Introduction
Agricultural and veterinary-related problems rarely take
place in isolation. On the contrary, when farmers call
for help on herd health management issues, the
challenges may be highly embedded in the economic,
managerial, and social contexts of the farm. For example,
knowing the economic status of the farm, the way
farmers think, and the working climate at the farm may
be valuable when we address issues as cattle-health
challenges. Many agricultural and veterinary-related problems
may therefore be better understood and handled
when we have rich information about the context in
which these problems occur.
However, despite early research showing the potential
of adopting alternative perspectives [1], the traditional
approach in agricultural and veterinary research has
been a focus on biological perspectives. A widely used
approach in veterinary and agricultural research is to
address biological questions by analysing large cattle
databases [2,3]. The analysis of data from the cattle