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the care of our animals to enhance our record for animal care, ensuring community confidence and market access. As a key priority within the National Dairy Industry Animal Welfare Strategy Dairy Australia is making a substantial investment on behalf of the dairy industry into ensuring that all calves are managed across the calf supply chain to meet agreed industry practices and standards.

The Calf Management Program has been developed to address the health and welfare of all dairy calves and includes communicating with farm workers, transporters, saleyard operators and meat processors. There are three objectives within the Calf Management Program which are to:

› Ensure that all people working across the supply chain are aware of and are delivering on their responsibilities for good calf health and welfare outcomes.

› Provide assurances to government, consumers and the public that the calf supply chain is meeting its responsibilities.

› Confirm that recommended practices are underpinned by robust science and supported by appropriate industry tools and systems.

› Since the inception of the National Dairy Industry Animal Welfare Strategy in 2003 there have been many significant achievements concerning calf management.

OBJECTIVE 1: To ensure that all people working across the supply chain are aware of and are delivering on their responsibilities for good calf health and welfare outcomes.

Activities

› A list of industry agreed Essential Components for the management of all dairy calves across the supply chain has been established to include pre calving, traceability, feeding, a protective environment, health management, residue management, weaning and preparation for sale or transport to ensure good animal health and welfare outcomes.

› Surveys of farmers to find out about current practices in calf rearing and management for comparison against the essential components were undertaken to identify potential management issues that could result in adverse health and welfare outcomes for calves.

› Group discussions with farmers were used to test the practicality and likelihood of adoption of recommendations for improved calf management.

› Information has been developed and distributed to farmers and calf handlers on calf management practices using information gained from the review of current practices against industry agreed recommendations along with relevant Codes of Practices and Standards and Guidelines for calf welfare.

› Healthy Calf workshops on good calf management for farmers are being delivered in conjunction with the Dairy Extension Centre (DEC) and the National Centre for Dairy Education Australia (NCDEA).

› Development of resources for humane slaughter workshops to be delivered through NCDEA and appropriate service providers.

› In collaboration with the Meat Industry Training and Advisory Council (MINTRAC), and the NCDEA, training resources have been developed to support formal competencies in the managing and handling of calves destined for slaughter for people working with calves from farm to slaughter including transport and saleyard operators.

› Articles in rural media such as company newsletters and the Australian Dairy Farmer magazine are regularly published to remind farmers of their responsibilities for calf welfare and residue management.

› Collaboration with cattle vets has increased their communication with farmers including on responsibilities for calf welfare and residue management.

› Improvements in the tracing of calves from farm to slaughter through the calf supply chain integrity trial has enabled:

– The monitoring and investigation of animal health and welfare issues

– Feedback to dairy farmers on the residue and welfare status of calves sent to processors

› Reporting of residue test results and investigations of residue incidents has resulted in greater awareness of the importance of antibiotic residue management and the factors contributing to residue detections.

OBJECTIVE 2: Provide assurances to government, consumers and the public that the calf supply chain is meeting its responsibilities

Activities

› Current practices have been benchmarked to identify and report on continuous improvement in calf management.

› Media articles and reports on the work being undertaken and progress achieved in calf management are regularly published.

› The electronic tracking of calves from farm to slaughter is undertaken to monitor and investigate animal health and welfare issues.

› The dairy industry contributes to the development of Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Livestock.

› Components of calf management have been

incorporated into on-farm quality assurance programs.

› Key stakeholders in calf management are engaged through the Australian Dairy Famer (ADF) Strategic Reference Group for Calf Management.

OBJECTIVE 3: Confirm that recommended practices are underpinned by robust science and supported by appropriate industry tools and systems.

Activities

› Cattle vets are provided with appropriate information for them to pass on to farmers about good calf health and welfare practices.

› A trial using NLIS tags has been developed to enhance traceability of calves from farm to slaughter with support from ADF and AMIC and co- funding from DAFF and DPIV to:

– Develop and introduce supporting software to enable traceability from farm to slaughter

– Produce reports to enable the on-going monitoring of the health and welfare of calves sent to slaughter.

› A project to enable an understanding of antibiotic residue management in the context of current calf management practices has been implemented through a monitoring and investigation process.

› Dairy Australia has funded science based research and reviews to support the development of industry recommendations and Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Livestock including:

– a review of calf physiology and suitability for transport in first week of life

– a review of management of painful husbandry

processes in calves such as disbudding

– an assessment of cow and calf behavior and stress associated with time of separation of calf from dam

– science based research to support a maximum time off feed for bobby calves being transported to slaughter.

Program Outcomes

› A national, common understanding of what contributes to good calf management.

› On-going monitoring of animal husbandry practices demonstrate that dairy farmers are implementing robust calf husbandry and management systems, in line with industry agreed practices and standards.

› Industry agreed practices and standards for calf management are underpinned by contemporary science and research.

› Animal health, welfare and potential residue risks of calves are effectively managed through attention to high priority aspects.

› Calf management systems are able to withstand the pressures put on the system during peak calving periods

› Meat processors and regulators are confident that the dairy calf management system delivers calves that do not pose risks to the meat industry

› The entire dairy calf supply chain is working together to meet animal welfare and food safety objectives.

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