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The overall objective of this long-term project is to assess dairy cattle health and well-being on farms that use organic management systems and develop and disseminate recommendations for cost-effective, preventive health management programs for dairy cattle on organic farms. <P>Specific aims are: <OL> <LI> Identify and address unique methods used by organic dairy farmers to define, detect, monitor the severity, treat, and judge the efficacy of disease treatment interventions. <LI> Compare disease prevalence, severity, economic consequences, and management-related risk factors among organic dairy farms with the aim of identifying management factors that influence animal well-being and farm profitability.<LI> Use indicators of herd health & milk quality identified in participating organic and conventional dairy farms to create benchmarks that can be used to help farmers recognize and diagnose problems and optimize animal well-being and farm profitability. <LI> Provide participating farmers with diagnostic animal health and milk quality data on their farms, coupled with comparisons to benchmarking data for other conventional and organic herds participating in the study. <LI> Use our data and analytical results to develop & disseminate information and extension recommendations for preventive health management of organic dairy cattle, consistent with maximizing milk quality and net farm income.
Non-Technical Summary: The number of certified organic dairy herds in the U.S. has been rapidly increasing to supply the needs of consumers seeking to purchase organic dairy products. The U.S. National Organic Standards contain stringent provisions regarding management of animal health and organic dairy farmers utilize a variety of management strategies to maintain animal health and produce high quality dairy products. The overall objectives of this 48 month integrated project are to 1) assess cow health and well-being on farms that use organic management systems and 2) to evaluate, develop, and disseminate recommendations for cost-effective, preventative, health mangement programs. Farm visits will be conducted on 200 organic & 100 conventional dairy farms located in WI, NY and OR. A variety of data collection methods (structured questionnaire, animal observation, collection of biological samples and review of herd records) will be used to acquire animal health and management data for a 120 day period in each dairy (60 days before and 60 days after each farm visit). Management factors that influence animal well-being and farm profitability will be be identified by comparison of risk factors and disease prevalence among participating organic herds and between organic and conventional herds. This data will then be used to develop cost-effective, preventative, health management programs. Indicators of herd health and milk quality will be identified and used to create herd performance benchmarks that will be provided to participating farms. The economic, social and management impacts of this project will be evaluated in the final year of the project. <P> Approach: This study is designed as a prospective cross-sectional study using stratified random sampling to enroll a representative sample of dairy herds. A total of 200 organic and 100 conventional dairy farms located in New York, Oregon and Wisconsin will be enrolled in the study. Trained study personnel in each state will collect retrospective and demographic data during a single scheduled farm visit that will occur within an 18 month data collection window. Prospective data will be collected and submitted by farmers using specified data collection forms for the 60 days following the farm visit. Data on the incidence, severity and economic consequences of selected diseases will be collected. Extensive data will be collected for mastitis. To identify pathogens responsible for clinical mastitis, the farmer will be instructed to submit single quarter milk samples from all cases of clinical mastitis that occur in the 60 day post-visit surveillance period. Additional disease data will be collected for each of the following diseases that occur in adult cows: Respiratory disease, metabolic disease, foot disorders and reproductive disorders. Data (symptoms, clinical diagnosis, usage of veterinarian, methods & cost of treatment, duration of treatment, mortality and culling within 60 days of diagnosis) will be collected on selected diseases that occur in calves: pneumonia, diarrhea, other non-specified disorders. Indicators of overall herd health will be collected by retrieval of farm records and selected observations during the farm visit. Food safety risks will be evaluated by using the the bulk tank milk sample to screen herds for Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella DT104 and Shiga toxin producing E.coli. In year 4, data will be collected from the herds using a mail survey to assess the impact of the extension materials developed and disseminated as a result of data collected in this study. The collected data will be analyzed to establish distributions and measures of variation for herd performance. A number of key performance indicators (KPI) will be determined so that farms can understand how their farm performance compared to their peer farms. A report will be generated that will include a visual display that includes comparative indices for each key performance indicator. As part of the extension component of the project, in the third & fourth years of the project, farmers will be given an opportunity to send in updated information for selected KPI and receive an updated annual benchmarking report. Evaluation of impacts will occur in the 4th year of the project. All participating farms will be surveyed to determine changes made as a result of this project. Farm representatives will be asked to estimate the economic, social, and environmental value of these changes using a scale of -5 to +5 for each category.