introduce cattle quickly into our herd, and this is due to the challenges around being able to isolate incoming cattle and not having special pens to allow us to do this for any pro- longed period,” Taylor explains. “We also still feed raw milk (not saleable) to our young calves. This is an example of something that is not a requirement but is part of the risk as- sessment we do with the veterinarian.” Taylor says that overall, he certainly expected to have to cre- ate SOPs around cow health events, to do some type of risk assessment and to have to make signage changes. “I’m not sure I expected to be challenged around farm tours and the risks associated with people on our farm,” he adds, “[or that I] expected the challenges of taking information from the risk assessment and implementing best practices around all of them.” There are so many things that farmers can focus on in their operations, he notes, but there is also “the practicality of only being able to work within the particular barn style and property that one has.”


Ongoing focus Taylor is also not sure he expected to learn as much as he has about biosecurity. “Any time we [dairy farmers] face more


regulation or requirements, there is an adjustment in mindset to adopt what needs to be done,” he says. “More than that, though, is the importance of seeing why biosecurity is impor- tant. I have come to really appreciate the importance of biose- curity on our farm through this programme, and what it forces one to think about with the risk assessment.” While implementation of this module is complete at Viewfield Farm, the focus on biosecurity will of course be ongoing. Tay- lor reports that there are certain items in the risk assessment that he and his family are still evaluating in terms of improve- ment, and they are also exploring ways of possibly changing some of their practices to better protect their herd. All in all, he says the biosecurity module has not been difficult to imple- ment, but does involve constant challenge to do things better and to minimise risk. “That is the ongoing challenge of this module, in my opinion,” he says. What Taylor describes seems to perfectly exemplify what DFC has always foreseen for every stage of proAction implementa- tion – the fostering of continuous improvement in Canada’s dairy industry. As Wiens says, maintaining a rigorous and cred- ible quality assurance program like proAction is important, “because our industry has made a pledge to lead, not follow.”


The implemen- tation of the bio security module is com- plete at View- field Farm.


▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 7, No. 2, 2020


11


PHOTO: VIEWFIELD FARMS


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