Veterinary herd health planning provides a structured approach to identifying and addressing welfare risks across entire herds, moving from reactive fire-fighting to proactive prevention.
Reactive veterinary care waits until cows are sick before intervening, meaning welfare compromise has already occurred. Proactive herd health planning identifies risk factors before they cause disease, implements prevention strategies, and monitors outcomes to track improvement. The shift from treating disease to preventing it requires a different relationship with the farm vet but delivers better welfare outcomes at equivalent or lower cost.