Dairy Production Software for Disease Burden Analysis | DairyCommand™

Disease Cost Analysis in Dairy Production

Our dairy production software uses proven disease burden modeling to show the real economic impact of herd health issues. For example, University of Guelph research shows that mastitis costs Canadian producers about $662 CAD per clinical case each year (Aghamohammadi et al. 2018). In addition, Journal of Dairy Science studies report that subclinical mastitis can quietly cut milk yield by about 0.5 to 1.5 liters per cow each day (Seegers et al. 2003, Heikkilä et al. 2018). Likewise, Cornell University and U.S. studies confirm that lameness costs range from $120 to $216 per case on average (Cha et al. 2010, Liang et al. 2017, University of Wisconsin Extension 2020).

Our system takes lifetime lactation records and links them with health data to reveal disease-specific losses. For instance, metritis cases cost between $358 and $513 per cow through reduced yield, fertility, and culling risk (Overton & Fetrow 2008, Pérez-Báez et al. 2021). In the same way, studies show that ketosis costs between $256 and $375 per case, with an average of about $289 (McArt et al. 2015). By bringing together production history and health events, our software uncovers annual hidden losses of $2,000 to $20,000 per herd. As a result, farmers gain the evidence they need to build prevention protocols that deliver measurable returns.

Target Reviews

Lameness Impact

Track 5-year clinical mastitis trends and annual dairy production loss patterns.

Quantify the annual acute and severe/reoccurring impact of lameness on dairy production loss per cow.

Compare your herd’s prevalence rates against progressive farming targets.

Identify improving or worsening infection trends with actionable recommendations for udder health protocols.

Pinpoint which specific foot diseases, digital dermatitis, foot rot, white line disease, thin soles, and sole ulcers, have the highest impact on your dairy farming operation.

Ketosis Impact

Evaluate 5-year ketosis trends and energy-related dairy production losses.

Quantify the annual acute and chronic impact of ketosis on dairy production loss per milk cow.

Benchmark your transition cow performance against progressive farm prevalence rates.

Identify improving or worsening metabolic trends with actionable recommendations.

Clinical Mastitis

Track 5-year clinical mastitis trends and annual milk loss patterns.

Quantify the annual acute and chronic impact of clinical mastitis on dairy production loss per cow.

Compare your herd’s clinical mastitis prevalence rates against progressive farming targets.

Identify improving or worsening infection trends with actionable recommendations for udder health protocols.

Subclinical Mastitis

Analyze 5-year subclinical mastitis prevalence and cumulative milk losses.

Quantify the annual acute and chronic impact of subclinical mastitis on dairy production loss per cow.

Benchmark your somatic cell trends against top-performing dairy operations.

Receive targeted actions when prevalence exceeds progressive farming standards.

Metritis

Assess 5-year metritis prevalence patterns and reproductive health impacts on milk yield.

Quantify the annual acute and chronic impact of metritis on dairy production loss per cow.

Compare infection rates to progressive dairy benchmarks.

Receive actionable insights on the protocols when trends indicate declining uterine health management.

Abortion

Monitor 5-year abortion trends and their impact on annual milk production losses.

Compare your pregnancy loss rates against progressive farming prevalence targets.

Identify worsening reproductive trends with actionable breeding and
nutrition management recommendations.

Retained Placenta

Track 5-year retained placenta trends and early dairy production losses.

Quantify the annual acute and chronic impact of retained placenta on dairy production loss per cow.

Benchmark your calving performance against top-tier dairy farming operations.

Get targeted dry cow management recommendations when prevalence exceeds progressive targets.

  • Track hidden milk production losses from each health event
  • Identify which diseases cost your farm the most money
  • Compare your disease rates against top 25% of regional farms
  • Prioritize which health issues to tackle first
  • Prove prevention program value with concrete cost savings
  • Show veterinarians exactly which protocols deliver best ROI

Advanced Dairy Production Software for Disease Burden Analysis

Transform your dairy farm operations with comprehensive disease burden modeling that optimizes cow management and maximizes production efficiency. Our advanced dairy management software provides farmers and veterinarians with powerful analytics tools to track herd health costs, monitor milk production trends, and benchmark performance against progressive operations across Canada and the US. Make data-driven decisions with real-time insights into mastitis costs, lameness impact, and metabolic disorders affecting your herd. Whether managing small or large-scale operations, our dairy production software delivers the health intelligence needed to improve milk production and farm profitability.


Dairy Production Software for Disease Burden Report

Dairy Production Software for Disease Burden: Download Complete Disease Cost Report

Get a comprehensive PDF report featuring your farm’s disease report cards, 5-year trend analysis, and benchmarking against progressive farming targets.

Each downloadable report includes individual disease assessments with clear traffic-light indicators showing whether your prevalence rates are improving, stable, or require immediate attention.

Compare your mastitis, lameness, ketosis, metritis, retained placenta, and abortion trends against top-performing dairy operations. Get specific action plans tailored to your herd’s performance gaps. Share these professional reports with your veterinarian, nutritionist, or farm advisors to drive data-informed health management decisions.

Dairy Production Software for Disease Burden: Real-Time Disease Cost Monitoring for Dairy Operations

Monitor dairy farm disease burden and costs in real-time with comprehensive tracking beyond basic production data. Our advanced dairy management system provides continuous cost monitoring for mastitis, lameness, ketosis, and reproductive disorders, giving farmers and veterinarians immediate insights into herd health economics.

Benefits for Dairy Farmers: Transform cow management with instant visibility into disease costs per cow. Track production losses and prevention program effectiveness as they happen. Make informed herd health investment decisions based on real-time cost data rather than annual reports.

