| dc.description.abstract | Dairy farming has changed enormously in recent years. The consumer demands quality, whereby this quality goes further than just the end product. Consumers are becoming increasingly critical about animal welfare, animal health, public health and food safety. To be able to guarantee this quality and safety, integral quality assurance is increasingly part of the production process. CowCompass® is a Dutch monitoring system that meets the quality assurance requirements of the European Union. Through CowCompass, the risks with regard to animal welfare, animal health and milk quality on the dairy farm are fully analyzed by a certified veterinarian. Since the establishment of CowCompass (2009), a CowCompass has been carried out at 3.000 dairy farms by 400 certified veterinarians. The number of dairy companies, dairy farmers and veterinarians affiliated with CowCompass is increasing. To make participation in CowCompass even more attractive for farmers and to make data from the product even more valuable, the CowCompass Foundation suggested adding an extra dimension: benchmarking. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibilities of benchmarking within CowCompass. The CowCompass Foundation provided a dataset, which consists of the full number of CowCompasses that were carried out in 2017. Based on this dataset, a frequency distribution was made of all critical success factors (CSF) and performance indicators (PI) that are part of the CowCompass analysis. The frequency distribution of the various CSFs and PIs has been converted to a cumulative percentage of all participants, which served as the basis for drawing up the benchmark for farmers. Within the CowCompass system, a score of 5 is seen as the optimum, which is defined as 'low-risk'. Therefore, the aim is to achieve the highest possible score. However, this is not immediately realistic for every farmer. The recommended farmer benchmark is based on feasibility, and provided insight into the most important risks on the dairy farm. Defining this feasibility has taken place in consultation with various parties involved. It has been stated that, if 33% of the farmers achieve this score, the score can be defined as feasible. For each CSF and PI this benchmark has been drawn up. The main risks on the participating farms of CowCompass are, among others, feeding and water quality of dry cows, walking space, lying comfort, and disease prevention. In addition, it was investigated whether veterinarians can be benchmarked based on CowCompass. Only veterinarians who have analyzed at least five different dairy farms are included in the veterinary benchmark, representing 204 veterinarians who carried out the CowCompass at 2.335 farms. From the results it is striking that there is a large spread within the median, the first and third quartiles of the veterinarians. During this thesis, no specific benchmark has been drawn up for veterinarians, as there is currently no insight into the cause of the dispersion of veterinarians. The only correct way of benchmarking the veterinarians is sending several veterinarians to one farm, and have them assess this farm independently of each other. Through this, the uniformity of the veterinarians can be examined. Based on the current data set, it is not possible to benchmark veterinarians. Benchmarking farmers can motivate and stimulate to take Dutch dairy farming to an even higher level. | |
