UK Vet Livestock - How has the pandemic affected what we do and how we feel?

Abstract

As life suddenly changed with the introduction of the first lockdown, it soon became obvious that day-to-day farming was also being impacted. Routine veterinary visits, trips to the usual trade shows, farm discussion meetings and the like all stopped. But how could that information void be filled and, more to the point, how could communication best carry on? The FarmComm study took place in May with supplementary questions asked at the UK-Vet Healthy Herd conference.

In May 2020 in the midst of the first lock-down, the FarmComm Study was undertaken with the aim of understanding how farmers and veterinary surgeons were changing the way they communicated and worked together.

In a time when farm and trade shows were cancelled, marts closed and all farmer and veterinary meetings on-hold, the study revealed that farmers continued to demand information and were prepared to seek it out via new and different channels.

To address this communication void and understand farmers' wants and needs as far as animal health and veterinary consultations go, Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health undertook the FarmComm Study (BIAH, 2020).

Over 350 farmers completed the study:

23% were dairy
25% beef and sheep
Rest split between beef suckler, beef finisher, calf rearers and dairy and beef.

The study revealed that while text and email were regularly used before COVID-19, producers were increasingly happy to use FaceTime, Zoom, Facebook, WhatsApp and online forums. Virtual online meetings have now become the norm for many and some key dairy events are now moving online only for 2021.

The Calfmatters survey takes place every June and, this year, added some questions about how respondents had been affected by COVID-19. Just over a quarter of respondents said their mental health had been affected, and over half said there had been a negative impact on the business.

This question was also asked via a live poll to those attending the UK-Vet Healthy Herd conference.

The social media platforms used by conference participants for obtaining animal health information.

The question about the impact of COVID-19 was first asked in May in the Farm-Comm Study and then again in July as an addition to the Calfmatters survey. It was interesting to ask this again in October as lockdown 2 loomed at a time when we were having to accept that a situation that we initially hoped would pass in a few months, was going to take a year or more to get over.

Around half the respondents to the live poll said that the pandemic had had a negative impact on their mental health. We know that people have been struggling to deal with the duration of the pandemic and the second lockdown will have done nothing to help this.

Interestingly, and maybe reflecting that as more time has passed, and people have navigated a new way of operating, almost as many responded that it had had a positive financial impact on their business as negative.

Headline findings from the FarmComm Study:

In place of traditional practice meetings, 46% of respondents were keen on small group meetings using platforms such as WhatsApp and 38% were in favour of larger group meetings via Zoom
For specific one-to-one contact, phone calls still ranked as the number one method of communication, followed by email and text then WhatsApp
When asked about social media, Facebook was the most highly rated, followed by YouTube and Twitter
One in five farmers said they wanted more information from their veterinary surgeon via social media with a similar number responding that webinars and podcasts would be welcome.