QUALITY WATCH

What’s new with FARM 4.0?

WE ASKED THE EXPERTS:

Emily Yeiser Stepp The National Dairy FARM Program Senior Director

After a rigorous 16-month stakeholder review, The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), with support from Dairy Management Inc., began implementation of the 4th version of the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Animal Care program on January 1, 2020.

The program is updated once every three years to ensure relevance to current industry best management practices and scientific research related to on-farm animal care. Farmers nationwide, cooperatives, processors, dairy veterinarians, animal-welfare experts and dairy-industry leaders were all represented in drafting and approving new standards.

The fourth iteration of the FARM program’s standards continues to emphasize a strong veterinarian relationship (Veterinarian-ClientPatient-Relationship and herd health plan review), calf care, non-ambulatory, euthanasia and fitness to transport management practices, as well as disbudding prior to eight weeks of age. Additionally, FARM 4.0 outlines refined standards around continuing education for non-family and family employees with animal care responsibilities and pain management when disbudding animals.

Deb Gingrich MMPA Member Representative FARM 4.0 focuses on the hot topics and issues surrounding animal care that align with customer and consumer concerns. The updated program targets practices including fitness to transport, calf care, non-ambulatory animal management and handling, euthanasia and stockmanship – areas that are sensitive practices on the farm, at high risk of lapses in training and of greatest importance and concern.

Among the many changes is the requirement of annual cow care and training agreements and continuing education for both family and non-family employees. To comply with the program, calves must be offered water and starter feed by day three of life, along with receiving colostrum within six hours of birth. Disbudding must still be done by eight weeks of age via paste or thermal disbudding, but pain must also be mitigated. FARM 4.0 also requires written SOPs, SOPs that match appropriate farm practices and training documentation for a wider variety of farm practices than previously necessary.

As with previous versions of the FARM program, a robust suite of materials that include templates, FAQs, continuing education videos and other resource tools are available to help producers meet the outlined standards. These resources can be found on the FARM Resources web page and hard copy resources are also available upon request. Many items that fell under Continuous Improvement Plans in FARM 3.0 have been elevated to Mandatory Correction Action Plans in FARM 4.0. These changes ensure that farms are giving the highest quality care possible to their livestock so that as an industry, we can help ensure a market for our products in the future.

Doug Chapin MMPA Board Vice Chairman NMPF’s FARM 4.0 launched the beginning of this year. I had the opportunity to help develop the program alongside several producers, co-op representatives and industry experts on the Animal Health and Well Being Committee. During the creation process, we took the recommendations of the Technical Writing Group and opinions presented during the open comment period, including MMPA’s submitted comments, and went through the proposals one by one. We worked together to develop a plan that all producers could achieve, no matter their climate, their facilities and their management style.

The team had to ensure that FARM 4.0 could meet the needs and concerns of our customers, be manageable for our producers while also having the credibility to offer protection if tested. We’ve seen the FARM program be put to the test recently with undercover videos that attacked not only the farmer, but also their co-op and customers. The current FARM program offers protection and tools to navigate these challenging situations.

I’d like to encourage all of our members to not only accept FARM 4.0, but to embrace and own it as a program that adds value and protection to our farms. Dairy producers have always been compassionate and conscientious caregivers to our animals and FARM 4.0 helps demonstrate that care to our customers.