A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food and Farming - Case Study from Katrine Lawaetz

Katrine Lawaetz, a livestock veterinarian specialising in dairy herd health from Southern Denmark, is passionate about helping farmers to produce the best possible product while maintaining high standards of animal welfare and sustainability. She graduated from University of Copenhagen in 2009 and became DVA certified in herd health management, disease and reproduction in 2015.

Last year, Katrine completed our online course,”A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food and Farming”, (delivered in partnership with Vet Sustain), during which she completed a project designed to help cement her learnings from the course. This article covers the key aspects of the project, and Katrine’s approach to embedding sustainability into farm veterinary practice. 

How to support a farm animal client transition to more sustainable methods of farming

Farmer and Vet Background

The project farm is a conventional dairy herd with 280 milking cows, located near Grindsted, Southern Denmark. The farm is family owned, run by Peder (the owner), Jesper (daily manager), and 3 students/interns. The cows are milked in two groups, with each group being served by three Lely Astronaut robotic milking machines. 

The herd is a part of the “Better Animal Welfare” assessment scheme¹ under the Danish Government and currently holds one heart out of a possible three.  More information on this can be found here. The herd is also an ARLA farm, and in 2023 scored 60 (out of a possible 85) in their FarmAhead™ Incentive scheme². 

In collaboration with the farmer, Katrine has already developed a comprehensive herd health management plan. Every other week she is on the farm, examining all fresh cows (5-19 days post-partum) before they go back into the milking groups. Cows are assessed for:

• Body Condition Score (BCS)

• Lameness

• Hoof and hock quality

• Ketosis by urine sample

• Manure quality

• Uterine discharge

• Vaginal trauma. 

Cows are also assessed at dry off for BCS, with a reproduction check conducted on any cows which show no signs of heat in the desired breeding period. 

Veterinarian Aims of the Project

The aim of the project was to integrate sustainability goals into the existing herd health management plan, focussing on animal welfare. Katrine already works with the farmer to conduct a welfare report twice per year, which addresses:

1. Welfare scoring 25 randomly selected cows for BCS, lameness, pressure wounds, behaviour, hygiene etc

2. Mortality rates

3. Antibiotic usage

4. Slaughter findings

5. Treatments

6. Housing dimensions

Farmer Aims of the Project

Peder is very aware of the strategic challenges in the current “climate” of politics and farming in Denmark. He and his staff have spent a lot of time and energy in the past speaking up for conventional herds in the debate around animal welfare. However, he is still “a conventional farmer”, with no intention of changing his approach to dairy production (for examVeterinarianple, organic certification). Neither is he considering a grazing strategy for his animals, or a less intensive use of the land used for crops. 

Any new approaches on farm must also consider changes in Danish legislation due to come into force in 2024, relating to:

• Calving pens - separate pens for sick animals (only used for sick animals) 

• Barn size

• Width of beds and aisles in the barn (coming into effect from 2034).  

Peder needs to take these factors into account when planning his production for the next 5-10 years.  

Sustainability Plan

The first combined welfare/sustainability meeting on the farm took place on December 21st, 2023. Alongside the farmer (Peder) and manager (Jesper), Katrine evaluated cattle against criteria in the 6 month welfare report. Animals were grouped by age; calves (under 8 weeks of age), youngstock (from 8 weeks to 6 months), heifers and cows. The team also worked through farm data from the ARLA sustainability model. By conducting this meeting, the team found the farm already had measures in place to address: 

• Regenerative farming – continuous crop cover 

• Land sparing – 10% of the production area is taken out (80.000m2) 

• Manure - will be sold to Biogas (Filskov Biogas Facility), deep straw bedding to Korskroen Biogas 

• Renewable energy - the farmer has signed a 5-year contract with an energy company to deliver renewable energy only. 

• Soy – all soy is supplied from non-deforestation (documentation in the ARLA program) 

• Social responsibility

  • The farm supports young people in difficult situations, or Danish workers without education

  • The farm hosts “open farm events” where the farm is open to the public

  • The farm opens to kindergarten and school groups - in collaboration with Katrine. 

• Training and Staff Education – the farmer and all staff attend training courses at least twice a year

The challenges highlighted for the farm and the interventions needed for the coming years are summarised in the table below. The approach to achieving these goals was tailored according to the needs of the entire herd, as well as the varying needs of different animal age groups.  

