Dairy Producers will soon have the chance to help determine how management practices affect the health of their animals.
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will be conducting a survey of dairy producers throughout January to determine the relationship between dairy management practices and health attributes of milk cows. The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Dairy 2007 project will take a closer look into food safety, environment, and disease prevention, all of which are matters of great importance to today’s dairy producer. This study will benefit all dairy enthusiasts as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) studies the results of the factors that may cause or reduce infectious disease and injury within our animals.
All individual data will be kept strictly confidential as required by law while the aggregated totals are provided to APHIS for analysis in preparing health related recommendations to dairy producers. As other livestock species have been program topics in recent years, it is the dairy industry’s turn to step to the plate and update a similar study conducted just a few years ago.
A national perspective will be derived by sampling approximately 3,554 respondents in the 17 participating states.