Farmers wanting to gain a premium by advancing from the standard NZ Farm Assured certification to the premium Plus option will need animal health plans as part of their business.
Dan Brier, Beef + Lamb NZ’s GM for farming excellence, said an animal health plan (AHP) is an integral part of the NZFAP-Plus certification scheme.
The programme covers origin, traceability, food safety and animal welfare standards for global consumers and is jointly established by meat processors to streamline certification processes.
“Farmers wanting to be part of the Plus scheme would be well advised to have a good AHP. It would typically be put together between the farmer and their animal health expert, most likely their veterinarian,” Brier said.
He said having a vet on board in a regular, consultative way is no different to having any other farm expert, whether it is an accountant or farm adviser, offering insightful, regular information.
“It just makes good sense.”
Sometimes farmers can be wary about engaging so proactively with their veterinarian in formulating an AHP, concerned it may result in a greater spend on animal remedies.
“But what it involves is often planning for prevention, which is always more cost effective than a cure. If you can go into setting an AHP understanding how to manage the use of certain vaccinations, for example, your vet knows your farm, knows your district and whether certain treatments will be necessary or not.”
The form of the plan doesn’t have to be the latest, highly digitised version if that’s not what a farmer wishes to use.
“You can go low fidelity, keep it in a notebook, on a calendar on the office wall where it can be seen.
“More importantly, it should be a living document, not something that goes to the bottom drawer to be forgotten.”
With the rise in parasite resistance, more farmers are keen to integrate a parasite management plan well into their AHP.
“It is something we are now seeing a renewed interest in across the entire pastoral sector, not just in the sheep sector, as resistance starts to be seen in cattle and dairy cows.
“We are lucky to have people like Dave Leathwick who has been signalling this for years and no doubt he feels some frustration about it taking this long. But now we are on a burning platform, there is pressure to do something about it.”
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