Definitions:

1) Dairy Farming

2) Management of a Dairy herd

3) Dairy Farming Market

4) The European Union Market

5) Competition

6) Dairy products

7) Types of dairy products

8) Dairy cattle

9) Metabolisable energy (ME)

10) Dry Matter (%)

11) Compound feeds

12) Feed Manufacture

13) Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)

14) Feeding Milking Cows

15) Forage type


Ufas definitions:

Additives

Approved Suppliers

Batch

Carry-over

Complementary feeds

Complete feeds

Compound feed


 


 

1) Dairy Farming

Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.

Most dairy farms sell the male calves born by their cows, usually for veal production, or breeding depending on quality of the bull calf, rather than raising non-milk-producing stock. Many dairy farms also grow their own feed, typically including corn, grass, and hay. This is fed directly to the cows, or is stored as silage for use during the winter season.

 


 

2) Management of a Dairy herd


Modern dairy farmers use milking machines and sophisticated plumbing systems to harvest and store the milk from the cows, which are usually milked two or three times daily. During the summer months, cows may be turned out to graze in pastures, both day and night, and are brought into the barn to be milked.

Barns may also incorporate tunnel ventilation into the architecture of the barn structure. This ventilation system is highly efficient and involves opening both ends of the structure allowing cool air to blow through the building. Farmers with this type of structure keep cows inside during the summer months to prevent sunburn and damage to udders. During the winter months the cows may be kept in the barn, which is warmed by their collective body heat. Even in winter, the heat produced by the cattle requires the barns to be ventilated for cooling purposes. Many modern facilities, and particularly those in tropical areas, keep all animals inside at all times to facilitate herd management.

 


 

3) Dairy Farming Market
There is a great deal of variation in the pattern of dairy production worldwide. Many countries which are large producers consume most of this internally, while others (in particular New Zealand), export a large percentage of their production. Internal consumption is often in the form of liquid milk, while the bulk of international trade is in processed dairy products such as milk powder.

Worldwide, the largest producer is India, the largest exporter is New Zealand, and the largest importer is Japan.

 


 

4) The European Union Market

The European Union is the largest milk producer in the world, with 143.7 million tonnes in 2003. This data, encompassing the present 25 member countries, can be further broken down into the production of the original 15 member countries, with 122 million tonnes, and the new 10 mainly former Eastern European countries with 21.7 million tonnes.

Dairy production is heavily distorted due to the Common Agricultural Policy—being subsidized in some areas, and subject to production quotas in other.

 


 

5) Competition

Most milk-consuming countries have a local dairy farming industry, and most producing countries maintain significant subsidies and trade barriers to protect domestic producers from foreign competition, but New Zealand, the largest dairy exporting country, does not apply any subsidies to dairy production.

The milking of cows was traditionally a labor-intensive operation and still is in less developed countries. Small farms need several people to milk and care for only a few dozen cows, though for many farms these employees have traditionally been the children of the farm family, giving rise to the term "family farm".

Advances in technology have mostly led to the radical redefinition of "family farms" in industrialized countries such as the United States. With farms of hundreds of cows producing large volumes of milk, the larger and more efficient dairy farms are more able to weather severe changes in milk price and operate profitably, while "traditional" very small farms generally do not have the equity or cash flow to do so. The common public perception of large corporate farms supplanting smaller ones is generally a misconception, as many small family farms expand to take advantage of economies of scale, and incorporate the business to limit the legal liabilities of the owners and simplify such things as tax management.

Before large scale mechanization arrived in the 1950s, keeping a dozen milk cows for the sale of milk was profitable. Now most dairies must have more than one hundred cows being milked at a time in order to be profitable, with other cows and heifers waiting to be "freshened" to join the milking herd . In New Zealand the average herd size, depending on the region, is about 350 cows.

Herd size in the US varies between 1,200 on the West Coast and Southwest, where large farms are commonplace, to roughly 50 in the Northeast, where land-base is a significant limiting factor to herd size. The average herd size in the U.S. is about one hundred cows per farm.

Currently, concerns regarding monopolies created by Dean Foods, Kraft, and other major buyers of bulk dairy products on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have been raised, as American dairy farms have suffered extreme price depression and chaotic fluctuations while processors and retailers report record profits. The same has happened in the UK due to the price of milk being fixed by supermarkets. Many theorize that unregulated imports of milk protein concentrate used by processors to boost cheese yield has artificially and unfairly influenced the markets in an effort to force consolidation and vertical integration in what has historically been a highly diversified industry.

 


 

6) Dairy products

Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing comes mainly from cows, and, to a lesser extent, from other mammals such as goats, sheep, yaks, camels, or horses. Dairy products are commonly found in European, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine, whereas they are almost unknown in East Asian cuisine.

 


 

7) Types of dairy products

Milk after optional homogenization, pasteurization, in several grades after standardization of the fat level, and possible addition of bacteria Streptococcus lactis and Leuconostoc citrovorum.

