Table 1.
Overview of general farm characteristics on the 100 visited farms
| Variable | Category | Number of farms1 |
P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Control | |||
| Farm type | Conventional | 40 | 44 | 0.41 |
| Organic | 10 | 6 | ||
| Type of cow barn | Freestall | 43 | 42 | 0.78 |
| Tied up | 7 | 8 | ||
| Number of dairy cows | Median2 | 40 | 28 | 0.01 |
| IR3 (25 to 75%) | 24.5 to 64.0 | 18.8 to 44.0 | ||
| Animal caretaker | Farmer and family | 42 | 48 | 0.09 |
| Employee(s) | 8 | 2 | ||
| Main cattle breed on farm | Simmental | 45 | 45 | 1.00 |
| Holstein-Friesian | 4 | 2 | 0.68 | |
| Brown Swiss | 0 | 2 | 0.99 | |
| Others | 1 | 1 | ||
| Farm animals other than cattle on farm | No | 32 | 18 | 0.16 |
| Yes | 24 | 24 | ||
| Variable | 0 | 2 | ||
| Other species on farm (multiple answers possible) | Poultry | 24 | 18 | 0.31 |
| Pigs | 18 | 13 | 0.39 | |
| Small ruminants (sheep and goats) |
3 | 5 | 0.32 | |
1
Case farms are farms with the presence of diarrhea; control farms are farms without calf diarrhea.
2
Variable was not categorized; continuous variable.
3
IR = interquartile range.