Our goal is to learn about organic dairy herd health management, and understand specific management decisions, including vaccination use or non-use and disease treatment strategies, from a farmer and veterinarian perspective.
The core research questions of this project are:
- What factors do organic farmers consider when deciding whether to vaccinate their animals (or not)?
- What are the primary herd health challenges and most common disease treatment strategies?
- Under what specific conditions are antibiotics considered necessary by farmers for treatment?
- What is the veterinarian’s role on their farm? Where do they obtain information on herd health management?
To answer these core research questions, we are interviewing organic dairy farmers, as well as veterinarians with organic dairy cattle clientele around Ohio.
We will use this information to provide direct feedback to farmers and veterinarians on what others’ perceive as successful herd health management strategies, strengthen the mutually beneficial relationship between farmers and veterinarians, and guide future university research efforts to support the organic dairy farming community.
Check out our presentations and preliminary results!
- 2019 Abstract and Poster
- 2019 CRWAD Abstract
For questions, please contact a member of our research team!
Research Team:
Project Field Coordinators:
- Dr. Jessica Pempek, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine (VPM); pempek.4@osu.edu; 740-312-9311
- Dr. Caroline Brock, OSU College of Food, Ag. & Env. Sciences (CFAES); brock.238@osu.edu; 608-772-1047
Investigators:
- Dr. Greg Habing, Associate Professor, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine (VPM); habing.4@osu.edu
- Dr. Douglas Jackson-Smith, Professor of Rural Sociology (CFAES); jackson-smith.1@osu.edu
- Dr. Luciana Da Costa, Assistant Professor, OSU College of Veterinary Medicine (VPM); da-costa.2@osu.edu