Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Survey of Saskatchewan beef cattle producers regarding management practices and veterinary service usage.
- Journal:
- The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne
- Year:
- 2015
- Authors:
- Jelinski, Murray et al.
- Affiliation:
- University of Saskatchewan · Canada
Plain-English summary
A survey was conducted with 2,000 cow-calf producers in Saskatchewan to understand their use of veterinary services and how they get nutritional and health advice for their animals. About 18% of those surveyed responded, and they generally viewed veterinarians as their main source of information. Over the last ten years, many producers have moved from seeking help for individual animals to focusing on the health of the entire herd. Larger producers were more likely to perform pregnancy checks, test their bulls for fertility, and analyze their animal feed. Most producers reported having good access to veterinary services nearby and were satisfied with their providers, although about a quarter were open to having non-veterinarians perform certain procedures like pregnancy checks.
Abstract
Saskatchewan cow-calf producers (n = 2000) were surveyed to determine what factors were associated with their uptake of veterinary services; how and where they access nutritional information and animal health advice; and whether they were comfortable with having non-veterinarians perform veterinary procedures. The survey response rate was 18.1%. Veterinarians were seen as a primary source of nutritional information and animal health advice. Over the past decade producers have shifted their veterinary service usage from individual animal events to herd-level procedures. Producers who pregnancy check were more likely to be large producers (OR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.2 to 3.1; P = 0.007), to semen test their bulls (OR = 3.4; 95% CI = 2.0 to 5.8: P < 0.001), analyze their forages (OR = 2.3; 95% CI = 1.7 to 4.0; P = 0.006), and to farm in the brown versus the gray or dark brown soil zones (P = 0.004). Most (94.0%) respondents had adequate veterinary services within an hour's drive of the farm and 90.4% were satisfied with their veterinary service provider. Approximately 25% of respondents would be comfortable with having a non-veterinarian pregnancy check and attend to prolapses.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25565718/