About

Herd health consultancy is the farm advisory division of Bos International Ltd. This company was started in 2016 by veterinarian Dr Nick J. Bell MRCVS.

Nick grew up on a small farm in Herefordshire, surrounded by calves, sheep and poultry. He graduated from vet school in 1999. He has worked in clinical practice (4 years), university (15 years) and herd health consultancy (15 years). “How does that work?” we hear you ask! Research informs consultancy and consultancy informs research – so doing both research and consultancy in parallel creates innovative insights.

Academia was an important route to developing specific areas of expertise, particularly in data handling and assessing new evidence. Nick became a European specialist in 2016 and RCVS recognised specialist shortly afterwards. Nick has major interests in lameness, cow comfort, technological monitoring and data analyses. He also enjoyed developing infectious disease control strategies, working with groups on BVD, Johne’s and mastitis control.

Starting Herd Health Consultancy in 2016 allowed for a more dynamic, professional, dedicated and personal service. For a full biography click here.

The company mission: empower producers and other animal keepers to improve herd health and welfare through evidence-based discovery and actions

Core activities:

  1. Assessment – rigorous auditing underpins all actions. Without robust recording and analysis, decisions are based on guesses and impressions, which can be prone to error.
  2. Training – skilled staff are the key to implement change. Building capability, capacity, consistency invariably means training.
  3. Advice – asking the right questions will invariably stimulate the right answers. Sometimes answers are more difficult to find and  practical solutions must be identified from a bank of scientific literature, using cost-benefit analysis, expert colleagues or other producers. Novelty should not be a deterrent to finding good ideas.

Building a team of experts is the priority for the company in the next 5 years. I’m very lucky to be able to draw on a few valued colleagues to support current projects and activities. Sophie Mahendran MRCVS is a European College specialist and Becca Langford is an animal scientist with a 1st class degree with honours.

For further information about Nick or the company please get in touch.

Dr Nick J. Bell MA VetMB PhD PG cert Vet. Ed. FHEA DipECAWBM (AWSEL) MRCVS

Director and founder of: Herd Health Consultancy (part of Bos International Ltd)
Mob: +44 (0) 7870 619211
Skype nick.bell55
Email: info@herdhealth.co.uk

RCVS recognised specialist

European Board of Veterinary Specialists http://ebvs.eu/colleges/ECAWBM/members/dr-nick-j-bell
Validation Code available on request