Dairy cow mortality data management: the dairy certificate of death

On-farm cow mortality is a significant problem for North American dairies. Analysis of causes of death should provide important information about outcomes of current management, and direction for management changes required to improve cow health, production, and well-being. Currently available information about mortality losses is not useful for making appropriate changes because information gathering and storage are inadequate for that purpose. Here we propose and analyze the use of a dairy cow death certificate that provides an information gathering tool intended to improve analysis and communication about outcomes of dairy management.