Danish dairy farmers’ perceptions and attitudes related to calf-management in situations of high versus no calf mortality

Abstract

Calf mortality has remained at a high (risk ∼7%) in Denmark, despite much knowledge disseminated to farmers. We conducted a qualitative interview to explore calf managers’ perception of their own management and working situation, and how this related to calf mortality problems in their herds. Twenty-eight calf managers from herds with either no (NO) or high (HI; 17–31%) calf mortality in 2004 were included in the study. We used our judgement to create a model of the inter-relationships among the attitudes that seemed most different between the two groups of farmers. ‘Flexible time,’ (for activities such as management of crisis or unexpected events) was crucial; it allowed the farmer to intervene immediately at first sign of a crisis. Our interpretation suggests that focus on the farmers time planning and structure of everyday activities is, therefore, a key to understanding and solving problems related to calf disease and mortality. An important distinction between the groups was whether the calf manager had a basic belief that calf mortality is a permanent crisis that has to be expected to be present on a dairy farm. Previous experience in solving disease and mortality problems in calves had a strong positive influence on this belief. We suggest that the issues of empowerment and flexible time management be explored further to assist dairy-calf raisers.