Dairy producers & processors initiate animal welfare program

Dairy Cares, a coalition of California’s leading dairy cooperatives and processors, has launched a statewide program to promote and verify responsible animal care on the state’s 1,750 dairy farms. The program is designed to assist farmers in demonstrating their ethical treatment of dairy livestock animals and is the first step in obtaining consistent dairy animal care practices across the country. The program is built around animal care practices recently developed as part of the National Dairy FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) Program, which is based on cow comfort, treatment, care and nutrition. The five-point plan includes the following components:

Animal care best practices
The National Dairy FARM Program provides a list of animal care best practices in the FARM Animal Care Manual and Quick Reference User Guide. Both are available at www.NationalDairyFARM.com. The manual details animal care best practices for animal health, environment and facilities, animal nutrition, transportation and handling, and proper treatment of sick and injured animals. Developed by veterinarians, animal care experts and dairy producers, these practices bring uniformity and consistency to on-farm care and provide assurance to customers that dairy producers are committed to high standards.

Producer outreach and education
The California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP), in cooperation with University of California animal welfare experts, is offering a series of new workshops to dairy producers and their employees to address important issues in animal welfare. The workshops will educate producers about Animal Care Essentials (ACE) and best management practices outlined in the FARM program.  CDQAP has collaborated with top California dairy animal welfare experts from veterinary and animal science fields to create these courses.

“Providing producers with useful resources and training that can be easily implemented on the farm to maximize efficiency and effectiveness is always the goal of CDQAP,” said CDQAP Executive Director Michael Payne, DVM, Ph.D. “For this reason, we are happy to fulfill industry’s request to expand our educational offerings to producers and provide information and training specific to producer’s successful participation in the FARM program.” 

The set of two, three-hour classes focuses on key animal care areas, such as calf care, foot and leg health, euthanasia plans, emergency plans and more. Producers attending class receive a resource/herd health plan binder, which includes useful protocol templates, employee training materials and animal care resources.

On-farm evaluation
In June, Dairy Cares cooperative and processor members will begin on-farm evaluations of all their dairy producers, based on the animal care best practices detailed in the FARM Animal Care Manual. Results of the initial evaluation will provide producers and processors with an animal care status report, allowing development of an action plan for ongoing improvement of animal well-being performance. On-farm evaluations will occur at least once every three years, allowing the producer and processor to track progress of on-farm care, and make improvements where needed.

Producer support and assistance
Support and resources are available to help producers improve animal care and well-being where needed as indicated by the on-farm evaluation results. Resources include additional CDQAP classes focused on specific animal care topics, online informational materials, and consultation with producer trade association field staff and animal care experts.

Third-party verification
An appropriate number of dairy farms participating in the FARM program will be randomly selected for third-party verification beginning in 2011. Independent, properly credentialed third-party verifiers will use the same on-farm evaluation used by cooperative and processor field staff.

“Actions, not words, are the only way to maintain and build trust with our consumers,” said Jamie Bledsoe, a dairy farmer from Riverdale and co-chair of the Dairy Cares Animal Well-Being Committee. “We’ve always cared for our animals, and now we have a program in place to validate that we care. And in those rare instances when animal care doesn’t measure up, we have a program to identify issues and address them.”

California leads the nation in dairy outreach and education efforts, as evidenced by the award-winning CDQAP.  This partnership involving state and federal agencies, dairy associations and the University of California is dedicated to “compliance through education.” 

“Consumers are expressing increased concern over how their food is raised on the farm and in response, many companies are asking their milk suppliers to provide animal welfare assurances through comprehensive programs,” said Bill Van Dam, Dairy Cares chairman. “We’re pleased to see CDQAP expanding its role to prepare and educate producers for successful participation in these animal well-being programs. They’ve helped producers effectively meet the toughest environmental regulations in the nation, and they will be a key resource in assisting producers on animal care and well-being issues.”

The 2010 “Implementing FARM” animal care workshops continue CDQAP’s earlier work to support animal well-being. Last summer, CDQAP hosted four workshops on the prevention, care, treatment and euthanasia of non-ambulatory cattle. And in 2004, CDQAP published the Dairy Welfare Evaluation Guide, which enables producers to conduct a thorough self-guided assessment of their facilities and animals (the guide can be downloaded at www.cdqa.org)

For more information on the Dairy Cares Five-Point Plan, visit www.DairyCares.com. For more information on the National Dairy FARM Program, visit www.NationalDairyFARM.com.