FARM 5.0 – What Dairy Farmers Need to Know

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Animal Care Program released its newest version of the animal care manual and evaluation in July of this year.

The FARM Animal Care program remains mostly the same as version 4.0, but there are some revisions to be aware of for your next animal care evaluation.

The updates in version 5.0 are outlined as follows:

For locomotion scoring, the benchmark is for a farm to have 15% or fewer moderately lame cows in the milking herd. If more than 15% of the milking herd is moderately lame, then a continuous improvement plan will be put in place. The benchmark to have no more than 5% of the lactating herd score severely lame stays the same.

Click here to continue reading