Extension workshop to improve communication between stakeholders in lameness management

Introduction
Dairy farms work with multiple farm advisors in lameness management including veterinarians, hoof trimmers, and nutritionists. These stakeholders all have a role in lameness management. However, they do not always have the chance to interact and discuss challenges and opportunities. The goal of this project was to bring together diverse stakeholders in lameness through a participatory process and to encourage participants to connect and engage with one another on the issue of lameness in the herds they work with. 

Materials and Methods
This work is part of a larger project continuing to work with participants to host and evaluate the effectiveness of lameness team meetings. For this section of the project, we recruited participants to attend a half-day workshop. The workshop content was developed through group meetings with hoof trimmers and veterinarians where we lead a discussion on their goals for the workshop and barriers they faced in working together. Participants were a convenience sample of veterinarians, hoof trimmers, and nutritionists from a single geographic area. The goal of the workshop was to foster a team-based approach to addressing lameness in the herds they work with. At the workshop, we led participants through two activities. First, a discussion of their roles on the farms, including where they are unique and where they overlap. Second, participants worked through multiple lameness management case studies considering how they would address an issue as an individual and how they would address an issue as a team made up of the veterinarian, hoof trimmer, and nutritionist working with the producer. We surveyed participants before and after the workshop on their current practices, their willingness to engage with one another in the future, and their self-efficacy in leading lameness management teams. 

Results
Twelve participants attended the workshop; 3 veterinarians, 5 hoof trimmers, and 4 nutritionists. All participants worked with multiple herds. Participants worked with an average of 28 herds (range: 15 – 45) which represented an average of 8200 cows (range: 4200 to 20 000). Eight participants reported participating in at least one continuing education activity in the past two years. Prior to the workshop participants reported wanting to improve their understanding of lameness and become more involved in lameness management decisions. Participants reported time and different schedules as possible barriers to engaging with other stakeholders. After the workshop, participants reported they had learned something from the other stakeholder groups. When asked how likely they are to engage with one or both of the veterinarian/hoof trimmer/nutritionist to tackle a client’s lameness problem, 8 participants reported they would be very likely and 4 participants said they would be moderately likely to engage other stakeholders. After the workshop, as a continuation of this project, participants were asked to lead lameness team meetings on two of the herds they work with. 

Conclusions
After meeting and discussing lameness management with other stakeholders, participants did report they were likely to engage with them in the future. Our sample of self-selected participants was small and participants were interested in lameness management prior to the workshop. The workshop was well received by participants and we believe there is a benefit to stakeholders engaging with one another on lameness issues.