Resilience of Dairy Farming in Flanders

The mobilisation and impact of roadway runoff on dairy farms has been established as a sub-component of the nutrient transfer continuum. It is acknowledged that fresh nutrient sources deposited on roadways dominate runoff and recent work has shown that available phosphorus (P) in roadway substrates is also an important source component. The objectives of this study were to understand spatial and temporal available P concentrations in roadway substrate (aggregate and soil mix) across dairy and beef farms during the open (February–October, when cows use the roadway network and fields) and closed (November–January, when cows were housed) periods and identify locations which could be considered critical source areas (CSA). For the study, roadway substrate samples were taken at 18 locations on each farm, across eight sampling periods, and were analysed for available P. Results showed that mean available P concentrations (Morgan’s P) in the sampling locations ranged from 15.9 to 101.4 mg L-1 for the Dairy Farm, from 4.1 to 59.4 mg L-1 for Beef Farm 1 and from 6.3 to 23.2 mg L-1 for Beef Farm 2. In open period, the results showed that mean available P concentrations were 75.4 ± 30.9, 14.9 ± 3.2 and 13.4 ± 2.5 mg L-1 for the Dairy Farm, Beef Farm 1 and Beef Farm 2, respectively. In closed period, the mean available P were 40.3 ± 17.2, 10.4 ± 1.0 and 9.8 ± 0.2 mg L-1 for Dairy Farm, Beef Farm 1 and Beef Farm 2, respectively. Overall, P concentrations on the Dairy Farm roadways was up to 4 times greater than that in the Beef Farms’ roadways. Compared to soils in adjacent fields, P concentrations in the Dairy and Beef Farms roadways was up-to 7 and 2 times higher, respectively. Critical roadway sections that required mitigation were two in the Dairy Farm, one in Beef Farm 1 and two in Beef Farm 2. In addition to fresh faeces and urine (i.e., dominant source of nutrients in farm roadways), this study showed that nutrient enriched roadway materials are a labile P source. Thus, future mitigation of roadway runoff must consider all roadway nutrient sources, including livestock fresh excreta as well as used roadway surface materials.

Nitrogen and phosphorus surpluses on Danish dairy and pig farms in relation to farm characteristics

A voluntary control programme for Johne’s disease, the Irish Johne’s Control Programme (IJCP) has been implemented in Ireland since 2017. The objective of this observational study was to assess Irish beef and dairy farmers’ Johne’s disease knowledge, implemented management practices and IJCP opinions. A questionnaire open to dairy and beef farmers was distributed via social media and email. In total 126 responses were used for this study; these responses came from mostly young farmers (18–25 years old) and represent a small proportion of the total number of dairy and beef farmers in Ireland whose average age is 55.Most respondents claimed to know what Johne’s disease was (73%; 92/126) and associated the disease to loss of body condition (68%; 78/114) and diarrhoea (59%; 67/114). Twenty-eight respondents (mostly dairy farmers; 22/28) reported positive cases in their premises. And 38% reported to implement management practices to prevent Johne’s disease transmission within or into their herd (i.e. management of milk for calf consumption and isolation of Johne’s test-positive or newly purchased stock; 47/124).Eighteen percent (22/125) of respondents were, at the time of questionnaire or previously, members of the IJCP. The main benefits reported by some of the participating farmers were identification of positive cases (29%; 4/14), and management of milk for calf consumption (21%; 3/14). While the main disadvantage was inaccurate testing methods (50%; 10/20). The main reasons reported for the lack of participation in the IJCP were not being aware of the programme (52%; 53/102) and not having a Johne’s disease problem on the farm (48%; 49/102).In conclusion, this study suggests that while young farmers are aware of Johne’s disease, their participation in the IJCP is limited and could benefit from further promotion. Studies representing the wider farming community in Ireland are warranted to gather non-biased input and contribute to Johne’s disease control in Ireland.

