Abstract
Both male and female calves that are not required in the dairy herd sometimes receive inadequate care on dairy farms. Veterinarians work with farmers to improve animal care, and farmers often view veterinarians as trusted advisors; however, little is known about the attitudes of veterinarians on surplus calves. This study investigated the perspectives of Canadian cattle veterinarians on the care and management of surplus calves, as well as how they view their role in improving care. We conducted 10 focus groups with a total of 45 veterinarians from 8 provinces across Canada. Recorded audio files were transcribed, anonymized, and coded using thematic analysis. We found that veterinarians approached surplus calf management issues from a wide lens, with 2 major themes emerging: (1) problematic aspects of surplus calf management, including colostrum management, transportation, and euthanasia, and suggested management and structural solutions, including ways to improve the economic value of these calves, and (2) the veterinarian's role in advising dairy farmers on the care of surplus calves, including on technical issues, and more broadly working with farmers to better address public concerns. We conclude that veterinarians are concerned about the care of surplus calves on dairy farms and believe that they have an important role in developing solutions together with their farmer clientele.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 6870-6879 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of Dairy Science |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Jillian Hendricks completed this work as part of her undergraduate honors thesis completed in Applied Animal Biology (APBI 499) in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at The University of British Columbia (UBC). We express our gratitude to Katelyn Mills (UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada) for her help in organizing the focus groups and training JH in thematic analysis, and to Sarah Bolton (Dairy Australia) and Louise Sundermann (Dairy Australia) for comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We also thank Amalia Urloiu (Applied Animal Biology, UBC) for help with data analysis and codebook validation. This research was made possible, in part, by a donation from Vetoquinol Canada (Lavaltrie, Quebec, Canada). General funding for The University of British Columbia Animal Welfare Program is provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Industrial Research Chair, with contributions from Dairy Farmers of Canada (Ottawa, ON, Canada), Alberta Milk (Edmonton, AB, Canada), Saputo (Montreal, QC, Canada), British Columbia Dairy Association (Burnaby, BC, Canada), Merck (Kirkland, QC, Canada), British Columbia Cattle Industry Development Fund (Kamloops, BC, Canada), Boehringer Ingelheim (Burlington, ON, Canada), Semex Alliance (Guelph, ON, Canada), Lactanet (Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, Canada), Dairy Farmers of Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB, Canada), and SaskMilk (Regina, SK, Canada). The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.
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