Anticipate, Prepare, and Protect

Are you interested in establishing a farm crisis plan? Do you want to learn what crisis prevention and preparedness resources are available to you?

Indiana Dairy Producers is partnering with American Dairy Association Indiana, the Indiana dairy checkoff, to help farmers create farm crisis plans. We are looking for farmers who would like to participate in a small group training in your area. This free crisis planning session would leave you feeling prepared to handle situations like: an undercover video, a barn fire, a food safety concern, a natural disaster, a farm injury or fatality, worker issues, foreign animal disease, and more.

Through your dairy checkoff and other dairy organizations such as National Milk Producers Federation and International Dairy Foods Association, the dairy industry has an extensive, industry-wide crisis and issues response plan for everything from hoof-and-mouth disease and undercover videos to nuclear radiation and foodborne illness. This training will focus on crisis preparedness for your individual farm and what resources exist locally and nationally to help Indiana dairy farmers prevent, prepare for, and recover from a crisis.

If you are interested in developing a crisis plan, please contact Doug Leman (dougleman@indianadairy.org or 317-695-8228) and let us know if you would like to participate in a training. We will plan trainings in the area of those who show interest, so make sure to let us know if you think you would like a training. If you have facilities to host a training on your farm, let us know and you may not have to travel very far at all!

After leaving this small and focused half-day training, your farm crisis plan will be fully fleshed out and complete.

You will have identified all members of your farm crisis team, assessed risks to determine areas of vulnerability on your farm, networked with some of the neighbors you may rely on in a crisis situation, filled out a crisis contact sheet, and learned what Indiana Dairy Producers and your dairy checkoff will do to assist your recovery.  

Two proposals related to somatic cell count limit changes were brought before the 51 potential delegates at this year's biennial National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS), held in Portland, Ore., April 24-29.

Again a proposal to lower the somatic cell count to 400,000, already required for any products to be exported to Europe, and therefore required by most processors/cooperatives as a geometric mean. But, again, it was defeated, reported the National Mastitis Council. This year's vote was 18 yes to 32 no (Delaware did not attend) from the delegates representing 49 states and Puerto Rico. Thus, the national somatic cell count limit will remain at 750,000.  

Read the full article here. 

Dairy Youth Academy Current Class 2014-2015

Applications are now being taken for the 2015-2016 Indiana 4-H Dairy Youth Academy. This year-long dairy leadership experience is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for high school youth who have a passion for dairy.

To be eligible to participate in the academy you must be in grades 10-12 by September 1, 2015. You must be currently enrolled in the 4-H program and able to reasonably commit to the Dairy Youth Academy from September of the current year to August of the following year. You may not exhibit dairy animals at the World Dairy Expo during the current year or participate in the National 4-H Dairy Cattle Judging Contest during the current year.

The top 14 delegates will be selected based on their leadership and written application by a panel of industry and extension representatives. Upon acceptance in the Academy, delegates must pay a fee of $100. Most expenses will be generously covered by our sponsors. Deadline to apply is June 1, 2015.  

    As soon as the Food and Drug Administration released the results of its national drug residue testing survey earlier this year, you knew more testing would be required.

In the survey, FDA found 16 residues on 15 of the nearly 2,000 farms it surveyed. That's a violation rate of only 0.7%. While that doesn't seem like a lot, rounded up it means 1% of raw milk samples contain antibiotics. That's a high enough number to panic a skittish public, which demands zero tolerance to food adulteration.

As a result, FDA and state health regulators are initiating a pilot project  to look at schemes that will screen for an additional seven antibiotics. The pilot program was established last week at the National Conference for Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS). NCIMS is made up of state health regulators  and the FDA, and meets every other year.

    The new testing protocols could likely require that no less than one in seven tankers be tested for sulfonamides and no less than one in 15 tankers be tested for the other six drugs. But because FDA has not established safe or tolerance levels for some of the drugs to be tested, the agency will first need to establish "target test levels" for each, explains Pat Gorden, an Iowa State University veterinarian.

    Once those target test levels are established, drug test kit manufacturers can develop tests that are sensitive to those levels. It's likely test kit development, training and sampling protocols won't be available until next year. Even then, no firm timelines for additional testing have been set.  

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