Foot lesions causing lameness in dairy cows are a major source of production and economic losses and affect the welfare of dairy cows. The literature suggests that dairy farmers often diagnose and treat lame cows without expert opinion or assistance. Although there is a paucity of research regarding dairy farmers’ ability to diagnose and treat foot lesions, the high culling rates associated with lameness may indicate poor diagnosis or treatment. Therefore, research into tools to assist dairy farmers in identifying the causes of lameness in dairy cows is a priority. The broad aims of this thesis were to: i) conduct a systematic review of tests described in the literature for the detection of lameness and the diagnosis of foot lesions, ii) determine dairy farmer ability to correctly diagnose and treat foot lesions, iii) investigate the potential for simple mobile phone technology to be used as a remote consultation tool between dairy farmers and veterinarians, and iv) investigate the beliefs underlying dairy farmer intentions to improve their management practices of foot lesions causing lameness.The systematic review identified a number of tests for the detection of lameness, foot lesions, sole ulcers and digital dermatitis. No tests were identified for the diagnosis of specific foot lesions. Key objectives of this study were to assess the methodological quality of the included studies, compare the performance of the identified tests using reported sensitivity and specificity values, and subsequently make recommendations regarding suitability for implementation on farm. However, none of the tests reviewed and assessed could be recommended due to incomplete reporting of pertinent information and significant risk of bias in all studies. A key recommendation from this study is that authors of future studies in this field should use the STARD guidelines. This would enable thorough evaluation of future tests.Data were acquired from a previously conducted observational study to determine dairy farmer ability to correctly diagnose and treat foot lesions and to introduce the concept of a tele-foot-health system, where digital images of foot lesions were sent to a remote veterinarian for assessment. Diagnostic agreement was assessed between two sets of raters, an on-site (farm) veterinarian and a dairy farmer and the farm veterinarian and a remote veterinarian, for four criteria: body region, tissue, diagnosis and treatment. Overall, the farm veterinarian and dairy farmer demonstrated weak to almost perfect agreement, whereas the farm veterinarian and remote veterinarian demonstrated moderate to almost perfect agreement. For the farm veterinarian and dairy farmer, weak levels of agreement for diagnosis and treatment suggest that the dairy farmer may need more assistance in diagnosing and treating the foot lesions occurring in their herd. The moderate to almost perfect agreement achieved between the farm veterinarian and remote veterinarian indicates the potential for success of the proposed tele-foot-health system. More research is needed to further investigate and validate its use.The final research chapter used a questionnaire based on a social–psychology framework, the Theory of Planned Behaviour. In brief, such studies identify individuals’ key behavioural, normative and control beliefs in relation to the behaviour of interest and assess the associations between the beliefs and intention to perform the behaviour. This study identified that dairy farmers believed improving their current management practices of foot lesions would improve animal welfare, increase milk production and was worth the cost involved (behavioural beliefs). Dairy farmers indicated that the opinions of consumers, staff, and animal welfare groups were important in their decision to make improvements (normative beliefs). Better equipment and facilities, improved knowledge and training, and a favourable cost benefit ratio were perceived as factors that would enable dairy farmers to improve their management practices (control beliefs). While all of these beliefs may be considered as potential drivers to facilitate positive behavioural change, the behavioural beliefs were identified as the priority beliefs that industry should target in the development of strategies to increase dairy farmer intentions to make improvements to their current management practices of foot lesions.This thesis has demonstrated that dairy farmers need support for diagnosing the foot lesions that affect the dairy cows in their herds. While no tools of this nature currently exist, the tele-foot-health system introduced in this thesis offers a possible solution to assist dairy farmers in both the diagnosis and treatment of foot lesions. However, further research is required to fully support its implementation on the farm. To support the uptake of tools like this, this thesis demonstrates the importance of targeting dairy farmer behavioural beliefs in the development of strategies to promote improved dairy cow foot health. In conclusion, this thesis has provided direction for further research into tools to aid dairy farmers in improving their management of foot lesions causing lameness in their dairy herds.

