National Dairy FARM Program launches at 2009 World Dairy Expo The National Milk Producers Association (NMPF), with support from Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI), formally launched the National Dairy FARM Program: Farmers Assuring Responsible Management, at a news conference during the 2009 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, unveiling key components of the voluntary, nationwide program designed to bring consistency and uniformity to animal care through education, on-farm evaluations and objective third-party verification.
“Dairy farmers are passionate about the care they provide to their animals. The National Dairy FARM Program takes that producer passion and quantifies it to tell the story of dairy animal care to our customers and consumers,” said Jamie Jonker, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at NMPF.
At the news conference, Jonker provided an overview of the program and the National Dairy FARM Program Animal Care Manual, which details best management practices for a variety of issues, including animal health, facilities and housing, animal nutrition, and transportation and handling. The content of the manual is consistent with the principles and guidelines of the National Dairy Animal Well-Being Initiative, which was introduced in 2008.
“Dairy producers should seriously consider participating in this program to combat the misinformation that is flooding the public about dairy on-farm animal care. We have a great story to tell about animal care on our farms,” said Karen Jordan, veterinarian, milk producer and chair of the NMPF animal welfare and technical writing committees, who spoke at the news conference.
“We need to speak with a unified voice on animal care in the dairy industry so that consumers have confidence that our animals are well cared for and that our products are safe. The National Dairy FARM Program can help achieve this goal.”
Participating producers will be provided with training materials that include a comprehensive animal care resource manual, a quick-reference user guide, an animal care instructional video, and other educational materials. An on-farm instructor may be available from a producer’s cooperative or other source, said Jonker.
“Once a producer completes the education component, we’ll schedule an on-farm evaluation with a trained veterinarian, extension educator, co-op field staff member, university personnel or others who have completed the program training,” said Jonker.
The producer then receives a status report and, if necessary, an action plan for improvement. Through a statistical sampling, a certain number of participating dairy farms will be randomly selected for third-party verification.
“Third-party verification adds a great deal of credibility to a program that provides a thorough, reasonable and practical approach to dairy animal management,” said Jim Reynolds, DVM, clinician of on-farm clinical medicine, University of California – Davis.
Jonker added, “Third-party verification will not analyze the farm, but the program itself.”
On-farm evaluations will begin in 2010; third-party verification will follow in 2011, said Jonker. Chris Galen, NMPF’s Senior Vice President of Communications, said the next step is to begin dialogue with cooperatives and processors to get whole groups involved.
“Multiple companies have their own program and we don’t want it to become an individual competition,” Galen says. “We are where the organic industry was 10 years ago with individual programs that then established national standards.”
To participate, producers, co-ops, processors and state and regional dairy producer organizations can contact NMPF. Costs of the program are still being determined. Implementation of the program, including cost, will depend on whether participants join the program through a co-op or proprietary processor, or as an individual producer.
For more information on the National Dairy FARM Program log on to www.nationaldairyfarm.com or contact Betsy Flores at (703) 243-6111. PD
—From National Milk Producers Federation news release and Progressive Dairyman staff
