Animal health and welfare plans are already a fundamental part of many assurance schemes, such as QMS and Red Tractor, and organic certification or marketing contracts. However, as part of the Whole Farm Plan, all farmers or crofters who keep any number of cattle, sheep, goats, deer, alpacas, llamas, pigs, or over 350 poultry need to have an animal health and welfare plan completed by 15^th May 2028 at the latest and update this annually. This factsheet will help you find the information you need to complete an animal health and welfare plan and ensure you get the most out of health planning discussions with your farm vet.

How to get the most out of your livestock health plan?

In addition to gaining access to specific markets and subsidy payments, animal health and welfare plans have many benefits for Scottish farmers and crofters. It is widely accepted that healthy livestock are more efficient, profitable, and have lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Recently there has been a shift from annual to more regular reviews at three-to-four-month intervals to coincide with the production cycle. An example could be to concentrate on either fertility, survival, or growth at each meeting, which allows more focussed forward planning and makes the process much less intimidating.

Health planning should be farmer-led but other members of the farm team including farm staff, vets, nutritionists, and other consultants (e.g. farm business or technical specialist) will have valuable input in the process. Not all team members will be required for all components of health planning, but involvement can assist with motivation, job satisfaction, and mental health. Discussing health planning honestly and with an open mind as a team in advance of review meetings ensures you can maximise your vet’s time and get the most out of your livestock health plan.

Livestock health planning is a cycle consisting of four components:

1. Set targets
   • Think about what motivates you as a farmer/crofter and how you would like to achieve that.
   • SMART goals should be set specific for your farm/croft:
     • These should be Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic, Time limited .
     • Can be based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which help you understand how your business performs with other similar enterprises and highlight areas for improvement or demonstrate year-on-year improvement within your business. These can be a mix of technical and financial indicators. E.g. scanning percentages, weaning rates, growth rates (kg/day).

2. Risk plan
   • What will stop us achieving our targets?
   • Establish mitigations (an action plan) for predictable risks.
   • Focus on one production stage (fertility/survival/growth) at a time.
3. Monitor
   • Record the minimum data you need to know if you have hit your targets or not. Data recording can be time consuming.
   • Ask yourself if you need the data, can you record it, and will you use it?
4. Review
   • Targets may be missed and unexpected things can happen.
   • Use this as a learning opportunity to change something.
   • Investigate the problem with your team.

Below is an example of the above for a sheep flock. Note: Not all mitigations will be required as this will depend on the risk assessment conducted with your vet. Up to five action points should be selected. Equally, not all monitoring will be required either. This will depend on whether you will use it or not. In the example optional data is shown in brackets.