The Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program announced on Sept. 12 that it is teaming up with Merck Animal Health to offer a series of informational webinars as part of the FARM Version 3.0 rollout. This webinar series will further build upon the strong partnership between the Merck Dairy Care365 Program and the FARM Program that was established last year.
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and Merck Animal Health announced last summer that the two groups would collaborate to help ensure a comprehensive, industry-wide approach to employee training and animal care in the dairy industry. Through the partnership, dairy producers across the country have access to the tools, resources and workshops available through the Merck Animal Health Dairy C.A.R.E. Initiative, which is nicely designed to complement FARM.
The partnership will produce 10 webinars on various animal care topics, including calf care, stockmanship, antimicrobial stewardship and more. Participation in these webinars will help dairy farmers meet the new training requirements established in FARM Version 3.0. Each month will feature a different topic and will be recorded for viewing at a later date.
“Merck’s proactive, engaging partnership has greatly strengthened the FARM Animal Care Program, and we are grateful for their support for the program again this year,” said NMPF Chief of Staff Emily Meredith, who also leads the FARM Program. “These webinars, hosted by Merck Animal Health and leading animal health and welfare experts, will provide valuable training resources to producers and their employees.”
“Dairy C.A.R.E. was developed to help producers provide the best animal care by maintaining sound policies, hiring the right people and making sure they are properly trained – and our partnership with NMPF is a natural fit,” said Rick Jackson, Merck Animal Health U.S. dairy product manager. “The new webinar series helps us meet our goal of offering supplemental materials dairy farmers can use to meet the new requirements under FARM Version 3.0 while supporting the significant efforts of dairy producers to continuously improve the care and handling of their animals.”
In addition to hosting the webinars, the Merck Animal Health Dairy Care365 animal handling training videos will be available for viewing on the National Dairy FARM Program website. These videos were shot on farms to provide a realistic representation of how cows behave and react to their surroundings. Through these videos, employees can learn how to work with dairy cattle and youngstock safely and effectively, move cows to the milking parlor and handle nonambulatory cows, among other topics.
Merck Animal Health will enhance the availability of its already-existing training materials by also posting content on its own FARM Program website.
Both Merck Animal Health and the FARM Program support the significant efforts of dairy producers to continuously improve the care and handling of their animals. 
—From National Milk Producers Federation and Merck Animal Health news release