Environmental assessment of United States dairy farms

To examine and compare the technical efficiency of dairy sector and the beef sector, this research introduced the main indicators of milk and beef production in the world, EU and Hungarian aggregates. Based on the data it can be said that the milk and beef production of Hungary does not occupy any significant position in the world as well as in the European Union neither today nor even in the past. If Hungry must compete in the European counties and international market, their dairy sector must focus to increase of their production efficiency as the key breakthrough point. This paper we compared technical efficiency of both dairy and beef sectors in total, for the year 2014 and 2015 separately and based on the farm size. The specific objectives of the research are: comparing dairy and beef farms efficiency in Hungary. Based on the results, we can determine which sector in Hungary is more effective. The second objective is to compare the efficiencies of both the sectors in 2014 and 2015 separately and from the results we can determine which year was more effective in terms of production efficiency and the third objective of the research is technical efficiency comparison of certain economic sizes for both sectors. In the research, we used (KOVACS, 2009) deterministic (DEA) model adapted to the Hungarian dairy farms and beef farms. For the dairy farms milk and dairy products as well as meat (other income). The input factors originated from the domestic AKI - FADN database. Summarizing the results of the research it can be conclude that the dairy sector is more effective than the beef sector in Hungary. In terms of years compared 2014 was more effective for both sector as compared with 2015. In regards to the farm size almost the same result in evaluating the scale of efficiency, which means that large economies can in most cases, manage resources more efficiently than small farms. In the examined years, based on the results of the DEA model, the VRS technical efficiency of the test for these two years was 72.90% for the dairy farms and 63.60% for the beef farms, which means that the dairy sector is more efficient than the beef sector in Hungary. The VRS technical efficiency of the research was 82.10% in 2014 and 75.10% in 2015 for the dairy farms and 77.50% in 2014 and 68.90% in 2015 for the beef farms, which means that both the dairy sector and the beef sectors followed the same trend and were more efficient in 2014 compared to the efficiency in 2015. The large size dairy farms were most effective in Hungary in the examined period (90.90%). VRS technical efficiency for small farms is 88% and the total number of small, the technical efficiency medium farms was 72.80% For the beef sector VRS technical efficiency for small farms is 71.30% and the technical efficiency medium farms was 74.40% and 70% of the beef meat producing farms in Hungary are medium sized. So, the conclusion is the small size dairy farms have a higher VRS efficiency than the small size beef farms whereas medium sized beef farms had higher VRS efficiency than the medium size dairy farms. As a conclusion, both dairy and beef sectors in Hungary have the potential to overcome technology and knowledge constraints and attain the upmost attainable productivity level through improvements in; farmer volume of production i.e. output, beef cattle technologies, and advertising, and the efficiency of the technology transfer process.
 JEL Code: Q13

Small changes in the large stock of soil organic carbon (SOC) can have a substantial influence on the climate impact of agriculture. We used information from a Swedish soil monitoring program, in combination with farm census data, to analyze decadal SOC concentrations and SOC stock changes on dairy farms compared with other farm types, and to quantify the climate impact of these changes on dairy farms. Soil monitoring data included topsoil samples from two inventories on 159 dairy farms, 86 beef farms, 318 arable farms, and 13 pig farms, taken at the same locations in 2001–2007 and 2011–2017. Concentrations of SOC on dairy farms (3.0%) were significantly higher than on arable farms (2.3%) and pig farms (2.4%), but not significantly different from beef farms (3.1%). SOC concentration was correlated with proportion of ley at farm scale. SOC stocks in the upper 20 cm increased significantly on dairy, beef, and arable farms, by 0.38, 0.14, and 0.21 Mg C ha−1 year−1, respectively, between 2001–2007 and 2011–2017. For dairy farms, this corresponded to −1.4 Mg CO2 ha−1 and approximately −0.22 kg CO2 kg−1 energy-corrected milk, demonstrating that SOC changes could have a substantial influence on the climate footprint of milk.

Excess nutrients are challenging the long-term sustainability of grazing-based dairy farming. Whole-farm nutrient-mass balance (NMB) is a well recognised approach to improve on-farm nutrient management decisions. In the present paper, we use a standardised approach for quantifying NMB on grazing-based dairy farms, using a newly developed online tool. Preliminary evaluation, using selected farm data from a previous Australia-wide dairy-farm nutrient study, demonstrated highly comparable estimates of farm area, nutrient fluxes and NMB, with substantial efficiencies in time and sample analysis. Nutrient mass balances were also determined on 16 diverse dairy farms across the five major dairy regions of Victoria, Australia. These results highlighted the importance of purchased feed, fertiliser and milk sales, as major sources of nutrient inputs and outputs, with whole-farm NMB for the 16 dairy farms ranging from 185 to 481 kg/ha for nitrogen, 12–59 kg/ha for phosphorus, 9–244 kg/ha for potassium and –6–55 kg/ha for sulfur. Current industry adoption of the NMB tool has confirmed the benefits of a standardised and efficient collation and processing of readily available farm data to inform nutrient management decisions on commercial dairy farms. We suggest that the standardised assessment of nutrient fluxes, balances and efficiency, as well as feed- and milk-production performance at the whole-farm level, provides dairy farmers, farm advisors and industry and policy analysts with the ability to determine industry-wide goals and improve environmental performance.

