The dairy paperwork is done:
It’s a stressor, the demands get longer and worst of all it requires calling a supplier and the vet to our farm
Today, July 25, 2024, we have successfully completed our seventh CQM/ProAction validation.
With our Cattle Assessment completed earlier in the spring without problems and our Grade A certification earned in February, we can somewhat relax for another two years. Just the Self Evaluation to be submitted in July 2025.
When the CQM/ProAction started in 2012 we were not happy with the prospect of added paperwork in our daily lives, and we still aren’t. It takes a fair chunk of time to get all the papers gathered and completed for the evaluator although a bit of planning on our part has made it easier.
When the supplied yellow binder fell apart after a few years, spewing the contents everywhere, we supplied our own better quality loose leaf binder, attaching the yellow cover from the old one to it. A couple of packages of vinyl page protectors inside and the checklist of what they want included now speeds it all up a bit!
With everything in the checklist’s order it is an easier project to find and replace the old info sheets with the current ones, checking them off as you go. But two things still infuriate us.
Number one is that we have to call in our “soap” supplier to do a check of the milking system and have our vet make a special trip to fill out forms and speak to us when he is already here several times a year… and all at our expense.
Number two is that the Dairy Trace record keeping is so poor. Being in Eastern Ontario, when we sell cattle through our local sales barn, if they go to Quebec or the U.S., the buyers don’t report the purchase to Dairy Trace. If someone buys a cull cow to milk or slaughter or purchases one of our 500 lb. steers, they don’t report their purchase either. Consequently I have to print out pages of cow numbers that are supposedly on our farm, check them off against our registrations and list of bull tags and then delete them myself. When Dairy Trace first started, our initial report had over 700 cows listed…..and about 620 to be deleted!
For our 2022 validation I just wrote that Dairy Trace was listing 13 more cattle than what we have on the farm. I didn’t delete them, my act of defiance! This year that number has increased by 20 so I decided to crosscheck the numbers and do the deleting myself as no one else was going to do it and it was getting out of hand. It took me a couple of hours last night, grumbling the whole time.
There can’t possibly be anything else they can add to the checklist and this year’s validator feels the same. (Hi Charlene!)
Although this program has been going on since 2012 (for us), it is still, above all, a stress causer as one looks at the ever growing list of what they want you to provide and try to figure out when and where you can find the time to complete it in time. More correctly, what jobs will you let slide to get it all done?
One thing I did notice this year which will make it easier in 2026 was that on the Certificate of Readiness, which is sent to the CQM prior to the inspection, it states, in part, “Have at least three consecutive months of complete proAction records.”
I don’t know if this is new or changed or if I just never noticed it before but to only have to supply 3 months instead of 24 is a huge relief!!
Christmas in July!!!
Angela Dorie is an agricultural writer and a Jersey farmer near Cornwall.
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