Minimising medicine use in organic dairy herds through animal health and welfare planning (German subproject)
Abstract
It is the aim of this subproject to (1) provide input for the development of animal health and welfare planning principles for organic dairy farms based on experiences currently made in an ongoing project (03 OE 406, mainly regarding health parameters), (2) complement already existing herd health plans regarding welfare issues and to subsequently assess the efficiency of such animal-health-and-welfare-plans (AHW-plans) in 20 organic dairy herds in Germany and (3), develop guidelines for communication about animal health and welfare promotion using the ‘Stable School system’. For this purpose, health indicators (regarding mastitis, lameness, metabolic disorders, reproductive disorders, calf diseases) and respective goals, as well as protocols and practical experiences from project 03 OE 406 will be provided to the project partners. Repeated farm visits to 20 dairy farms will allow for the on-farm assessment of mainly animal-based health and welfare indicators. Health plans have already been implemented on the farms before start of the project and the first visit will be used to check the efficiency of herd health plans with regard to health indicators. An AHW-plan focussing on animal welfare will additionally be implemented and its efficiency also be controlled during the second farm visit (approximately 6 months after the first visit). Existing alternative advisory systems such as farmer groups will be evaluated and 3 regional farmer meetings will be organized in order to initiate ‘stable schools’ regarding AHW-plans and the minimisation of medicine use through animal health and welfare promotion and disease prevention. Following the Danish approach, these meetings will only be facilitated by the project but aim at creating an exchange between farmers.
keywords Dairy cattle animal welfare hanimal health organic farming null
Publikationen
Project staff
Christoph Winckler
Univ.Prof. Dr.med.vet. Christoph Winckler
christoph.winckler@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-93221
Project Leader
15.06.2007 - 30.11.2010
BOKU partners
External partners
Universität Göttingen - Forschungs- und Studienzentrum für Veredelungswirtschaft Weser-Ems
Jan Brinkmann, Solveig March
partner