Food safety | Producers have until Aug. 1 to comply with new production procedures
WARMAN, Sask. — Saskatchewan milk producers will soon be required to develop and follow standard operating procedures when milking, feeding and caring for their dairy herds.
The SOPs, to be implemented Aug. 1, will deal with a variety of production-related practices, including pre-milking routines, milking procedures, post milking cleanup, shipping and feeding practices and livestock treatment procedures.
The Agri-Food Council of Sask-atchewan approved the requirement for mandatory SOPs earlier this year.
Details of the program will be mailed to the province’s 166 dairy producers in the coming months.
Read Also
China’s grain imports have slumped big-time
China purchased just over 20 million tonnes of wheat, corn, barley and sorghum last year, that is well below the 60 million tonnes purchased in 2021-22.
Program details will also be published on the SaskMilk website at www.saskmilk.ca.
“We’re doing this, really, to improve the quality of milk on our farms,” SaskMilk chair Blaine McLeod told dairy producers at a recent industry meeting in Warman.
“We want you to be developing procedures on your farm that are going to help you produce good quality, safe milk.”
Saskatchewan milk producers must comply with the provincial requirements by Aug. 1, and failure to comply will result in monetary penalties.
“The penalties are to act as a deterrent, and are not intended to be heavy-handed. We are going to be watching for consistent non-compliance,” said McLeod
Saskatchewan SOP requirements will be similar to those contained in the Canadian Quality Milk (CQM) program.
The CQM program, administered by the Dairy Farmers of Canada, is a national on-farm food safety program that will eventually apply to all dairy producers in Canada.
Dairy farmers across the country must comply with the CQM program before Jan. 1, 2016.
The Saskatchewan SOPs will address many of the same production-related activities as the CQM program, although Saskatchewan producers will not be required — at least for the time being — to provide as much detail on a handful of issues, including the use of veterinary prescriptions and medicines.
Implementation of provincial SOPs by August 2013 will bring Saskatchewan producers closer to CQM compliance and will allow the province’s dairy farms to achieve full CQM compliance more easily, McLeod said.
He called the SOPs a stepped approach to ensuring that Saskatchewan producers are on track with the national program.
“With the SOPs in place, full compliance to CQM will be the next step and could be achieved in short order,” he said.
Saskatchewan producers that are registered on the CQM program as of Jan. 1, 2014, will qualify for a CQM bonus.
The value of that bonus is estimated at an average of $1,500 per farm, per year, and will help dairy farmers offset the costs of implementing on-farm food safety measures, McLeod added.
