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Abstract

Farmers play a key role in mastitis management, particularly in deciding whether and when to contact a veterinarian or initiate treatment. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate how herd udder health status (measured as average herd SCC), relates to farmers' health-seeking behavior, and how this behavior is influenced by farmers' herd-level udder health perception, perceived control, motivational values, and production system (organic vs. conventional). A survey was distributed to 697 Swedish dairy farmers using automatic milking systems, with 244 complete responses and 164 included in the final analysis. Farmers were presented with 3 mastitis scenarios and categorized into 4 groups based on their treatment intentions. With the self-regulation model of illness as a theoretical framework, we applied a serial multiple mediator model to explore the relationships between objective herd health, psychological constructs, and treatment behavior. Results showed that average herd SCC was not directly associated with farmers' treatment decisions. Instead, herd-level udder health perception, perceived control, and both economic and noneconomic motivation significantly influenced health-seeking behavior. Among organic farmers, perceived control and economic values had a direct effect, although no significant pathway was found among conventional farmers. These findings highlight the importance of addressing farmers' subjective perceptions and motivations in advisory strategies to improve mastitis management and animal welfare outcomes.

Keywords

udder health; health-seeking behavior; dairy cattle; organic farming

Published in

Journal of Dairy Science
2025, volume: 108, number: 12, pages: 13854-13871
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2025-27187

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/145282