FARM Animal Care Version 5 Development

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

• Detailing science-based animal care guidelines that evolve with the latest dairy research
• Providing on-farm evaluations by trained evaluators who work with farmers to identify strengths and, if necessary, outline improvements
• Ensuring the integrity of the program with third party verification by qualified dairy experts who evaluate a representative percentage of farms each year to demonstrate that FARM is working as intended

98% of the US milk supply participates in the FARM Animal Care program area. Dairy farmers participate in the program through their milk cooperatives, processors, individual farms, and other organizations. When an organization signs a FARM Animal Care participation form, they commit that 100% of their membership will be evaluated against the current animal care version’s standards and is subject to third party verification.

The National Dairy FARM Animal Care Program standards are formally revised every three years through a year to year and a half long process. Those involved in the developing and revising standards include:

• Farmer Advisory Council
• Animal Care Taskforce
• NMPF Board of Directors

FARM will accept comments on the drafted FARM Animal Care Version 5 standards from September 12th – October 28th

Once the open comment period is closed, the Animal Care Task Force, Farmer Advisory Council, NMPF Animal Health & Well-being committee and NMPF Board of Directors will review submissions and consider feedback before NMPF Board of Directors approve the final standards.

FARM Animal Care Version 5 will go into effect July 1, 2024. Version 5 will then be in place from July 1, 2024 until June 30, 2027.

No. The majority of the standards from Version 4 are remaining the same in Version 5. The Version 5 standards will include minor refinements and clarifications that will improve consistency in FARM Animal Care on-farm Evaluations.

Descriptions of the new standards are available at the top of this page. A complete list of changes can be read here.

Second-Party Evaluations for FARM Animal Care Version 5 will begin July 1, 2024 and run in the usual three-year cycle. Your second-party evaluator, employed or contracted by your milk marketer should be your number one resource for all FARM Program matters. FARM resources such as the Animal Care Prep. Guide, Reference Manual and FARM website (coming January 2024), are the best place to find relevant information.