FARM Program Animal Care

Committed to excellent cow care

The FARM Animal Care Program demonstrates that dairy producers are committed to taking excellent care of their animals and producing safe, wholesome milk. The program:

• Details animal care guidelines in the FARM Animal Care Reference Manual that farmers follow for every cow and calf on the farm – guidelines that evolve with the latest dairy welfare research
• Provides on-farm second-party evaluations at least once every three years for participating farmers by trained evaluators who work with farmers to identify strengths and outline improvements, if necessary
• Ensures the integrity of the program with third-party verification by qualified third-party experts who evaluate a statistically significant  percentage of farms each year to demonstrate the integrity of the second-party evaluations and provide evidence that FARM is working as intended. (Results posted each year in our “Year in Review”)

Science-based, cow-centric

The FARM Animal Care Program is science-based with evaluation areas that are cow-focused. Additionally, the FARM Animal Care Program is facility and herd-size neutral. It includes cow and facility observations that are used to verify high animal care standards.

We know U.S. dairy farmers take excellent care of their animals. On-farm evaluations and verification simply demonstrate it to our customers and consumers.

FARM’s Animal Care Program standards are revised every three years by industry experts – farmers, animal scientists, veterinarians and co-op staff – who rely on the latest dairy welfare research.