October 2016 • Country Life in BC
15 Mainstream media isn’t telling the whole story: dairy audits by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – Dairy industry leaders say recent animal care audits on BC farms indicate the new program is working, rather than the failure of farmers to care for their animals. In a front-page story in mid-September, The Province and Vancouver Sun used Freedom-of-Information documents to show that over 25% of 73 farms had failed their initial animal care audits.
The situation is not as bad as the story suggests, insists BC Dairy Association (BCDA) president Dave Taylor. “If the inspector wrote one corrective action, even a minor one, it’s a fail,” he notes, pointing out the audit is a brand new program and farmers are just learning what all the requirements are. The program is based on the 2009 Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle. In September 2014, the BC Milk Marketing Board (BCMMB) made the code mandatory on BC dairy farms, with the same
penalties as apply to the non- compliance with the Canadian Quality Milk program.
Non-compliance punished
Farmers who are non- compliant and fail to take corrective action would lose their quality bonus and incentive days, receive no new quota, and be barred from making credit transfers or using the quota exchange. “If we were to find a suspected case of animal cruelty, we would refer it to the BC SPCA. Once it’s confirmed, we would suspend milk pickup. If it is not corrected, we could cancel the licence,” says BCMMB general manager Bob Ingratta.
Taylor, whose farm was among the 73 audited farms, called the audit a thorough process. “They were at my farm for over an hour. They started with the calf housing and went up from there. They looked at everything.” Although his farm passed with flying colours, “I know other excellent farmers who had to make some corrective action and they did.” BCDA executive director Dave Eto says the fact not everyone passed the initial audit shows the integrity of the program. “We raised the bar high. If everyone complied the first-time around, we would be asked if the standards were too low.
We’re learning and we’re complying. Farmers want to continuously improve.” Right now, dairy farmers are actually being subjected to two separate audits. While the audits referred to in the media story were done by BCMMB’s independent inspectors, the BCDA is also conducting audits as part of the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) ProAction Initiative (PAI).
And more inspections
Animal care was included in PAI in November 2015, and the BCDA started doing inspections this year. To mid- September, the BCDA had performed 170 animal care inspections and expects to hit 250 farms by the end of 2016. The remaining 250 farms will be audited in 2017. DFC has been training Holstein Canada classifiers to take over the animal care assessments beginning in October.
Ingratta says both audit programs use the ProAction workbook, which is based on the Code of Practice, and will be merged “as soon as possible.” While DFC will do the audits, Ingratta says the BCMMB will maintain responsibility for ensuring compliance.
“I would hope consumers would see this as a credible regulatory program. It’s working and not everyone will pass the first time,” Ingratta says.
Taylor says it’s all about maintaining public trust. He admits stories like the one in The Province and Vancouver Sun do not help but says “that’s just the reality. We’re so distant from the consumer and who are they going to believe? We’re just going to keep going down a path.”
Public trust a priority
BC Agriculture Council executive director Reg Ens agrees. The BCAC has made maintaining and increasing public trust in farmers a priority and has to take the good with the bad. “I heard one person say ‘you will never out- communicate Hollywood,’ and that’s true. All we can do is make sure we’re doing the right thing and testing it. That way we can tell people, this is the improvement we have made,” he says. Ens notes the dairy
program was only introduced in 2014 and had its first inspections in 2015.
“Let’s see what 2016 and 2017 look like before we pass judgment.”
Dairy leaders are saying mainstream media is blowing dairy audit failures out of proportion. (Cathy Glover file photo)
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