For the herd - the team focussed on preventive measures: 

For cows in the herd, the biggest focus area was surrounding feed hygiene; lumps of fungi were previously found in a small portion of the maize silage. This occurred at the same time as a toxin binding product ran out of stock. The herd luckily did not see any direct intoxications, however the Somatic Cell Count (SCC) in the bulk tank had been fluctuating and some cows experienced diarrhoea. 

When assessing the sustainability of heifers in the herd, the farmer Peder was due to make a strategic decision to either reduce the number of heifers needed on the farm (to create a better feed efficiency), or to sell the heifers for export earlier on (age 12 months). There is a good business case in either decision, as reducing overall heifer numbers reduces the need for feed and manure. 

In the calves, the farm is fortunate to have had no problems with parasites (neither crypto nor coccidiosis), and calves are vaccinated for pneumonia with great effect. The main concerns are feeding hygiene (when students are feeding calves) and improving growth rates to achieve an age at first calving at 22 months. Katrine would like the farm to achieve calf weight gains of 1000 g per calf per day. 

Change Management

These planned changes will have an impact on the current ways in which the farm operates. As such, there will need to be support for the farm team so that everyone is on board and the transition is a successful one. It is important to consider human behaviour when designing interventions or having conversations centred around change. Katrine prefers to follow the ADKAR behaviour change model, which is a framework which concludes that organisations can only successfully change when their individuals also successfully change. 

The ADKAR acronym stands for:

Awareness – awareness of the scale and extent of an issue? Are they aware of the situation and what could be done? 

Desire – does your client want to listen and participate in solving a problem? Do they want to participate in the herd or flock health planning process? If not, why not?

Knowledge – what knowledge is needed to make a change, and does your client have the knowledge they need? Do they feel they have the right level of knowledge? 

Ability – can your client implement the change and do they feel they can?

Reinforcement – what might stand in their way of making the change, and how could it be made easier, quicker, more efficient or economical to sustain the change? 

When starting a new intervention plan, Katrine plans several layers of decisions:

• 1-2 goals/decisions made for the long-term strategic plans

• 3-4 goals/decisions with a shorter timespan (6-12 months) 

• Maximum of 3 ‘quick wins’ - changes which can be implemented easily

On this farm, both Peder and Jesper have a high desire to incorporate changes in their farming practice in some areas, and less drive in others. When it comes to animal welfare and sustainability, everybody is encouraged to contribute their opinions, which creates the desired awareness in all staff on the farm. The desire to change comes from both management level (top-down) and from the staff (bottom-up). Katrine has contributed to the farm’s monthly meetings with knowledge, and as the herd veterinarian, she seeks to ensure all decisions are evidence-based (health statistics/economics have been considered before saying “go”). 

She works with the farm team to identify knowledge gaps, and understands that diversity is a strength on a farm, since the staff come from all layers of Danish society. She identifies people’s abilities and suggests tasks according to the individual's strengths - some people are great with cows, some with machines.  

Veterinary Role in Achieving Sustainability Goals on Farm

In Denmark an independent veterinarian is the farmer’s key consultant, and Katrine contacts her farm clients at least every two weeks. She works mainly with preventive measures, such as Herd Health Management plans, but also helps with farmers' more strategic decisions. By involving the whole farm team in a welfare and sustainability plan, Katrine has created engagement from the “bottom-up”, and has buy-in from the whole farm team. 

Sustainability can be a complex and loaded term within the farming community, and Katrine creates constructive dialogue on sustainability with her farmers by talking about her own experiences in practice. Her practice has been on a sustainability journey since 2021 and has made lots of improvements in business infrastructure, staff wellbeing and community engagement. 

The Course

This case study forms part of the assessment criteria on the VetSalus and Vet Sustain course “A Veterinary Approach to Sustainable Food and Farming”. This course empowers veterinary professionals working with farm animals to unlock their unique toolbox of skills and knowledge to help producers attain multiple sustainability objectives – for the benefit of the animals under our care, rural communities, wildlife and the wider environment. This is a self-paced, 10 module, online learning course, equivalent to 35 hours of CPD.

Our November 2024 cohort is open for registration and places are filling up fast. To find out more and secure your place, please go to our dedicated learning platform - https://learn.vetsalus.com