Benefits for Veterinarians: Provide data-driven recommendations with concrete cost evidence from client operations. Support dairy herd management decisions with real-time disease burden analysis showing the financial impact of treatment protocols. Help farmers justify prevention investments by demonstrating immediate cost savings from improved cow health.

Dairy Production Software for Disease Burden: Regional Cost Benchmarking

Compare your disease costs against regional and national averages.

Sample Disease Burden Report Extract: Get comprehensive benchmarking analysis in downloadable PDF reports comparing your dairy operation against regional standards and progressive dairy farming targets. Each disease assessment includes prevalence trends, milk loss estimates, and recommendations tailored to your herd’s performance gaps.

The report features five-year trend analysis for major diseases affecting farm profitability, showing exactly where your operation stands compared to top-performing regional farms with clear improvement indicators. Your veterinarian and farm advisors can use these professional reports to justify prevention program investments and track protocol effectiveness.

Detailed benchmarking provides concrete evidence for management decisions, showing potential milk loss savings when disease rates reach progressive farming standards.

Download your complete disease burden analysis with regional comparisons, trend data, and actionable recommendations formatted for easy sharing with your dairy management team.

REDUCE DISEASE COSTS & IMPROVE PROFITABILITY

Transform Your Disease Management from Cost Center to Profit Driver

Most dairy farmers only see the vet bills and medication costs on their books. The biggest losses – the milk you never produced because of disease – stay invisible. Until now.

What You’ll Discover:

  • Exact milk loss per disease, per year and per cow across your herd
  • Which health conditions are your biggest profit drains
  • Where early detection and prevention can deliver measurable ROI
  • 5-year trends showing if your protocols are working
  • Validate that your disease prevention investments are reducing milk losses
Show Me My Missing Milk

Frequently Asked Questions

We know adopting new technology for herd health and profitability decisions raises a lot of questions. That’s why we’ve gathered answers to the most common ones about our disease burden analysis and how it integrates with the rest of our tools. From understanding how the analysis works to how it fits into culling and breeding strategies, these FAQs will help you see how science-backed insights can transform your dairy operation.

Disease burden in dairy cows refers to the cumulative impact of all health diseases on milk production, and overall farm profitability. Instead of only focusing on immediate disease-related milk losses, our model integrates historical data such as health event records and milk production, to estimate direct and indirect disease-related milk losses. By analyzing multiple years of production data and disease occurrence, the modeling reveals disease-related milk loss at cow and herd level that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Milk loss from disease can vary significantly depending on herd health management and disease prevalence. Common diseases such as mastitis, lameness, metritis, and metabolic issues each contribute to milk losses. Disease burden estimates suggest herds may lose thousands of litres of milk per year due to both clinical and subclinical diseases. With our Disease Burden Analysis tool, farms in pilot studies have seen high estimates of losses from mastitis alone. By modeling all diseases together over 5 years, you can see both direct and indirect losses, enabling you to take proactive steps to recapture that lost milk.

Disease burden analysis is a powerful tool for understanding the overall impact of health issues on your herd and guiding high-level management decisions. However, it does not provide direct rankings of individual cows. To do that, we’ve developed an advanced tool called the Cow Performance Ranking System that uses a composite health index built from each cow’s lifetime profile. By combining health events, reproductive performance, genetics, and historical production data, this model ranks cows based on their long-term profitability potential. This gives you a more comprehensive, science-backed basis for breeding and culling decisions than disease burden analysis alone.

Traditional disease metrics such as Somatic Cell Count (SCC) and clinical disease diagnosis are valuable tools, but they capture only part of the picture. SCC reflects current udder health status, while clinical diagnosis records disease events and guides treatment decisions. However, neither quantifies the full production losses or long-term impacts associated with these conditions.

Disease burden modeling takes a comprehensive approach by evaluating multiple diseases, both clinical and subclinical, over time. It estimates hidden milk losses, reveals cumulative disease impacts, and identifies priority areas requiring immediate attention. This enables you to revise existing protocols and introduce targeted preventative measures for early disease detection and intervention, ultimately reducing disease impact on production and improving long-term profitability.

To generate accurate disease burden estimates, the following types of data are essential:

  • Milk cow lifetime health event records (mastitis, lameness, metabolic issues, etc.), ideally covering multiple (last 5) years
  • Milk yields / dairy production data per lactation per milk cow
  • Reproductive data: calving dates, breeding, pregnancy losses, etc.
  • Genetic/lineage data if available (pedigree or known genetic markers)
  • Cow lifetime profile: how old, lactation number, etc.

The more comprehensive and accurate your historical records are, the more precise the model’s estimates will be. However, even with partial data, we can still deliver useful estimates and insights.

Integration & Compatibility

Data Source: DC305/DairyComp305 (fully automated)
Historical Analysis: Analyzes 5 years retrospective
Update Frequency: Refreshes monthly
Delivery: Available as PDF reports & CSV lists

Related Features

[Cow Performance Ranking Tool →] Know Exactly Which Cows to Keep, Breed, or Cull, Every Month
[Herd Optimization Tool →] Know what your herd could have achieved with algorithm-optimized breeding and culling decisions
[Features Overview →] Explore our features

From Our Family to Yours

Every culling decision affects not just this year’s profit, but the strength of the herd you pass to the next generation. Lifetime cow rankings give you what farmers have never had before: a complete view of every cow’s true value, updated monthly, with clear guidance on exactly which cows to breed, keep, or exit.

Reduce Disease Cost. Start making data-driven decisions today.