3. Results
3.1. Characteristics of the farmers
There were 45 farmers that participated in the study; the median flock size was 350 (iqr: 300–600) (Table 1). A total of 12 farmers had only sheep on their farm and the remaining 33 had other enterprises which included one or more of cattle, pigs, hens, arable, holiday cottages, turkeys, agricultural business and mobile seed cleaning.
3.2. Thematic analysis
After the final coding there were 4 key themes: (a) current use of veterinarians, (b) barriers for proactively using veterinarians, (c) perceived benefits of proactively using veterinarians and (d) updating knowledge. These themes were similar across the regions and between the age groups. Themes and sub themes are described below.
3.3. Current use of their veterinarian
The majority of farmers had very little contact with their veterinarian and viewed the role of the veterinarian in their sheep flock as a fire-fighter (i.e. someone who they used in a crisis, this might be individual sheep that they could not lamb, but more often it was when several sheep had died from an unrecognised cause). Farmers considered that they knew their stock and their farm and the only time they would contact their veterinarian was when there was a major problem. The quotes below describe these views clearly. In the UK farmers refer to veterinarians as ‘vets’ we have amended all quotes to veterinarian (s) for an international audience.
3. Results3.1. Characteristics of the farmersThere were 45 farmers that participated in the study; the median flock size was 350 (iqr: 300–600) (Table 1). A total of 12 farmers had only sheep on their farm and the remaining 33 had other enterprises which included one or more of cattle, pigs, hens, arable, holiday cottages, turkeys, agricultural business and mobile seed cleaning.3.2. Thematic analysisAfter the final coding there were 4 key themes: (a) current use of veterinarians, (b) barriers for proactively using veterinarians, (c) perceived benefits of proactively using veterinarians and (d) updating knowledge. These themes were similar across the regions and between the age groups. Themes and sub themes are described below.3.3. Current use of their veterinarianThe majority of farmers had very little contact with their veterinarian and viewed the role of the veterinarian in their sheep flock as a fire-fighter (i.e. someone who they used in a crisis, this might be individual sheep that they could not lamb, but more often it was when several sheep had died from an unrecognised cause). Farmers considered that they knew their stock and their farm and the only time they would contact their veterinarian was when there was a major problem. The quotes below describe these views clearly. In the UK farmers refer to veterinarians as ‘vets’ we have amended all quotes to veterinarian (s) for an international audience.
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