Israeli Cattle Breeders Association

Our Beginning

Hahakalit was established back in 1919 by a handful of enthusiastic pioneer farmers. The vision they had was to combine a mutual insurance policy with comprehensive veterinary medicine. The initial motive was to protect valuable cattle, which were imported into a hot land, burdened with disease. Hahaklait was founded as a cooperative, which was owned and managed by the farmers for the benefit of the farmers. The veterinarians were contracted as the employees of the cooperative. From its small beginning as a few farms around the Sea of Galilee, Hahaklait grew hand in hand with the Israeli Food Animal Industry to encompass the entire country.

Our Mission

Today, 85 years later, Hahakalit is still a strong and thriving unique organization both in size and philosophy, in the veterinary world. Hahakalit is a non-profitable organization, still owned and managed by the farmers for their benefit. Our basic goal is to give our clients the best veterinary service at a reasonable cost. Each farm pays a yearly fixed rate per animal in order to cover all routine and emergency medical needs. Thus, Hahakalit has a long term and stable contract with the farm, and is committed to the well being of the animals, as well as to the sound economy of the farm.

Our Services

Hahaklait believes in intensive service at all levels: sick individual cows, herd health, prevention and control of infectious and production diseases, as well as food safety and animal welfare. Our vets visit each farm two to three times a week, and each cow receives several routine visits per lactation, to make sure she is producing at maximal efficiency. Cows are checked after calving for both clinical and sub clinical diseases, for reproductive status and before drying up. All the data from each individual cow is collected at the farm and processed by Hahaklait. Hahaklait is also supporting and performing clinical field trials

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Our Clientele

Hahaklait serves 900 dairy farms with over 90,000 milking cows, which comprise more than 80% of the dairy cattle population in Israel. These are made up of 190 large Kibbutz herds and 700 smaller Moshav ( family) dairy farms. There are approximately 50 beef herds with 20,000 dams and some 250 feedlots with 30,000 steers, as well as 200 sheep and goat farms. The horse population, once the vehicle of our early Vets and a valuable farm force, is now a small portion of our work ( 1,000) .

Our Personnel

Thirty-eight of Hahaklait vets serve as district practitioners throughout Israel. Ten junior vets operate as relief for the district vets and for special tasks. Hahaklait employs a full time dairy nutritionist for ration planning and troubleshooting. Some of our vets operate part time as consultants for: Dermatology, Parasitology, lameness, young stock, radiology, beef and feedlot and ovine. Our epidemiology department produces a monthly and annual herd report for each farm, monitoring and analyzing its production and reproduction performance. Our herd Health experts meet with the manager and staff of every farm to present and discuss their discoveries and advise them regarding future improvements.

Drugs

Since almost all veterinary drugs in Israel are imported, Hahaklait handles registration, importation and distribution of a wide range of remedies, vaccinations and equipment. In order to perform this task, Hahaklait operates a large and modern central drug store. Being the dominant drug buyer in the country and one of the largest veterinary groups in the world, we can offer our clients very competitive wholesale prices. In addition, drugs are sold without any surcharge. We advocate the minimization of drug use and the prevention of drug residues from entering into the food chain. Hahaklait strongly believes that its intensive farm visits and herd-monitoring activities reduce our clients' drug use and thereby drug costs.

Our Affiliations

Hahaklait Head Office and its Chief Vet keep close ties and work relations with the following bodies: The Milk Board, the Israeli Cattle Breeders Association, the National Herd Book, Sion ( the A. I. organization) , the Milk Quality and Udder Health Lab, The National Veterinary Services and the Kimron Veterinary Institute, the Koret Vet School of the Hebrew University, the Ministry of Agriculture Extension Service and some other international organizations. Hahaklait promotes various means of continuing education for our vets and clients, in the form of conferences, meetings and formal studies, to keep them up-to-date with the vast changes in veterinary knowledge.

Hahaklait Veterinary Services
38900 Caesaria Industrial Park, P.O.B. 3039
el: 972-4-6279600

HACHAKLAlT Veterinary Services