], whereas milk production is an energy demand process which causes stress in the animal, especially during the early stage of lactation due to the associated extreme physiological and metabolic changes [8,49]. Accordingly, introducing complete balanced diets alone as an animal requirement in this stage of production is not good enough, but also using supplemented diets with natural antioxidant is an important measure of animal husbandry, especially under controlled farming systems, to assimilate natural pasture-living animals [4,15].…”

Naturalness and the Legitimacy of Thoroughbred Racing: A Photo-Elicitation Study with Industry and Animal Advocacy Informants

“…More recently, it has been used in research contexts broadly related to the thoroughbred industry. For example, Ward and May [ 83 ] explored the mental images veterinary students held of the veterinary profession; Mills et al [ 84 ] explored farmers’ and veterinarians’ perceptions of dairy cow welfare and others researched the interface of land conservation, agricultural practices and local knowledge [ 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 ]. Two of these broadly related studies [ 82 , 85 ] used photo-elicitation to compare the perceptions of two groups of participants, similar to this current study.…”