Vergleich erwünscht – Benchmarking mit Tiergesundheitsindikatoren auf ökologischen Milchviehbetrieben

Summary

Recent findings emphasise the need to improve the animal health status on organic dairy farms in Germany. To assess what are appropriate improvement measures in the farm specific situation and to define health targets, the farmer needs orientation. In this study a competitive benchmarking in relation to production diseases was performed for 60 organic dairy farms. Instead of herd averages, percentages of diseased animals in the herd were used to determine sets of indicators for the four disease complexes udder, metabolism, reproduction, and claws/limbs based on milk recording data. The benchmarking showed that none of the farms performed well (or poorly) in all health areas. Instead, it was shown that each farm possessed its own strengths and weaknesses. The great variance between farms supports a farm-individual approach for improving animal health.