Protocols on a dairy farm are essential for a smooth, organized workflow, ensuring safety and efficiency for cows and farm staff. They maintain high health and well-being standards by supporting proper animal care and management.

I graduated college thinking I had learned everything I would need to know to be successful in a career in animal science. My first job as a calf-raising manager on a large calf ranch showed me that was far from the truth. I’m not saying college didn’t prepare me. It’s that I never would have expected to fail as much as I did.

While it is possible to have SOPs for many important tasks on a dairy farm, there are few more important than milking parlor procedures. 

I now view the common risk factors for disease – such as failure of passive transfer, dirty facilities and feeding equipment, cold stress and poor nutrition – as symptoms of a lack of proactive, structured monitoring programs designed to track protocol compliance as well as calf performance.

For these three Pennsylvania dairy producers, their stories are each very different but have one commonality: working full-time on their family’s dairy operation wasn’t always their dream.

Many dairy producers and industry representatives understand that sharing standard operating procedures (SOPs) with workers, including family members and other employees, is critical to profitability.

Preparing for a visit from a proAction validator can be a daunting task, especially if you are new to dairy farming in Canada or if you have not devoted enough time to integrating proAction requirements into your routine.