Time to engage sheep farmers with Medicine Hub

Medicine Hub is the industry-wide initiative which has been developed by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and is setting out to gather medicine data from cattle and sheep enterprises in the UK. It is a safe, secure, and independent database and helps prove how seriously British farmers take their responsibilities.

Veterinary surgeons together with farmers set ambitious targets for antibiotic use in each sector that have been adopted by the Responsible Use of Antibiotics in Agriculture alliance (RUMA) Targets Task Force. Data are being collected on an ongoing basis in order to demonstrate the industry's efforts to meet those targets and it is worth noting that, even if a client has used no antibiotics in the last calendar year, the information is important to capture.

Recording data is crucial — you cannot improve until you measure. As a practice, we strive to deliver solutions for our clients. We sit down and develop feeding and health plans with them and focus on preventative health management as a way to optimise health and performance, reducing the need for antibiotics. We have recorded specific antibiotic use since the practice was formed just over 4 years ago, knowing it is essential for us, our clients and the industry. As veterinary surgeons, we have sales data in our practice management software programmes so having the practice share this with Medicine Hub will be more accurate, streamlined and require minimal time from the farmer. The level and method of data collection on farm can be hugely variable with some using farm management software and others paper-based systems; another reason for practices to share data on clients’ behalf.