Objectives: Veterinary herd health advisory is a central element of modern veterinary medicine. Despite the importance,
practical farm visits can be conducted with students only occasionally during their education at universities due to the limited
resources. In addition, there is an increasing trend that fewer and fewer graduates want to work in bovine practice after their
studies. The aim of the project FarmSkills4Vets was therefore (1) to develop a virtual dairy cow farm where students can
learn the basics of veterinary herd health advisory, and (2) to evaluate if such a new learning environment might increase
the students interest in bovine practice.

Material and methods: The virtual dairy farm was created on the basis of 360°photo images from real dairy farms. The
individual scenes showed typical areas of a dairy farm, e.g., the housing area for calves and youngstock, compartments in
the cowshed like feeding bunk, lying cubicles, maternity pen, and area for sick cows as well as silo facilities and milking
parlor. The students step into the boots of the advising veterinarian and learn the basics of veterinary herd health advisory
by exploring photos, videos and audio files in a self-directed way. Integrated questions and quizzes stimulate them to apply
the learned skills directly.

From August to September 2021, students from the 2nd to the 10th semester of the University of Veterinary Medicine
Hannover had the opportunity to test the virtual dairy farm. For the evaluation, 2 questionnaires were designed: Before
the visit of the virtual dairy farm, the students were asked about their interests, prior knowledge, and self-assessment
(pre-evaluation). Following the visit of the virtual farm, the students had to evaluate FS4V, especially the format, content,
and realization, and were again asked to self-assess their skills and knowledge (post-evaluation). In the first test phase,
192 students completed the tour through the virtual dairy farm and evaluated FS4V.

Results: Almost all students enjoyed the visit of the virtual dairy farm (94.8 %) and were sure that this format can
help to better understand and apply the specialist knowledge (96.3 %). Furthermore, students felt better prepared for instructed or independent conduction of veterinary herd health advisory. A large percentage of students (68.0 %) indicated
that the virtual farm visit had increased their interest in cattle medicine. In addition, the visit of FS4V woke the interest
in cattle practice in some students who had indicated in the pre-evaluation that they had not yet decided on what to specialize later (12.0%) or were more interested in small animal or equine medicine (4.7 %). Furthermore, students indicated that they would appreciate to have such a format for teaching other veterinary topics, such as animal welfare and food safety, as well as veterinary herd health advisory of other animal species, such as pigs and poultry.

Conclusion: The authors regard such a format as a good opportunity to transfer the scientific knowledge in a practical
and vivid way. In addition, a playful transfer of knowledge can help to increase the interest in cattle medicine and thus, also
win cattle veterinarians for the future.

The authors thank the participating farmers and the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony for financial support (“Innovation plus” 2020/2021, No.053).