Dairy Research Partnership Phase I

Profitable, consumer friendly dairy farming is underpinned by good health and welfare.

Through our research partnerships, AHDB Dairy is funding research into specific diseases such as lameness, mastitis, and Johne's Disease, as well as improved strategies for vaccination and biosecurity. Some of the expected outputs will feed directly into programmes such as the AHDB Dairy Mastitis Control Plan and AHDB Dairy Healthy Feet Programme.

Increasingly consumers are interested in the welfare status of production systems. We are also setting out to obtain better data on the incidence and prevalence of key health conditions affecting the GB dairy herd. This will create a baseline, which can be used to measure, direct and communicate future improvements in the health status of the national herd.

Research is being undertaken to devise practical and effective ways of measuring welfare outcomes in dairy cattle. AHDB Dairy is also funding research into the effect of social interaction between cows on health and productivity. This includes specific aspects of management and husbandry, including management group size.