To what extent veterinarians active in the dairy or beef sector follow the antimicrobial therapy guidelines made available in different European countries for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) outbreaks, and whether differences in therapeutic or preventive preferences for BRD management exist, is currently unknown. Therefore, the objectives of this cross-sectional study were to compare vaccination coverage and primary antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory treatment on dairy, beef and mixed-breed farms in northern Belgium, and determine their compliance with the recommendations made by the Belgian formulary. Information on antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory drug use and vaccination coverage from 190 BRD outbreaks in 180 herds, submitted by 101 veterinarians, was analysed. Multivariable linear probability models, adjusted for clustering at the veterinarian level, were used to determine differences between dairy and beef farms. Antimicrobials and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were used in 93.5% and 81.7% of the BRD outbreaks, respectively. First-line antimicrobials were used as primary treatment in only 42.3%, 50.9% and 38.6% of dairy, beef and mixed-breed farms, respectively. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed between dairy and beef farms in terms of use of long-acting macrolides (-17.2 percentage points [pp]; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -31.9, -2.5), steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (15.2 pp; CI: 0.5, 29.8) and vaccination coverage (bovine respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza virus type 3 [33.1 pp; Cl: 15.7-50.6] and Mannheimia haemolytica [23.1 pp; Cl: 3.4-39.8]). The herds that participated in this study were likely among the more motivated regarding BRD control. As such, the information on vaccination coverage is likely not entirely representative of herds in the study area. Interpretation is further complicated by the fact that vaccinated herds were potentially less likely to face a BRD outbreak and therefore participate in the current study. This study reveals differences in the primary use of (N)SAIDs, type of antimicrobials used and vaccination coverage on beef and dairy farms in the study region, and also differences in the appropriateness of antimicrobial selection based on the Belgian formulary.

Despite the growing of contamination of foods of animal origin with chemicals during production, processing and storage, less attention being paid for the potentially present chemical residues in such foods (meat, milk, eggs and their products). This study was carried out to assess the chemicals and veterinary drugs used, and their possible occurrence as residue in dairy and poultry products in randomly selected dairy and poultry farms, and milk and animal feed processing plants located in Bishoftu and Modjo, central Ethiopia through questionnaire and observation. The result of this study showed that antibiotics, mainly penicillin-streptomycin and ampicillin-cloxacilin combination were used in all dairy farms while oxytetracycline and sulfa drugs were used by 85.7% and 57.1% of dairy farms. Oxytetracycline, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacillin, and sulfa drugs were used in 100%, 71.4%, 28.6%, and 28.6% of poultry farms, respectively. The study also revealed albendazole and ivermectin were commonly used in 96.4% and 71.4% of the dairy farms, respectively while piperazine was a common anthelmintic used in 31.0% of poultry farms. The antiprotozoal drugs commonly used in poultry farm were amprolium (100%) and sulfa drugs (26.3%) while the commonly used drug in dairy farms was sulfa drugs (50.0%). Antiseptics, namely, savlon (82.2%), iodine tincture (53.3%) and denatured alcohol (53.3%) were commonly used in dairy farm whereas disinfectants, such as, hydrogen peroxide (83.3%), sodium hydroxide (66.7%), and formalin (19.0%) were commonly used in poultry farms though small number of dairy farms also used formalin (17.8%) and hydrogen peroxide (10.7%). Among the rodenticides used in farms, zinc phosphide was used more in poultry farms (33.3%) than dairy farms (14.3%). Different chemicals were also used in the milk and feed processing plants. We conclude that there are high possibility of drug and chemical residues occurrence in poultry and dairy products in the area.

The present study has been carried out in South-Western and Central agro climatic regions of Punjab state for studying the cost-returns and marketing pattern of dairy and fish farming based integrated model. It was observed from the study that the net returns from crop farming was ` Rs.65,852 per farm per year, whereas the net returns on per acre basis were found to be ` Rs.32,328 per acre per year. Further, the net returns from dairy farming were found to be ` Rs. 4,928 per farm per year and ` Rs.8,822 per acre per year. From fish farming, net returns were observed to be ` Rs. 2, 47, 396 per farm per annum and ` Rs.84,725 per acre per year. Total profitability of the crop-dairy-fish farming integrated model was observed to be `Rs. 4,58,176 per farm per annum, and net returns per acre from this model were ` Rs. 53,030 per year. Hence, it may be inferred that dairy and fish farming are more profitable as compared to crops and when adopted in an integrated manner along with crops, can enhance the overall profitability of the farm by efficient utilisation of farm waste products and by-products. At the same time, there is need of creating awareness among the farmers regarding the importance of dairy and fish farming based integrated models, so that they can adopt these types of models for enhancing their income levels.

