Although income over feed costs is a very important number in evaluating herd profitability, it is not the only measure of profitability that producers, nutritionists, and veterinarians should be evaluating. Health issues have a huge impact on cow performance, which affects current profits and the future value of the cow. Disease influences profitability both directly and indirectly.

A farm-level economic model created by the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky gives us a greater understanding of those costs associated with disease.

Common Dairy Diseases

Mastitis: commonly caused by pathogenic bacteria invading and multiplying within the mammary gland.

Lameness: foot or leg condition caused by various factors.

Retained Placenta: presence of fetal membranes 24 hours or later after calving, or fetal membranes retained for more than 6 hours. Widely considered a predisposing factor for metritis.

Metritis: inflammation of the uterus due to bacterial invasion.

Left-displaced abomasum: the abomasum is filled with gas and becomes trapped by the descending rumen to the left side of the abdominal cavity.

Ketosis: negative energy balance.

Hypocalcemia (Milk Fever): low plasma calcium levels following calving.

Disease Cost

Herd performance and market conditions are extremely influential in determining the cost of disease. These values of course change over time and from farm to farm, however, using the economic model given by University of Kentucky, we gain an idea of the general cost for each dairy disease.

Economic costs considered by the model include:

Veterinary and Treatment

Labor

Discarded Milk

Decreased Milk Production

Culling

Extended Days Open

Death Loss

Keep in mind all these costs were adjusted for the year of 2015.

Practical Application

Knowing the cost of disease on your farm is an important part of evaluating true farm profitability. Keeping accurate records is important in determining if any management changes or improvements need to be made. There are many computer software programs available to make record keeping easier.

Many of these may even help you to figure out how much the cost of disease is on your farm. In my neck of the woods DHI-Plus is a common dairy record keeping program. One helpful feature is a report folder called, What’s it’s Cost. The reports found in this folder are a simulation of the lost production that each individual disease may result in on a particular farm.  If you have DHI Plus and you would like to look at this report, it can be found in the Report List of the Cohort Group Analysis.

Written by: Mariah Gull, M.S.

Source: Estimating US dairy clinical disease costs with a stochastic simulation model – Journal of Dairy Science