2. Veterinary Advisory Board
Halter’s independent Veterinary Advisory Board includes seven leading large animal veterinarians in New Zealand who directly advise our product teams. This collaboration draws on their deep industry knowledge and expertise to influence the direction of Halter’s product, which benefits the cows managed with Halter. Collectively, this group brings deep expertise across animal health, nutrition, reproduction, animal welfare, and disease management. As of mid-2023, this body is in its first year, and has been primarily focused on animal health, reproduction and nutrition. Animal welfare is always considered as part of all advice.
For example, some recent work has involved Halter sharing raw animal behaviour data about cow health and reproduction, and the Board helping teams to translate these into actionable insights for farmers to improve the wellbeing of their herd. These insights can include trigger points such as a drop in rumination or the early detection of preventable issues during a cow's transitioning period that could impact her recovery post-calving.
Halter’s Veterinary Advisory Board members include:
Dr John Hellstrom ONZM
Dr Hellstrom is an independent animal welfare advocate for Halter. John has a PhD in epidemiology and has a distinguished career working to establish and maintain high animal welfare and biosecurity standards in New Zealand for over 40 years. John is the former Chief Veterinary Officer for the New Zealand government from 1986 to 1991 and was Chair of NAWAC (National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee) within the New Zealand government for seven years. During his leadership of NAWAC, John played an integral role in NAWAC’s successful efforts to amend the Animal Welfare Act 1999 to recognise that animals are sentient beings deserving of respect and compassion and allow for the legislating of animal welfare regulations.
Dr Scott McDougall
Managing Director - Cognosco
Veterinarian - Anexa (Morrinsville)
Professor (School of Veterinary Science) - Massey University
Scott McDougall is a veterinarian with PhD in animal reproduction, a registered specialist in cattle reproduction, is the managing director of Cognosco, a research company, and is a full Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at Massey University. He has broad interests in improving cattle health and production through improvements in disease management (particularly mastitis), and reproduction. These are achieved through undertaking large-scale on-farm observational and controlled randomised research studies, undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and extension to veterinarians and farmers.
Dr Krispin Kannan
Large Animal Veterinarian
Veterinarian Enterprises Group Ltd (VetEnt) - Te Awamutu
In his role at VetEnt, Dr Kannan is dedicated to understanding and utilising technology solutions within veterinary practice that enhance the performance and wellbeing of VenEnt’s client businesses and animals. Dr Kannan has a focus on cow wearables (collars and tags), the data they produce and how veterinary teams can integrate and deliver value to customers using this information.
Dr Laura Pattie
Technical Expert – Animal Health & Nutrition - PGG Wrightson
Laura worked as a farm veterinarian for 10 years before joining PGG Wrightson in 2020.
Laura’s passion is in animal nutrition having learnt during her veterinary career how good nutrition translates into great production, reproduction, and animal health outcomes. She is a current member of the Australia and New Zealand College of Veterinary Sciences, specialising in ruminant nutrition. Laura is a firm believer in “setting good foundations of nutrition and using this base to build optimal animal performance.”
Dr Mark Bryan
Veterinarian / Owner - VetNZ
Veterinary Epidemiologist
Mark is part owner of Comhla Vet, a wholly employee-owned group of veterinary businesses across NZ and Australia. Comhla employs around 200 vets and 200 vet techs and nurses and specialises in servicing large, progressive rural farming businesses, and focused companion animal care. Along with animal health services, it provides advisory and consultant services to rural businesses, and has a strong research team including research techs, three epidemiologists, data analysts and a data owner. They focus on performing large scale field research, particularly in the dairy sector. His current focus is on moral distress within the vet profession and on developing comprehensive data solutions for farmers.
Dr Stephen Hopkinson
Chief Executive Officer - Taranaki Veterinary Centre
Stephen has worked as a dairy veterinarian for over 30 years in the South Taranaki region and is CEO of Taranaki Veterinary Centre, a large practice focused on dairy and companion animals and employing 33 vets and over 60 technicians, nurses and support staff. He has been active in the veterinary industry on the Dairy Cattle Vets society (three years as President) and the New Zealand Vet Association board. Taranaki Veterinary Centre is focused on partnering with farmers for the continual improvement in animal care, performance and wellbeing through evidence-based, yet practical solutions, to enhance uptake and implementation.
