In less than 13 months, a lot more management responsibility for proper animal care will be required of anyone shipping milk to some of the nation's biggest dairy cooperatives.
One of the boldest headlines from last month's annual meeting of National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) was a unanimous vote by its board of directors to require co-ops participating in the National Dairy FARM (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) program, to make participation mandatory for all of its members beginning in 2016.
As a result, every farm that ships milk to those co-ops will be eligible for random selection for on-site inspection of their animal care procedures by a second party verifier.
"We absolutely have to get more proactive and responsible in demonstrating to our buyers that we are doing things the right way. And they are demanding it," says NMPF chairman Randy Mooney, who milks 320 cows in Rogersville, Mo.
"One thing that became very apparent to me with the last abuse video (in New Mexico) was we had retailers, who sell our product every day and trust that we do the right things, who got caught in a situation where they didn't know what to say about our animal care practices."
NMPF President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulhern (pictured above) agrees. "Having animal care standards is becoming the new table stakes for livestock producers, whether it's meat, eggs or milk. We're past the point of just asking people to take our word that we're doing things right. We have to quantify those practices and that commitment, which is what FARM does for individual producers and for co-ops and processors."
