| 2016-08-15 |    |
Successful Launch of Flock Health Club Model
More than 125 veterinary practitioners have attended events across the country over the summer to discuss how to launch Flock Health Clubs for their sheep farmer clients.
An overwhelming level of interest has resulted in further training being provided over the coming weeks to widen the tools available to sheep-interested vets.
A Flock Health Club is a vet-facilitated sheep farmer business discussion group that allows farmers with smaller numbers of sheep to share the cost of veterinary advice while maintaining regular, good quality contact with sheep-interested vets within a practice.
Fiona
Lovatt, Flock Health Ltd Director, established the concept
and delivered the training events, in collaboration with Sheep
Veterinary Society and National
Sheep Association. She says:
“I
have been so encouraged to see the enthusiasm of so many keen sheep
vets at these events. Feedback has been really positive with delegates
most enjoying brainstorming sessions to share ideas. There are
plenty of sheep farmers who would love to have a close relationship
with their vet – they just need to know that their vet is interested
in their sheep and prepared to provide robust, cost effective and
independent advice.”
Vets were encouraged to go back to the practice, gather together a team of similarly enthusiastic personnel, to include both veterinary and support staff, and invite farmers to an introductory meeting to launch the concept of a Flock Health Club. Appropriate resources for this introductory meeting have been made available – and a further round of meetings is planned to help vets utilise benchmarking tools within their clubs.
Dr Lovatt explains:
“Benchmarking flock performance between farms
within the group is a key aspect of Flock Health Clubs and one
of the tools available to veterinary practitioners is AHDB’s Stocktake
Lite, an online beef and lamb costings and physical performance
comparison tool. Further in-depth training sessions in the use
of Stocktake Lite within a Flock Health Club are now available.”
