Why animal care/well being?

2. Why animal care/well being? • Only 2% of the U.S. population today are farmers • Consumers want to know how food is produced • There is a need to demonstrate to consumers and retailers that dairy producers care for the comfort, safety and well-being of their animals • The industry needs to work together on a national scale to reassure these audiences • The FARM program can be the right tool at the right time

3. Why a national program? • Easier for everyone to have only one program to work with instead of many different ones • Ensure consistency and uniformity • Demonstrate that producers care • Build consumer trust and confidence in our dairy industry • Market access • Further improvement in animal well-being

4. Demonstrate the industry’s commitment to the highest levels of animal care and quality assurance • Consumers • Food Processors • Retailers • Restaurant Chains

5. Program management • Directed by the National Milk Producers Federation, with support from Dairy Management, Inc. • Nationwide, verifiable animal well-being program providing consistency and uniformity to best practices in animal care and quality assurance

6. What FARM is NOT: Auditing program Certification program Marketing tool (individual dairies) Pass/Fail

7. Three-step approach • Education • Animal Care Manual, Quick Reference User Guide, Animal Care DVD • Educational workshops • On-Farm Evaluation • Third-Party Verification Voluntary and available to all producers

8. On-farm dairy evaluation • Uses the FARM manual & checklist • Performed by a trained veterinarian, field staff, extension agent, etc • Program implementation driven by processor or producer organizations • Evaluations starting 2nd half of 2010 • Repeated at least every 3 years • Results available only to producer and the processor

9. Third party verification • Uses the same FARM manual and checklist • Statistical sample from participating farms • Performed by trained, approved pool of service providers • Third party verification starting 2nd half of 2011 • Funding unknown (but not checkoff dollars)

10. Evaluation checklist • Current version has 77 items • Different types of evidence can be used – written documents, employee interview, visual observation • Answers are ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Not applicable’ • Scoring will be required for locomotion, body condition, hock lesions and cow hygiene

11. Animal Care Manual • Developed by Technical Writing Group • Overseen by NMPF Animal Health and Welfare Committee • Industry-wide review • Cooperatives, Producer Associations, Processors • AABP Animal Welfare Committee • AVMA Animal Welfare Committee • Beef Quality Assurance Program • American Humane Certified Advisory Committee • Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University

12. Animal Care Manual • Reflects: • Current best practices • Animal health from birth to end of life • Environment and facilities • Nutrition • Transportation and handling • Innovations and technology

13. Abbreviated list of contents • Chapter 1 – Introduction • Chapter 2 – On-Farm Evaluations • Chapter 3 – Management: SOP, Training, Records • Chapter 4 – Newborn • Chapters 5 – 8 Lifecycle from Weaning to Maturity • Nutrition • Animal Health • Environment and Facilities • Handling, Movement and Transportation • Chapter 9 – Special Needs Animals • Chapter 10 – Dairy Beef • Chapter 11 – Third-Party Verification

14. Program timeline Late 2009 • Program launch to industry, customers and consumers 2010 • Evaluator training • On-farm evaluations 2011 • Third-party verification

15. www.nationaldairyfarm.com

16. MORE Information Betsy Flores Jamie Jonker BFlores@NMPF.orgJJonker@nmpf.org (703) 243-6111 Zen Miller Bob Kaiser zen.miller@ces.uwex.edurobert.kaiser@ces.uwex.edu 920-832-5119 920-386-3790