Expect a valuable addition to your barn wall in your mailbox soon. The “Top 10 Considerations for Culling and Transporting Dairy Animals to a Packing or Processing Facility” is being mailed to the nation’s dairy producers as a common industry guideline.
Produced by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), along with Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), the barn-safe plastic poster is legal-sized and printed in both English and Spanish.
The document was developed by NMPF’s Animal Health and Welfare Committee, and will be distributed during the month of July through dairy cooperatives to their members. Producers who are not part of a cooperative can order a copy by calling 703-224-1381 or sending an email request to poster@nmpf.org.
“Veterinarians work with dairy farmers every day to make critical decisions about keeping their herds healthy. Some of those decisions involve when to remove animals from the herd, and this poster will help in that regard,” said Dr. Gatz Riddell, DVM, Executive Vice President of AABP.
The poster is part of a series of programs and measures supported by the dairy industry to highlight the importance of conscientious care of cattle. Other programs include the Dairy Quality Assurance Center’s “Caring for Dairy Animals” guide, which NMPF has also distributed to cooperatives and producers. This poster is derived in part from the science-based recommendations of the DQA program.
“This poster demonstrates to farmers and consumers alike their shared interest in animal care and well-being,” said Thomas Gallagher, CEO of DMI, which manages the national checkoff program on behalf of America’s dairy producers.