The economic margins of activities of a bovine practitioner on dairy farms

The economic margins of activities of a bovine practitioner on dairy farms Because of lower margins and market liberalisation veterinarians and farmers are increasingly negotiating rates. Therefore, the margins of veterinarians are under pressure. In addition, the sales if drugs, performance of operations or giving of advice arc more and more separated. These developments give veterinarians uncertainty about the profitability of their activities for dairy fanners. Not much is known about margins on veterinary activities on dairy farms. Moreover; it is interesting to see how much margins of the bovine practitioner differ between veterinary practises and dairy farms. In this study, invoices for bovine activities of 14 veterinary practises were combined with milk production registration data of the dairy farms of these practices. This way, the gross margin per bovine practitioner could be studied for the different veterinary practise. Moreover; the relation between gross margin and specification of the veterinary practise could be studied. Finally, the gross margin per dairy farm and the factors that influenced this gross margin were studied. The most important result was the observation that the gross margin per bovine practitioner was dependent on the number of dairy farms per practitioner, the margin on drugs and the region of the veterinary practise. The size of the veterinary practise, the share of the dairy farming within the practise and the source of the gross margin (drugs, time or operations) did not influence the gross margin. Variables that explained the gross margin per dairy farm were, amongst others, the number of dairy cows, the milk production level of the farms and participation in PIR-DAP system to support the veterinarians herd health and management program). There is no relation of gross margin per dairy farm and the veterinary practise or region.