The third and final volume of a comprehensive text covering many aspects of the science of milk production has now been released by Burleigh–Dodds (Webster, Reference Webster2017). All three come under the general heading of ‘Achieving sustainable milk production’, with volume 3 focusing on ‘Dairy herd management and welfare’. It is edited by Emeritus Professor John Webster from the University of Bristol and joins the earlier two books in the series, which covered Milk Composition, Genetics and Breeding and Safety, Quality and Sustainability, respectively (van Beltzen, Reference Van Beltzen2017a, Reference Van Beltzenb). This particular volume has three main sections on welfare, nutrition and health.

The overall topic of sustainability is undoubtedly of current concern as the future direction of the dairy industry is under much debate. There is a widespread recognition that agriculture as a whole has to meet the challenge of providing sufficient food to meet the global population demand in a way that is both environmentally responsible and socially acceptable while at the same time maintaining its own economic viability. At one end of the spectrum, some dairy farms are becoming much larger to allow for economies of scale while at the other end some producers and consumers would prefer small farms, largely pasture based, with reduced reliance on chemical and pharmaceutical inputs. Growing economies such as those in China and India are embracing new technology to facilitate a massive expansion in milk production to meet the demands of a more affluent population. It is therefore extremely timely to provide authoritative, evidence based information as to how different management systems impact on both the cows themselves and also on the dairy enterprise as a whole. This book is to be commended for bringing together in one volume discussion of welfare, nutrition, and health; all key components of sustainable production. However, what is largely lacking is an introduction into sustainability as a systems concept. True sustainability applies to the whole system, i.e. not just the feeding or health of the cows in isolation. Indeed, it includes the cows, their offspring (beef rearing), and the environment in which they operate (impacts of grazing or forage production, greenhouse gas emissions, soil quality, etc). With the exception of Chapter 12 on sustainability impacts of different feed resources, those readers searching for a holistic treatment of the subject of sustainability will be disappointed.

With the cow in mind, it is appropriate to start with a consideration of welfare to set the scene as to which aspects of management lead to good or poor welfare and how this can be judged. The welfare section includes six chapters written by experts from around the world. These all have different titles, including housing, genetic selection and transport. In practice, however, there is a significant amount of overlap between them. For example, Chapter 5 is entitled ‘Ensuring the welfare of culled dairy cows during transport and slaughter’ but transport is already considered in Chapter 1, section 1·6 and Chapter 2, section 2·4. Similarly, Chapter 6 is devoted to the management of calves and heifers, but by then the topic has been included in Chapter 1 (cow/calf relationships, suckling behaviour), while Chapters 2 and 3 both have sections on penning systems for dairy calves and their social interactions. There is generally good agreement between the various authors but the overall impression is somewhat unsatisfactory. For most readers turning to a book such as this for reference purposes they would prefer to read one authoritative chapter on a given topic rather than several overlapping ones. It could also be argued that the nutrition and health aspects of rearing calves and heifers would have been better served by having specialist chapters on each of these in the Nutrition and Health sections of the book rather than spread through the welfare section. On the positive side, it is useful when designing management systems to understand more about cow perception and social behaviour. This information is also essential in the debate as to what cows do actually prefer, so that anthropomorphism can be avoided. One perhaps surprising omission is a clear opinion on methods of welfare assessment. This is needed to motivate producers and reassure consumers, but many different systems are currently in place internationally and it would have been useful to consider their respective merits and to offer advice on future directions.

The second part of the book provides seven chapters on nutrition. It covers basic aspects relating to rumen microbiota, biochemistry and physiology underpinning feed efficiency before moving on to more applied aspects relating to feed evaluation, feed supplements to manipulate rumen fermentation and thus methane, as well as nutritional management in intensive and extensive feeding systems. The chapters covering the basics give a reasonable overview, especially the chapter on the rumen microbiota, but one is left with the message that it is very complicated and it is a long way from being clear how this information may be linked to sustainable milk production. Chapter 8 is particularly frustrating in this context, and this reviewer would have preferred a clearer discussion of the definition of feed efficiency and its major components. The reader who is not already conversant with the notions of digestive and metabolic efficiency will struggle to grasp this chapter. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 take the reader through the key elements in feed evaluation and formulation and into applied nutritional management. Importantly, these chapters gradually broaden the focus from feed efficiency towards broader sustainability goals tackling phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon emissions at cow and farm level (Chapter 10), and practical nutrition management (Chapter 11). Chapter 12 by Michael Blümmel and colleagues directly addresses sustainability at regional and global level with considerations of human-edible protein production and competition between animals and humans for feed resources. This chapter does an excellent job of putting dairy production in a true sustainability context. It also makes clear that there is no one solution that fits all situations but rather a need to consider the local context in developing sustainable systems. The final chapter in the nutrition section provides a comprehensive and useful overview of supplementation strategies to manipulate rumen function to minimise health risks and modulate end-products of fermentation.

