Meeting the Continuing Education Requirements of FARM Program Version 4.0
Meeting the Continuing Education Requirements of FARM Program Version 4.0
Version 4.0 of the National Dairy FARM Program is now in effect from January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022. One of the changes to this version is the requirement of training and continuing education for employees as well as family member employees and owners. Version 4.0 requires continuing education in animal care and handling for those with animal care responsibilities, and job-specific training for the following topics if they apply:
- Stockmanship
- Pre-weaned calf care
- Non-ambulatory animals
- Euthanasia
- Determining if animals are fit to transport
If this requirement is not met for non-family member employees, it will trigger a Mandatory Corrective Action Plan (must be corrected in less than 9 months); and if it is not met for family employees and owners, it will trigger a Continuous Improvement Plan (must be improved upon within 3 years). While this new standard includes more paperwork, chances are you and your employees are already meeting the continuing education requirements; you just need to document it. Continuing education can be achieved in many ways, and most don't require you or your employees to leave the farm. Below is a list of some examples of potential training and continuing education opportunities:
- Working with industry specialists on-farm (veterinarian, Quality Milk Production Services, Cornell Cooperative Extension, etc…)
- Dairy industry meetings
- Job shadowing with experienced employees and management
- Formal education (degree programs)
- Reading articles (CCE newsletters, Hoard's Dairyman, Progressive Dairy, etc…)
- Watching webinars and training videos
- National Dairy FARM Program training videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3N-BiUEYldTTFtFhTQdEQg
- Merck Dairy Care 365: https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/dairy-care-365
- Cornell PRO-DAIRY webinars: https://prodairy.cals.cornell.edu/webinars/
- Participating in the New York State Cattle Health Assurance Program (NYSCHAP)
The FARM Program provides a template to help you record training and continuing education for each person and it can be found at https://nationaldairyfarm.com/producer-resources/resource-library/. For help understanding the updates to FARM 4.0, for paperwork review, or a barn walk through, contact Regional Dairy Specialist Lindsay Ferlito (lc636@cornell.edu, 607-592-0290) or Alycia Drwencke (amd453@cornell.edu, 517-416-0386).
Upcoming Events
Cover Crop Breeding Field Walk
May 1, 2024
Freeville, NY
You're invited to join us for a Cover Crop Breeding Field Walk!
The Cover Crop Breeding Network breeds fall-sown cover crops for traits like fall emergence, winter survival, spring vigor, high biomass, hard seed, and non-shattering pods
Join us to walk the trial fields, talk about what we're seeing (and not seeing), hear about past years' results, and learn about CCB lines approaching commercialization.
Advanced line trials - Crimson clover, hairy vetch, winter pea, and winter canola
Planting date trials - Cereal rye and winter pea
Breeding nurseries - Cereal rye and winter pea (across the road & optional!)
Meat Your Farmer 2024
May 2, 2024 : Meat Your Farmer 2024
East Aurora, NY
This event brings together livestock farmers and the community to learn about local bulk meat sales and to taste recipes created for NYS schools, featuring meats from local farms. We are currently looking for farmers to participate in the event!
Western NY Value-Added Dairy Discussion Group: Jess May- Farm Credit East Webinar
May 2, 2024
We will start our Value-Added Dairy Processing discussion group series with a guest speaker from Farm Credit East. On May 2nd at noon, Jess May will join us to discuss the lender's point of view for on-farm processing and diversification. This is free to join and will be recorded.
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