Dairy farmers’ knowledge, attitude and behaviour towards udder health in Switzerland

Recent studies determined the influence of farmers’ motivation towards bovine udder health but were conducted in countries with relatively large dairy herds. Milk production in Switzerland is characterised by small scale dairy herds with a relatively high milk quality. This study explored dairy farmers’ motivation and behaviour towards udder health in Swiss dairy herds. An online questionnaire on farmers’ attitude, knowledge and behaviour was sent to a stratified random selection of 2,285 Swiss dairy farms milking >10 dairy cows, of which 1,003 (44%) responded.