Investigations on functional traits in Simmental: 1. Treatment costs for ten different diseases

All health-related events and treatment costs (by veterinarian and non-veterinarian) were recorded through fortnightly interviews with the herdsmen of 104 Simmental dairy farms in Upper Bavaria from autumn 1987 to spring 1990. The data include 8381 calvings and the subsequent time period. For ten different disease-classes the sum of all treatment costs from calving up to either the subsequent calving or up to culling were computed. A multiplicative model with three covariates was fitted to these observations. The covariates are farm, parity and type of end of lactation (culling or subsequent calving). Farm effects are significant for almost all diseases. The average sum of treatment costs per calving with an associated disease was estimated as the average expected value for this sum, where averaging is over the farms. These costs range from 29 DM (claw disorders) up to 137 DM (dystocia). The average costs per calving (with or without disease) range from 1.59 DM (injuries of the udder) to 10.90 DM (fertility problems). Corresponding costs per cow and year are 1.74 DM and 12.24 DM.