Efficiency of the Danish System - applied in the veterinary clinic

Abstract

The Danish System is a herd health management system for dairy herds. Veterinarians visit the farmer every week to score cows at risk. Veterinary clinic ‘t Leijdal was one of the first veterinary clinics that started to work with the Danish System. They are very satisfied with the Danish System and wanted to know if the farmers in the Danish System were receiving better results because of the Danish System. In this study five farmers using the Danish System since May 2010 were compared with five control farms working with a regular herd health management program. The differences between May 2009-April 2010 and May 2010-April 2011 within the two different groups were investigated as well as the differences between the two groups. There were no differences between the year before and the first year of working with the Danish System. The only significant difference between the Danish and control group were the veterinary costs. However, the interview with farmers using the Danish System showed they were very satisfied using the Danish System and their veterinarians.