Animal care raises farm profits
Improving both profits and animal welfare was the theme of “Farm 5.0 and the Future of Dairy Care,” a webinar recently presented by Beverly Hampton Phifer, senior director with National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program and hosted by the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council.
FARM seeks to “foster a culture of continuous improvement, not pass/fail,” Phifer said.
In addition, supporting risk management for dairies and the industry, providing customer and consumer assurances and focusing on outcomes is how the organization helps farmers improve their operations.
For example, farmers and experts draft science-based standards and best management practices, providing guidance for improving animal care.
“Trained, certified evaluators conduct second-party evaluations and identify achievements and continuous improvement opportunities using developed, science-based standards and best management practices,” Phifer said.
For animal care, third-party evaluators verify animal care.
Since 2009, FARM has had more than 140 participants and more than 100,000 second-party evaluations. It’s performed more than 575 certified farm animal care evaluations.
Since its founding in 2009, FARM has evolved to meet farmers’ needs and the changing dynamics of modern agriculture.
“We’ve gotten to a place where we’re pretty comfortable with refinement,” Phifer said. “There are a lot of farmer voices in the U.S. dairy industry.”
She anticipates in the years ahead that “we will have more farmer engagement than ever before.”
Second-party evaluators must have a minimum of five years of formal animal science education or on-dairy farming experience. They must also complete an annual training and recalibration and pass a competency exam. FARM expects these evaluators to join in shadow evaluations and have additional oversight through third-party verifications.
FARM has more than 400 certified animal care evaluators. Of those, 60% grew up on dairies and three-quarters of them have more than 20 years’ experience in the industry. They’re well educated too. Half earned bachelor’s degrees and 20% have more advanced degrees.
To hold farms accountable, FARM second-party evaluators can offer corrective actions so farmers can improve their management. This can include an immediate action plan (IAP), mandatory corrective action plan (MCAP) or continuous improvement plan (CIP).
CIPs occur within three years, but evaluators can, at their discretion, increase the timeframe. “They can create additional standards for CIPs such as hygiene,” Phifer added.
FARM also works with food safety professionals as third-party verifiers. Evaluators and verifiers both adhere to FARM program standards and conduct announced visits but otherwise differ in some important ways. Evaluators focus on continuous improvement; verifiers use yes/ no protocols. Evaluators are familiar with the farm facility and work with producers to come up with CIPs and MCAPs, but verifiers are not familiar with the farm don’t work with producers on such plans.
To stay in good standing, participating dairy producers must sign a pledge of participation during the second-party evaluation and promptly respond to scheduling requests. They also must provide necessary documentation for a verifier to review and maintain a professional demeanor.
Phifer encourages participants to reach out to FARM staff as a resource and to read industry periodicals.
Any farm cited to have willful neglect or abuse will result in an “immediate reaction and resolution related to welfare on that farm,” Phifer said.
The operation will be restored to good standing with FARM only after corrective steps are taken and documented and through a follow-up audit.
Involving a veterinarian represents the most common response to MCAPS. The top five CIPS include permanent treatment records (12.3%), broken tails (10.5%), pain mitigation for disbudding action (8%), pain mitigation for disbudding protocol (7.6%) and stockmanship continuing education (5.7%).
Recently, the percent of farms not meeting their herd health plan was 34%; however, 93% of all MCAPS have been resolved, with the average time being six months.
As for disbudding, the percent of farms not meeting their benchmark for humane practices was 8% for protocol and 8% for action. Sixty-six percent of farms received only one MCAP and 94% were resolved in about 7.5 months.
