Offering Financial Consultation as Part of a Production Medicine Practice

Abstract

Bovine practitioners anxious to provide more profitable services for their clients have adopted production medicine techniques into their practice. These veterinarians recognize that, although traditional reproductive herd health and sick cow programs are necessary services for the dairy industry, these services stop short of being an investment in improved herd health. By consulting in replacement rearing, ration balancing, udder health, ventilation and barn design, and records analysis, production medicine veterinarians can impact cow health and production. Improved health and production will reward the producer with increased profits.

Many producers, accustomed to sharing their records with their veterinarian, seek input on their financial records as well. By incorporating analysis of financial records, production medicine programs become more focused, and prioritized. This paper will outline how I incorporate financial data into my consulting program, and how this information affects our production medicine services.