Farmers indicated that the key barriers to using a veterinarian proactively were inconsistent service,high turnover of veterinarians,lack of expertise of sheep farming among veterinarians and concern about independence of advice.Although economics was also mentioned as a key barrier to using veterinarians more proactively,most farmer did not know where they gained and lost income from their flock; there was heavy reliance on the single farm payment scheme and very few famers kept records from which they could investigate where there were inefficiencies in production.Overall sheep farmers considered sheep farming complex and that each farm was unique and that they themselves were the experts to manage their flock.
We conclude that there is an impasse: veterinarians might need to provide consistency and wide expertise beyond knowledge of disease and a model of how flock planning would be financially beneficial but until sheep farmer sheep production records flock health planning cannot be rigorous and the financial benefits cannot be evaluated.
Given the reliance on SPS by farmer an alternative model would be to require farmer to keep production records to comply with SPS.
This might lead to flock health planing being adopted at a faster rate and so develop the UK sheep industry and make it more environmentally sustainable by reducing waste from disease and low productivity.