Efficiency and costs of homeopathy and phytotherapy in an organic dairy farm

The EU regulation for organic farming explicitly promotes the use of homoeopathy and phytotherapy. The aim of the present study was to investigate both the efficiency and the costs of these methods. The assessment was performed in an organic dairy farm where the animals are normally treated by homeopathy and phytotherapy even if, sometimes, conventional medicines have to be used (integrative medicine). In comparison to the remaining permissible treatments, homeopathy was the preferable form of treatment to cure ailments. Homeopathy and phytotherapy can be used to treat, with a positive outcome, the majority of diseases that occur in a dairy cattle farm. The costs incurred using the homeopathic and phytotherapic treatments were very low in comparison with the conventional treatments.