Focus Group Themes on Teat Sealant and Dry Cow Therapy in Ontario AMS Farms

Aggregating qualitative data from four focus groups with 21 Ontario automated milking system (AMS) producers, conducted between December 2024 and January 2025. The analysis generated four main themes regarding factors influencing the implementation of internal teat sealant and selective dry cow therapy.

Use Cases

• Analyze the 'producer’s assessment of farm suitability' theme to identify key farm characteristics influencing adoption decisions.
• Examine the 'prior experiences shape current dry-off management decisions' theme to model how historical outcomes affect future practices.
• Investigate the 'opinions from trusted sources influence decision-making' theme to understand the role of veterinarians and AMS dealers in technology adoption.
• Study the 'risk of practice implementation' theme to assess perceived barriers and facilitators for new dry-off management protocols.

Strengths

• Data is based on verbatim transcripts from 21 producers, providing direct insights.
• Analysis generated four distinct, clearly defined thematic categories from the focus groups.
• Focus groups were conducted recently, between December 2024 and January 2025.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to 21 producers from a single region (Ontario), limiting generalizability.
• Data is qualitative and thematic, not quantitative or tabular, restricting statistical analysis.
• The dataset does not include raw interview transcripts or demographic details of participants.

Provenance

Source

Borealis Harvested Dataverse

Collection Method

Data gathered through four focus groups, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Time Range

Focus groups conducted between December 2024 and January 2025.

Freshness

Data was collected in late 2024/early 2025 and the record was last updated in February 2026.

Geography

Ontario, Canada