Thursday, 15 December 2022 11:55

Animal wellbeing plan made simple

Written by  Staff Reporters
The WelFarm programme supports the relationship between the dairy farm and veterinarian, helping vets provide tailored advice and support. The WelFarm programme supports the relationship between the dairy farm and veterinarian, helping vets provide tailored advice and support.

A solution to help farmers complete the animal wellbeing part of their on-farm assessments will be available from this month thanks to a new relationship between WelFarm and Fonterra.

“We’ve just established an automated link which allows us to notify Fonterra when a farm has completed their Animal Wellbeing Plan with their vet through WelFarm,” says WelFarm general manager Samantha Tennent.

“It means it’ll be one less piece of paper they need to gather when preparing for their assessment.

“And the plans are stored in the WelFarm portal so when farms do want to refer to them they can easily log in to find it, which saves sifting through emails or requesting another copy from their vet.”

WelFarm developed their Animal Wellbeing Plan template in 2021 in response to the updated requirements from Fonterra for the Co-operative Difference.

“We recognised we were in a unique position already connecting vets and dairy farmers through the wider WelFarm programme,” Tennent says.

“So it made sense to include a simple method to help them develop their Animal Wellbeing Plans and leverage their data further.”

The WelFarm programme is a framework for proactive herd health and welfare management for a dairy herd. It has a simple reporting method and provides regional and national benchmarking through the web-based platform that gives context to herd data. The programme supports the relationship between the dairy farm and veterinarian, helping vets provide tailored advice and support.

If a farm is using the wider programme some of their metrics feed into the Animal Wellbeing Plan directly which gives vets and farmers more information to discuss as they develop their plans.

“Having a consistent approach to develop plans is valuable for farmers, Fonterra and the wider sector and using our system gives peace of mind as our template is live and gets updated as Fonterra’s requirements evolve,” Tennent says.

“This saves any back and forth if any updates were missed.”

The WelFarm programme is available through a number of vet clinics across New Zealand and more clinics join regularly. Tennent encourages farmers to ask their vet if they are already part of WelFarm or if they would consider joining.

They are also looking at other potential connections to support automatic data sharing to reduce the administrative burden and give farmers even more value from their herd health data.

More information can be found on WelFarm’s website welfarm.co.nz

More like this

Cynical politics

OPINION: There is zero chance that someone who joined Fonterra as a lobbyist, then served as a general manager of Fonterra's nutrient management programme, and sat on the board of Export NZ, a division of lobbyist group Business New Zealand, doesn't understand that local butter (and milk and cheese) prices are set by the international commodity price.

Why is butter so expensive in New Zealand? Fonterra explains

Kiwis love their butter, and that's great because New Zealand produces some of the best butter in the world. But when the price of butter goes up, it's tough for some, particularly when many other grocery staples have also gone up and the heat goes on co-operative Fonterra, the country's main butter maker. Here the co-op explains why butter prices are so high right now.

Featured

Rural backlash over plan to cut police staffing

Federated Farmers North Canterbury president Bex Green says two public meetings held this week should have made it loud and clear that rural families and businesses are concerned about proposed staffing changes at NZ Police.

DairyNZ thanks farm staff

August 6 marks Farm Worker Appreciation Day, a moment to recognise the dedication and hard mahi of dairy farm workers across Aotearoa - and DairyNZ is taking the opportunity to celebrate the skilled teams working on its two research farms.

Editorial: Getting RMA settings right

OPINION: The Government has been seeking industry feedback on its proposed amendments to a range of Resource Management Act (RMA) national direction instruments.

National

Machinery & Products

Fliegl offers effluent solutions

Founded in Germany as recently as 1977, today, the Fliegl Group employs more than 1100 workers, offering an expansive range…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Fatberg

OPINION: Sydney has a $12 million milk disposal problem.

Synlait snag

OPINION: Canterbury milk processor Synlait's recovery seems to have hit another snag.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter