12 Aug 2019
Sally Wilson uses her first-hand experience to discuss the skill behind creating user-friendly on-farm protocols.
Sally Wilson
Job Title
In today’s dairy industry, larger farms mean more staff – an increasing proportion of whom are unskilled.
More unskilled staff means more chance for communication breakdown. Communication breakdown is the gateway to not only a stressful working environment, but also an increased chance of cow health suffering.
To minimise this, treatment and prevention protocols are becoming more relevant than ever. The author uses her first-hand experience to discuss the skill behind creating user-friendly on-farm protocols that are referred to regularly, and that enable all staff to have a uniform approach to cow health.
When the herd health plan was initially introduced on to dairy farms, it was very much a static document that was produced by the vet, inspected by Red Tractor Assurance and left on the shelf until it needed to be updated 18 months later. Today, on most progressive dairy farms, the herd health plan is the cornerstone of cow health; whether the farmer directly recognises this is another matter.
As dairy vets, during our routine visits we pick up on issues occurring on farm, comment on them and make suggestions based on them, and are constantly adapting our practices according to what this farm needs. Each year, when we update this herd health plan, we are simply summarising these adaptations and putting them into some sort of formal structure.
Ten or so years ago, these adaptations and tweaks that were made may have just consisted of a conversation between the vet and the herdsman, as the herdsman was the only person who would have contact with the cows. But this is not the case nowadays.
The skilled farm staff are often bright, educated people who carry degrees in various agricultural areas. These people want more than to call the vet when they have a cow off colour. They want to know why the cow is off colour. They want to learn how they can help it and how they can prevent it the next time. They want to learn what they can do to treat it so they don’t have to call the vet for a similar problem in the future.
The milking staff are commonly workers who complete “shifts”, so continuity needs to exist between different shifts, with minimal opportunity for communication breakdown. There may be workers of different nationalities, cultural backgrounds and with different first languages – all of which add to the mix of challenges we need to deal with when devising protocols and getting them active on farm.
Creating protocols is best done along with the herd manager or equivalent. Ideally, take a “draft” protocol along as something for you to work on together. It is important to gauge how much information your client wants from you.
As vets, we like to understand things from first principles. Some of our clients may be the same, and feel they need to know why they are doing something and may want to have lots of input into the creation of the protocol. Others are the opposite – that is, they are busy, are tired, just want to get on with it, and have something easy that they can follow and use to give their staff some guidance.
Plus there are, of course, clients who fall into all categories in-between. It is a skill to be able to determine how much your client wants to know to get him or her to buy into your protocol.
A protocol needs to not look like a block of words. It should be simple and quick to interpret. Flow charts often work well (Figure 1). Crucially, if there are employees on farm whose first language isn’t English, a version needs to exist in their language.
Panels 1 and 2 detail case study examples.
Farm: 700 milkers, three times daily milking, 37L to 38L per cow per day, calving all year round, housed all year round.
Staff: a herd manager who is self-employed and paid according to literage. The herd manager is responsible for employing all staff – all of whom are locals and have an average age of 23 years old.
This farm is everything a vet would want as a client. The owners, although not hands-on with the cows, are keen to keep expanding the herd and, after erecting two new cubicle sheds, are now discussing installing a new rotary to reduce the milking time from the current 4.5 hours to a manageable 2.5 hours, to free up labour time, as well as reduce stress on the cows.
The staff members are generally young and enthusiastic about life in general, as well as cows – when they are not vying to get the next weekend off because a party is going on and when they are not turning up to milking late because they were out on the booze the night before.
The herd manager is passionate about what he does; everything he does is with the ultimate aim of improving the herd performance. As a vet, it is important to realise the priorities that are governing the future of this herd. We have a herd manager who wants nothing more than the herd to win the next National Milk Records and Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers Gold Cup. Then we have the young, inexperienced, but potentially stars of tomorrow, team.
How best to approach this team?
Farm: 450 milkers, three times daily milking, flying herd 32L per cow per day, calving all year round, housed all year round.
Staff: an owner who has inherited the farm. He doesn’t really like cows, but continues to farm because that is really his only option. Also, a herdsman who is a good cowman, but cannot – and will not – manage the rest of the workforce. The workforce is all from eastern Europe.
This farm is a challenge for a vet to deal with. The only communication between the vet and the farm is via the herdsman. The vet and the herdsman have a very good relationship, but the owner pays the bills. The rest of the workforce speaks no English – therefore, communication within the team is generally poor.
The milkers tend to work for around three months before finding someone from their home to come and take over from them while they return home for a block of time. Often, the replacement staff have had little to no experience of milking cows.
How best to approach this team?
How to approach devising a protocol and getting it accepted on farm
