Common sense, let’s improve it…

After visiting many dairies in 45 countries around the world, an advisor in Sweden asked me

to write something from the heart. I like to share this thought with you too!

What is my heart telling me? Well, that I am very fond of my wife and 2 daughters. And that I

am still passionate about Cows! The cow the cow…. Wow, what a great animal. See brings me

lovely cheese, yoghurt and milk. I love too look at them, when they lay down in the pasture,

chewing and looking around very satisfied and relaxed. I like the sound of tearing fresh grass

with their tongues. See the herd moving from left to right over the field following the grazing

leader. I can learn a lot from them: Take it easy, look around and relax. I think a lot of people

can learn from the cow. She always tells us the truth.. cows never lie to us. Just read her body

language.

The cow does a lot for us. She is changing grass into a very nice product. But what do we do

for the cow? I think most of the farmers and advisors work very hard to make the cow happy

and to make them self happy. But is that good enough? Are we doing the things right? Are we

doing the right things?

If you are going to ask yourself the question: where are you now…?

What if cows do not have wounds anymore? What if there were no lame cows anymore?

What if there were not 30% cows with a danger triangle in the left flank (empty rumen..)

What if there was no more fresh air seeking behavior?

What if all the cows can eat 12 times a day?

What if all your cows can walk and stand up without pain?

What if there was no stress around calving?

What if all heifers can start their lactation the first 3 weeks without stress?

What if you will never shout to cows and never hit them anymore?

Listen to your heart and in the mean time, use your common sense!

There is a lot of hidden money in every dairy in the world. We have been working with dairies

in 45 countries in the last five years. Nothing can beat the common sense of the better

farmers in all these countries. I have great respect for all those people and I want to thank

them for sharing all this practical knowledge with us. I want to encourage you to trust

yourself and trust your cows.

Give every cow a soft bed (deep loose material like sand, straw, peat, compost etc.)

Give every cow head space to swing her head forward while standing up

Give every cow a feeding place( 70-75cm), so they can all eat at the same time.

Give the cows a stress free calving line: excellent resting and feeding possibilities from 3

weeks before to 3 weeks after calving.

Let a good hoof trimmer come every month and check all the cows 90-60 days before

and 60-90 days after calving.

Start talking friendly to your cows and youngstock and build up trust.

Bring the 6 freedoms of the pasture under your roof: maximum feed, water, light, air, rest and

space, and all your cows will stay happy and healthy.

My last message is: take care of your family and friends. Live life with passion.

Life is short so enjoy every day.

I wish all advisors and farmers good luck with doing the right things and

a big encouraging moo to all the cows in the world: we are working on it

to make your life better!

Kind regards,

Joep Driessen

Joep Driessen DVM

veterinarian cowmunicator

ambassador of cow welfare

Director of the CowSignals® training company

Member of the Vetvice Group Holland

NB: You are free to use the information and photo’s in this document, as long as you mention:

source:CowSignals.com Holland.

Happy cows, happy farmers, with CowSignals

Prevent disease, owneritis and advisoritis…

by Joep Driessen DVM, cowsignals trainer

How blind are we? What is normal? What can we do about it?

We all know that farmers have a serious infection with owneritis: they don’t see their own

management-mistakes anymore. A level of blindness occurs. But what about your own

disease: Veterinarianitis? Advisoritis? How blind are you?

Hominum animalium salutem. If we look at our duty, how good do we support farmers in

keeping their cows healthy? How busy are you with preventing disease? Or is your main

business treating sick animals? I think everybody is trying to do the things right, but are you

also doing the right things? Or can you do better?

CowSignals, a new tool for farmers and advisors to improve health and welfare.

The cow is the best management advisor. Just look and listen. We train vets and feed advisors

in the field of CowSignals®. We learn them more about the body language of the cow and

learn them how to teach farmers to use their common sense again. Vets in UK, Holland,

Denmark etc. use our practical examples to successfully persuade farmers.

CowSignals® is a keep it simple approach on dairy management. After visiting many farms in

30 countries we discovered the secret of success in dairy farming. The answers are dead-

simple. Cows need a high amount of Feed, Water, Light, Air, Space and Rest. If you give them

enough of this, they don’t have a reason to become sick anymore.

We call this the CowSignals approach. Bring these 6 freedoms of the pasture also in the barn

and you get a very disease resistant management.

CowSignals Diamond:

On every dairy in the world, a lack of one of these points destroys cow health & welfare &

farmers income. Very often 3 or 4 of these items can be easily improved, with low costs and

high return . The vet can be the Sherlock Holmes on the dairy, and earn his income as an

advisor!

A farmer once told me: Light, Water and Air is the cheapest Feed…

A doctor told me: if you eat & sleep well, you don’t get sick.

So one feeding place per cow and one soft and spacey bed per cow is our new standard. The

best 5% farms in the world have this already. Also the stress free calving line, fresh and

spacey straw barn from 3 weeks before till 3 weeks after calving gives you amazing results.

No stress for cow & farmer.

Learn the farmers to observe better. Point out “waiting cows”, empty rumens (danger

triangles) and curved backs. A waiting cow, standing in a cubicle tells you something: my bed

is too hard or too short, I am lame, or there is not enough fresh, dry air in this building. Point

out al the wounds on the cows. Talk en think in solutions together. That is the secret of

CowSignals. You first see it, than you think about all the possible causes and improvement

options, then you do something. Look, Think, Act. A survey in Germany under 1200 farmers

learned us that half of the farmers actually improve their barn and management after a

lecture and workshop CowSignals.