Part 3 is the longest section with ten chapters devoted to health. These are all authoritative and many are excellent, and this section generally avoids overlap between the different topics. Individual chapters cover subacute rumen acidosis, transition management, fertility, mastitis, lameness and parasitic helminths. Together they give a comprehensive picture of the likely causes and best strategies to avoid or treat key metabolic and infectious diseases. The remaining four chapters each take a broader view and really do contribute to the debate on how future dairy farming can be managed more sustainably. The chapter on infectious disease headed up by Dr Wapenaar takes a very practical approach. Rather than focus on particular diseases they have sections including hazard risk and identification, surveillance, risk management and ensuring implementation. This provides a very useful framework through which biosecurity on dairy farmers could be improved whatever the pathogen and management system. The chapter by Michael Stear and colleagues concerns genetic variation in immunity and disease resistance. Breeding more resilient cows is an important goal in sustainable farming as it means that animals can be managed with a reduced reliance on pharmaceuticals but without compromising their health and welfare. This topic requires a good understanding of the host immune system, the strategy of the pathogen in question, the causes of genetic variation, and how these may all be influenced by the environment. The authors take four case studies (tick infestation, mastitis, bovine respiratory disease complex and additive and non-additive genetic variation) to illustrate in a clear fashion what has been achieved so far and to provide insight into future directions. The two final chapters are also vital to future sustainability. Professor David Barrett and colleagues from the University of Bristol start with some general guidance on the responsible use of all medicines and then progress to a much more detailed consideration of the use of antimicrobials in dairy farming. There is general international agreement that antimicrobial use in agriculture needs to be reduced. What is good about this chapter is that the veterinarians at Bristol started to implement a strategy in 2010 to work with their clients to reduce antimicrobial use. They have made remarkably good progress over the past 7 years and are able to offer insight into the key importance of setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound) objectives on a farm-specific basis. These ideas are progressed in the final chapter by Jonathan Statham which takes an overview of herd health management. The three-pronged requirement on the part of the veterinary service to approach this through measuring, monitoring and managing the situation on farm in a dynamic way is clearly explained. Examples are also provided of the type of information which needs to be obtained before and during a farm visit so that the current status can be assessed and any progress against this quantified. Both of the final chapters also emphasise the need to educate the farmers and their staff and to take their views into account in order that the farm plan meets the need of the particular business enterprise and that there is buy-in into delivering on the objectives.

One surprising omission from the book as a whole relates to the use of on-farm monitoring technologies, the so-called precision livestock farming approach. These are barely mentioned and yet they have transformed the perspectives for health and reproduction management by allowing the status of individual animals to be tracked through time. For example, rumen pH and temperature boluses give access to previously inaccessible monitoring of acidosis. This type of monitoring has been shown to allow more precise, early identification of health events, and to greatly improve oestrus detection. In future, precision livestock farming is also likely to play a key role in assessing welfare (for example through recording time-budgets) and in improving nutrition (by precision feeding cows on an individualised basis to match their requirements).

In summary, although there are structural issues with parts of this book there is also much to recommend it. Given that it is the last in the series, we would have liked it to finish with a brief overview of what the individual contributors have concluded regarding sustainable approaches to dairy farming, and the most important aspects which still need to be addressed. This volume does, however, provide an up-to-date summary of where we are now over nutrition and disease management and points some of the ways that we can go in future. The more generic chapters on herd health are particularly useful in terms of sustainability as they offer a framework which can be used by everyone from governments down to producers in order to improve dairy herd health in a sustainable fashion.