Vets ‘need to be data managers to preempt herd health problems’

Vets need to be excellent data managers to work with farmers in preempting herd health problems and optimising farm output, says one specialist Danish vet.

Herd health expert Jens Philipsen said that providing a reactive emergency response service to farmers is no longer sufficient. He was addressing 120 vets from Ireland, UK and Denmark attending a recent conference in Cork to consider a Food Harvest strategy for Irish veterinary.

UCD Veterinary School lecturer Luke O’Grady also picked up on the theme of data management. He reminded delegates that vets will need the systems to gather the relevant data and the software to produce concise reports for each farmer in “three clicks of a mouse”.

Padraig Duggan of XLVets also emphasised the issue of time management by saying that the standard of work currently undertaken by vets cannot be allowed to fall while making way for the provision of new services. “We must build while continuing to move.”

XLVets chairman John Berkery added: “The opportunity in front of the entire agri-food sector is hugely exciting. This conference has succeeded in clarifying the steps the veterinary sector needs to take so that it can maximise its contribution to making the Food Harvest happen.

“The message is that veterinary has to work smarter so that it can offer pro-active herd health consultancy programmes alongside the emergency response services that farmers will continue to need.”

In terms of scoping out how this might be done, Mr Berkery said: “First and foremost we have to make better use of data; then we have to craft tailored solutions from that data according to farmers’ needs and then we have to learn how to deliver those solutions to farmers in an effective manner.”

Mr Berkery acknowledged that “changing the veterinary operational model in this way will be challenging but that XLVets would use it’s collaborative structure to make it happen”.

The key message from the conference was that Irish vets can play a significant role in supporting farmers to grow their businesses after milk quotas expire in 2015. However, to play the role effectively, veterinary will have to change.

Conference chairman, John Berkery of XLVet, said: “Vets have made a huge investment in training and up-skilling themselves. However, we realise that this is not enough. We must convert our skills into a new range of services that will help farmers to grow their businesses in a sustainable fashion.”

Nuffield Ireland chairman Bill O’Keeffe urged vets to move beyond being service providers and to take on a development support role, in particular, for younger farmers and farmers not participating in discussion groups. This would require vets building mentoring relationships with farmers for the purposes of helping them to achieve their longer term farm development goals.

Throughout the event, vets were reminded that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ service approach to farmers was no longer appropriate. Dutch veterinary consultant Roeland Wessels advised vets on the importance of tailoring services to farmers’ needs. Farmers want their vets to do more, notably providing advice on genomics, nutrition and grassland management.

Teagasc’s Pat Dillon, head of animal and grassland research at Moorepark, added Teagasc no longer had the resources to extend tailored on-farm advice to all farmers and that partnering with vets in doing this work provides a way forward for Teagasc to continue to fulfil this part of its mission.