Investment in animal welfare pays back. Farmers all over the world say the same thing: I have

no time and no money. The answer is simple: do these things that bring you time and money…

One hour extra lying time gives you one liter of milk per cow per day extra.

One sick cow cost as much time as 40 healthy cows.

How big is the problem? Stand next to the farmer and judge the cows together with an open

mind. Objective observation. Be honest. Look from large to little and from little to large. Why

are 25% of all the cows in Europe and North America lame? This has a lot to do with cubicle

design, flooring, ventilation, long waiting times at milking and transition period management.

What about cows with wounds on knees, necks, backbones etc ? Severe wounds vary from

farm to farm from zero to 44 % of the dairy cows. How can we bring the management

knowledge from the top 5% farms in the country to the other 95%? You are the one that can

make a difference!

Read more about our lecture and trainings on www.cowsignals.com and www.vetvice.com

Our picture books on dairy management: CowSignals, Hooves, From calf to heifer, etc. can be

ordered on this website. Thank you for reading this. I wish you a lot of happy cows and happy

farmers. Keep up the good work. See what you can do!

Joep Driessen DVM

CowSignals® concept:

VETVICE MISSION STATEMENT

Vetvice delivers independent, well-based, practical knowledge to dairy farmers, dairy farm

suppliers and dairy farm advisors. In this, we strive for maximal welfare and health of cow

and men, with an optimal production. Our key-words are: science, practice, pleasure. Our

customers are agro-business organizations worldwide.

www.vetvice.nl Vetvice happy cows, happy farmers

“Cows constantly provide us with information about their housing,

health and care. And cows never lie.”

Welcome to the CowSignals® training company

We train dairy farmers, feed company representatives, breeding advisers, barn building

consultants, veterinarians and other cow lovers all around the world in the field of practical

dairy farming. We focus on the cows demands on barn, feed and care. Dairy farming is about

cows after all. Our lectures inform and confront in a pleasant way. Our training is instructive

and practical. Our advice is to the point and based on scientific knowledge.

All our training and advice is based on the CowSignals®-concept. This concept dates back to

the spring of 2000. Since then we have refined and developed the concept, to the present,

international recognized package of knowledge and skills. We offer your organization our

proven and successful lectures and practical training about Cowsignals, Claws, Young stock,

The dry cow and transition period, and Building for the cow. In addition to this we regularly

provide informative lectures and practical courses on other subjects, like fertility, udder

health, animal welfare and durability.

We would like to share our knowledge with you! Interested in our lectures and/or training?

Call us, or send us an e-mail! joep.driessen@vetvice.nl

With kind regards,

Joep Driessen

veterinarian & managing director Cowsignals training company

Vetvice group Holland

Compact CV Joep Driessen:

Born on a dairy farm in Luxemburg from Dutch parents. November 16th 1964. Graduated as a

vet on the university of Utrecht. During my studies I traveled a lot and learned to speak

English, Spanish and German. I started my career as a cattle vet for two years in a practice in

the Netherlands.

In 1997 Jan Hulsen and I founded Vetvice veterinary consultancy bureau. We did many big

projects in Holland with the national health service on IBR and Johnes disease and a big

farmers project on how to keep your cows healthy. In Ireland I worked as a fertility vet and

we did several road shows. In Saudi Arabia I worked on a big export project with 14.000 dairy

cows for 2 times 3 months. I was asked back for a special practical training program on claw

health. In the mean time I studied marketing & communication. To develop my marketing

skills I did a 3 years job as interim product manager in a large pharmaceutical company in

animal health. In 2000 we started our first workshop CowSignals in The Netherlands. Since

January 1st 2004 I am full time active with my hobby CowSignals®: learning farmers and

advisors about the body language of the cow. January 1st 2007 we celebrated our 10 year

anniversary with Vetvice, happy cows happy farmers. This date is also the start the new

CowSignals training company of which I am owner director. We are active in 45 countries and

now provide Certified CowSignals trainer courses all over the world.

Working as a CowSignals trainer is very challenging. We work with farmers, vets and all kind

of advisors in the dairy industry. We gathered an enormous amount of knowledge and

experience from the best farmers, vets, advisors and scientists in these countries. We like to

share this information with you because every day we see and feel the need for it. Our

customers highly appreciate our practical and interactive way of presenting. They like our

“Dutch” method: honest, confrontational and a good sense of humor. Some say: you gave me

new eyes! That makes me feel good. Our trainings contribute to a better life and more work

pleasure for farmer and cow.

I also give lectures about marketing, peoplesignals and advisory skills. Working with groups

suits me. I like to get the best out of people. That’s why I like my job as facilitator. It is all

about practical and useful tips and training. Stimulating, confronting and motivating of people

is where my power is. I also like to organize and arrange things well to get the maximum

effect.

Since October 1st 2006, I am the proud father of my daughter Teuntje Linge Driessen. She got

a lovely sister Puck Zus Driessen on September 10th 2008 and a brother Pep Sjef Pernotje

Driessen born on August 17th 2011. Together my wife Annelies Pernot and the kids we enjoy

life every day. I look forward to meet you!

Kind regards,

Joep Driessen DVM

veterinarian cowmunicator

ambassador of cow welfare

Director of the CowSignals training company, part of Vetvice Future Farming, Holland