Given the data paucity on dairy farmers' perspectives regarding bovine lameness and hoof diseases, particularly in South East Asian countries, this study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices toward lameness and hoof health among dairy cattle farmers in Malaysia. An online-based and face-to-face survey was conducted among 114 dairy farmers from four states in Peninsular Malaysia. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis and an independent sample t-test. Overall, farmers demonstrated satisfactory knowledge and attitude regarding lameness and its impact on dairy cattle welfare and production. Lameness was ranked the second most important health issue in dairy farms after mastitis. Notably, 90% reported the presence of at least one lame cow on their farms, and 55% stated lameness as the reason for culling their cows. While sole ulcer was the hoof lesion mostly identified by farmers, 75% of them underestimated lameness prevalence on their farms and rarely implemented management strategies such as preventive hoof trimming and footbath. Farmers' educational qualification influenced their understanding of the impact of lameness on dairy cattle production. Despite reflecting satisfactory knowledge and attitude towards lameness in dairy cows, farmers in this study need to improve their current management practices to address lameness problem in their herds. Educating farmers on the importance of early detection and prompt treatment, and preventive measures are crucial for lameness control and improving hoof health in these dairy farms.

Effect of different land use and land use change on ammonia oxidiser abundance and N2O emissions

We evaluated the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in enterococci from animal farms and the potential relation of resistance to antimicrobial use. Enterococci from faecal samples from 18 beef cattle, 18 dairy cattle, 18 swine, 13 chicken, and eight turkey farms were prospectively evaluated over a 6 year period from 1998 to 2003. We evaluated 1256 isolates of Enterococcus faecium and 656 isolates of Enterococcus faecalis. None was vancomycin resistant. Quinupristin/dalfopristin, gentamicin and ciprofloxacin resistance rates in E. faecium were 2%, 0% and 55% in beef cattle, 8%, 7% and 47% in dairy cattle, 21%, 1% and 47% in swine, 85%, 12% and 23% in chicken, and 52%, 13% and 24% in turkey isolates, respectively. For E. faecalis, gentamicin resistance rates were 0% in beef cattle, 24% in dairy cattle, 37% in swine, 32% in chicken, and 29% in turkey isolates, whereas 12%, 9%, 21%, 64% and none of isolates from beef, dairy, swine, chicken, and turkey farms, respectively, were resistant to ciprofloxacin. Quinupristin/dalfopristin resistance in E. faecium was more common on chicken and turkey farms using virginiamycin (P<0.0001 for both) compared with farms not using a streptogramin, gentamicin resistance was more common on dairy farms using gentamicin (P<0.0001) compared with farms not using this antibiotic, and ciprofloxacin resistance was more common on turkey and dairy farms using enrofloxacin compared with those with no enrofloxacin use (P=0.02 and P=0.04, respectively). For E. faecalis, gentamicin resistance was more frequently detected on dairy and swine farms using gentamicin (P<0.0001 and P=0.0052, respectively) and ciprofloxacin resistance was more common on beef farms using enrofloxacin (P<0.0001) compared with farms not using these antimicrobials. PFGE showed multiple strain types with some clones common between animals of the same animal species. This study shows the presence of a significant reservoir of antibiotic-resistant enterococci among farm animals. Resistance was more common on farms using antimicrobial agents.

The aim in this paper is to investigate economies of scale and scope among Norwegian dairy and crop producing farms, controlling for regional differences. Unlike previous studies in which a common technology was assumed, we estimate economies of scale and scope to account for different technologies for specialized and mixed (diversified) farms. Our analysis is based on translog cost functions using farm-level data for the period 1991-2014. The results suggest that both economies of scale and scope persist in Norwegian dairy and crop producing farms. We also find that dairy farms have an economic incentive to integrate dairy farming with crop production in all regions of Norway.