The current trend in animal agricultural food production is to look at “process control” rather than “product control.” Process control can be defined as how the food is produced, whereas product control means how the product turns out. Consumers, in general, have great confidence in the quality of agricultural food products, but they are becoming more aware of agricultural production practices. This awareness has led to increased concern over how their food is produced. Dairy producers that have implemented written health protocols will be on the leading edge of assuring consumers their food is being produced in a manner in which they can abide.

Process control concepts can be useful for any management system on a dairy including employee management, waste management, animal health, nutrition programs, reproductive procedures, biosecurity or virtually any other aspect.

A process can be defined as a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of inputs and creates an output that is of value to the user. On a large scale, cows and feed can be considered inputs while filling the mixer wagon and delivering the TMR can be considered activities. The output is milk that brings value to the dairy farm.

The efficiency of a process can be limited by bottlenecks. Bottlenecks are any resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed upon it. Bottlenecks can control the rate of output for the operation. Time lost on a bottleneck is time lost for the entire system. Any nonbottleneck running more efficiently than a bottleneck absorbs the excess capacity that could be redirected to more efficient use. Any time saved at a nonbottleneck is a mirage.

For a process to improve, the first-limiting bottleneck must be reduced or eliminated. But the whole system should be optimized, not just isolated parts. The quality of any process is a function of the amount of variability induced into the system. Understanding the sources of variability and eliminating those sources can reduce the variation in the output and improve profitability.

Establishing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for disease conditions is an attempt to reduce the variability in managing sick cows and improve the treatment successes of your procedures. The advantages of developing SOPs on dairies allow managers to find out what is currently being done. After the discovery process, changes can be made to ensure consistency and reduce variability.

In the end, the dairy will have a written record of what is being done that can be useful for training and retraining purposes. There will be a significant investment of time in developing SOPs, and this is one of the biggest disadvantages. Hands-on experience is the best way to develop SOPs. Additionally, there can be an increased amount of paperwork necessary to make SOPs work.

There are four keys to successful implementation of health protocols:

1. comprehension
2. time
3. cost
4. culture

Farm staff must understand why they need to perform each step of a specific protocol. Staff meetings to explain the health and economic reasons for initiating a protocol are essential.

Protocols must be convenient and feasible to be completed within the daily work schedule. This is where managers need to put themselves into the shoes of the employees to get the proper perspective of their requests. If a procedure is too much trouble for the manager to perform one time, it is most likely too much trouble to expect an employee to perform on a regular basis.

Protocols must be economical for the dairy operation, and ideally they will minimize the amount of work or labor required to complete the tasks.
Finally, the protocols must become part of the culture of the dairy operation. The protocols must become as second nature as milking or feeding cows.  PD

References omitted due to space but are available upon request.

—From 2006 University of Illinois Dairy Days Proceedings

Dick Wallace
Dairy Extension Veterinarian

Q. Do farms struggle with implementing health monitoring protocols? If so, why?

Many farms have struggled with implementing health monitoring protocols. They get enthused for a short time, then the program fades away or other priorities arise.

For them to be valuable to a dairy farm, they have to be performed consistently. To achieve consistency, they have to be implementable (feasible, efficient, effective).

To contact Dick,
e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call him at (217) 333-2907.