By Lilian Schaer
A new cost calculator model is now available to help the livestock
industry put a price tag on disease outbreaks. The program, built in an
Excel spreadsheet, will calculate the financial impact of moderate or
severe outbreaks of specific diseases on beef, veal, sheep, goat and
rabbit farms. This includes Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) in cattle,
mycoplasmosis in veal, Q fever in sheep, Caprine-Arthritis-Encephalitis
(CAE) in goats and pasteurellosis in rabbits.
Producers must input a series of data in the spreadsheet, such as feed
costs, average daily gain, mortality rates and others depending on the
particular commodity, in order for the model to generate results.
For example, an outbreak of BVD in a beef herd can cost an operation
$65,000 - $268,000 depending on the severity of the disease, as the
model showed using a base herd case built on data gathered from real
Ontario producers. A similar example of an outbreak of CAE on a dairy
goat operation resulted in costs between $4,000 and $209,000 due to
increased culling rates and decreases in daily gain, milk production and
conception rates.
The goal behind the disease model, says Richard Horne of the Ontario
Cattlemen’s Association, is to get farmers thinking about what impact a
disease outbreak will have on the profitability of their operations.
Horne is part of a steering committee overseeing the project that also
includes representatives from the veal, goat, sheep, rabbit and farm
service provider sectors, as well as government representatives.
“In the short term, we’d like to draw attention to the importance of
disease prevention methods on-farm and get producers starting to think
about best management practices,” says Horne. “This calculator is a good
way to get producers to do some reflection on their own operations to
reduce disease risks on their farms. And because you need your own farm
data in order to run the model, it underlines the need to keep good
records. ”
Many livestock farmers already use break-even calculators to see where
their costs are, adds Horne, explaining that although the model has been
built to address specific diseases, it will still generate a general
picture of the impact on a farm’s bottom line if, for example, gain were
to be reduced by a certain percentage.
“In the long term, food safety and disease prevention through
biosecurity are tied to traceability. This issue will become of
increasing importance as governments work to ensure the highest
standards of food safety and quality are met, no one wants a disease
outbreak or a recall scare,” says Horne. “This is also vitally important
for our export markets. It is an issue that transcends societal
segments. It’s an issue for government, consumers, markets and
producers.”
He encourages farmers to view the disease model as another tool to be
used in managing risk. If reducing the impact of disease on farm is part
of an operation’s greater risk mitigation strategy, this tool is a good
way to visualize what could happen in a disease outbreak scenario.
“This is a management and decision-supporting tool and if it encourages
record keeping and increasing awareness of biosecurity, then it has done
its job,” he says.
The disease calculator model will be available for download from
www.agbiosecurity.ca.
For more information, please contact the Ontario Livestock Alliance at
info@livestockalliance.ca or (519) 824-2942.
This project is part of a new, multi-phase project partnership between
Ontario Veal, Ontario Goat, Ontario Rabbit, Ontario Sheep, and Ontario
Cattlemen’s Association to identify, quantify and address biosecurity
gaps and build the livestock industry’s emergency preparedness
capabilities.
This project was funded in part through Growing Forward, a
federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation
Council assists in the delivery of several Growing Forward programs in
Ontario.
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