Danish dairy farmers' perceptions and attitudes related to calf-management in situations of high versus no calf mortality.
Calf mortality has remained at a high (risk approximately 7%) in Denmark, despite much knowledge disseminated to farmers. We conducted a qualitative interview to explore calf managers' perception of their own management and working situation, and how this related to calf mortality problems in their herds. Twenty-eight calf managers from herds with either no (NO) or high (HI; 17-31%) calf mortality in 2004 were included in the study. We used our judgement to create a model of the inter-relationships among the attitudes that seemed most different between the two groups of farmers. 'Flexible time,' (for activities such as management of crisis or unexpected events) was crucial; it allowed the farmer to intervene immediately at first sign of a crisis. Our interpretation suggests that focus on the farmers time planning and structure of everyday activities is, therefore, a key to understanding and solving problems related to calf disease and mortality. An important distinction between the groups was whether the calf manager had a basic belief that calf mortality is a permanent crisis that has to be expected to be present on a dairy farm. Previous experience in solving disease and mortality problems in calves had a strong positive influence on this belief. We suggest that the issues of empowerment and flexible time management be explored further to assist dairy-calf raisers.
Vaarst
Mette
M
University of Aarhus, Institute for Animal Health, Welfare and Nutrition, P.O. Box 50, Tjele DK-8830, Denmark. Mette.Vaarst@agrsci.dk
Sørensen
Jan Tind
JT
D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000254:growth & development; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D003612:Dairying / Q000379:methods*; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors