Dairy farmers participating in the industry’s program to quantify animal care practices are continuing to improve the manner in which they adhere to the program’s standards, according to a new summary year in review report issued today by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF).
Available to all dairy farmers in the U.S., Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) is a voluntary, national set of guidelines designed to demonstrate farmers’ commitment to outstanding animal care and a quality milk supply. Cooperatives, proprietary milk processors and individual producers are using the program to assure consumers that the dairy foods they purchase are produced with integrity.Since enrollment began in September 2010, the FARM Animal Care Program has been implemented by suppliers accounting for 70 percent of the nation’s milk supply.
At this week’s NMPF annual meeting in Phoenix, a newly released annual assessment derived from 8,000 second-party evaluations found universal adoption of many of the best practices from the program. For example, 94 percent of farms enrolled in the program train their employees to properly move animals that cannot walk, and 98 percent train employees to handle calves with a minimum of stress. Other findings included:
- 99 percent of farms observe animals daily to identify health issues for early treatment
- 93 percent have protocols developed with veterinarians for dealing with common diseases, calving and animals with special needs
- 92 percent train workers to recognize the need for animals to be euthanized
On the other hand, the report found some areas still in need of improvement. For example, the report indicated less than 82 percent of farms in the program have a valid veterinarian-client relationship, and just 67 percent of farm operators apply antiseptic to the navels of calves after birth as a preventative health measure.
Participants are given training materials and are evaluated by a veterinarian or another trained professional. Evaluators provide a status report and, if necessary, recommend areas for improvement.
Each year, a nationwide sample of dairy farms in the program is randomly selected for visits from third-party “verifiers” to assure (to a 95 percent confidence interval) that the observations recorded during the second-party evaluations are valid. Validus Certification Services, an Iowa-based certified auditing company, is used to conduct the third-party verification process.
“The thousands of data points this program collects on an ongoing basis show that dairy farmers aren’t just talking the talk about animal care – they’re performing dozens of practices on a daily basis to provide for animal well-being and produce high-quality milk,” said Jamie Jonker, NMPF’s vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs. “Still, we’re not yet where we want to be. The journey is continuing.” PD
—From NMPF news release
