Abstract for a contributed paper to the Agricultural Economics Society Conference

The UK Government seeks to put the promotion of animal welfare and the protection from animal disease at the ‘core of the way in which we farm and live’ (Defra, 2002). To do so, it recognises that it must encourage animal keepers to adopt good practice by identifying and assessing the real benefits of improvements in animal health and welfare (Defra, 2003). This challenge will be greatest but potentially most rewarding in the cattle and sheep sectors for several reasons. For example, the foot-and-mouth crisis encouraged adoption of protective measures to prevent disease spread (biosecurity) in sheep/cattle farms which are everyday practice on pig and poultry farms, yet these were often abandoned once the crisis was over (Paterson et al., 2003). Also the negative externalities of farming caused by sheep and cattle diseases are now notorious after several high-profile epidemics. This situation provides a challenge for the research community as to how best to measure and express the relative value of animal health to farm-level decision-makers. McInerney et al., (1992) set out a clear framework for the economic analysis of disease in farm livestock. However, the approach is limited by inherent livestock disease information constraints (Bennett, 2003). This problem is likely to be exacerbated by the requirement at farm-level for customised, long term, whole-farm decision support that deals with relative risk (Stott et al., 2003). Despite the increased complexity, associated information will need to be presented in useful and understandable ways that properly demonstrate the relative value of animal health to farmers and their advisers. This paper will explore this issue by example, using computer simulation to assess the impact of specific cattle disease on the management of cattle/sheep hill farming systems.