  • Crème fraîche, slightly fermented cream
  • Smetana, Central and Eastern European variety of sour cream
  • Clotted cream, thick spoonable cream made by heating
  • Cultured buttermilk, fermented concentrated (water removed) milk using the same bacteria as sour cream
  • Kefir, fermented milk resembling buttermilk but based on different yeast and bacteria culture
  • Kumis/Airag, slightly fermented mares' milk popular in Central Asia
  • Milk powder (or powdered milk), produced by removing the water from milk
  • Whole milk products
  • Buttermilk products
  • Skim milk
  • Ice Cream
  • High milk-fat & nutritional products (for infant formulas)
  • Cultured and confectionery products
  • Condensed milk, milk which has been concentrated by evaporation, often with sugar added for longer life in an opened can
  • Evaporated milk, (less concentrated than condensed) milk without added sugar.
  • Infant formula, dried milk powder with specific additives for feeding human infants
  • Baked milk, a variety of boiled milk that has been particularly popular in Russia
  • Butter, mostly milk fat, produced by churning cream
  • Buttermilk, the liquid left over after producing butter from cream, often dried as livestock food
  • Ghee, clarified butter, by gentle heating of butter and removal of the solid matter
  • Smen, a fermented clarified butter used in Moroccan cooking.
  • Anhydrous milkfat
  • Cheese, produced by coagulating milk, separating from whey and letting it ripen, generally with bacteria and sometimes also with certain molds Curds, the soft curdled part of milk (or skim milk) used to make cheese (or casein)
  • Paneer
  • Whey, the liquid drained from curds and used for further processing or as a livestock food
  • Cottage cheese
  • Cream cheese, produced by the addition of cream to milk and then curdled to form a rich curd or cheese made from skim milk with cream added to the curd
  • Fromage frais
  • Yogurt, milk fermented by Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus.

 


 

8) Dairy cattle

Dairy cattle (dairy cows) are cattle cows (adult females) bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cows generally are of the species Bos taurus.

Historically, there was little distinction between dairy cattle and beef cattle, with the same stock often being used for both meat and milk production. Today, the bovine industry is more specialized and most dairy cattle have been bred to produce large volumes of milk. The United States dairy herd produced 83.9 billion kg (185 billion lbs) of milk in 2007, up from 52.6 billion kg (116 billion lbs) in 1950. Yet there are more than 9 million cows on U.S. dairy farms—about 13 million fewer than there were in 1950.

 


 

9) Metabolisable energy (ME)

This is quoted as Mega joules per kilogram of dry matter.

It is a measure of the useful energy in a feed, representing that portion of the feed gross energy not lost in the faeces, urine and eructated gas.

It is also the energy that is not lost through the kidneys in the urine, and which is available and used by the tissues.

Can also be referred to as the "digestible energy" (DE) less the energy lost as methane from the rumen and energy lost in urine by ruminant animals.

 


 

10) Dry Matter (%)

The dry matter (also known as dry weight) is a measurement of the mass of something when completely dried (i.e. after removal of the moisture).

Dry matter includes proteins, milk fat, milk sugars and minerals.
Feed free of moisture or 100% DM. Feeds are expressed on a DM basis due to the large variation in moisture or DM content of feeds fed to cattle.

 


 

11) Compound feeds

Compound feeds are feedstuffs that are blended from various raw materials and additives. These blends are formulated according to the specific requirements of the target animal (e.g. a dairy cow). They are manufactured by feed compounders as meal type, pellets or crumbles.

Compound feeds can be complete feeds that provide all the daily required nutrients, concentrates that provide a part of the ration (protein, energy) or supplements that only provide additional micronutrients, such as minerals and vitamins.

Ufas definition: "mixtures of products of vegetable or animal origin in their natural state, fresh or preserved, or products derived from the industrial processing thereof, or organic or inorganic substances, whether or not containing additives, for oral animal feeding in the form of complete feed or complementary feeds."

 


 

12) Feed Manufacture

The job of the feed manufacturer is to buy the commodities and blend them in the feed mill according to the specifications outlined by the nutritionist. There is little room for error because, if the ration is not apportioned correctly, lowered animal production and diminished outward appearance can occur.

 


 

13) Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)

HACCP is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection. HACCP is used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards, so that key actions can be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards being realized.

 


 

14) Feeding Milking Cows

Lactating dairy cows must consume large quantities of dry matter (DM) to provide the nutrients necessary to maintain high levels of milk production. The consequences of low dry matter intake include lower peak milk yield, lower total milk production, excessive body weight loss and consequently poor reproductive performance.
Dry matter intake (DMI) in the autumn calved cow is a function of both animal and feed factors as well as management. A number of factors affect dry matter intake including forage quality, diet specification, feeding facilities, diet palatability, dry matter of the feed, environmental stress as well as general management factors. This paper will outline the main drivers of intake in the dairy cow.

 


 


15) Forage type
High quality forages support higher DMI than lower quality forages. Low quality forages are digested slowly and remain in the rumen for longer periods, limiting rumen capacity. Allocation of a greater proportion of concentrates in the diet may partially compensate for low quality forage but there is a limit to this as the cow needs a minimum roughage of at least 40% of DMI as forage. This is necessary to maintain a healthy rumen. The addition of a second forage such as maize or whole crop will have the effect of stimulating intake. Moorepark research has shown improvements in intake of 2.5 – 3.0 kg DM from the inclusion of a second forage. However, the gain from a third forage in the diet is limited and not likely to be worth the additional complication in the feeding system. For drier parts of the country with a very long grazing season, the second forage could be grazed grass.

 


 

Ufas definitions

Additives
Substances, micro organisms or preparations, other than feed materials and
premixtures, which are intentionally added to feed or water in order to perform, in
particular, one or more of the following functions:
a) Favourably affect the characteristics of feed
b) Favourably affect the characteristics of animal products
c) Favourably affect the colour of ornamental fish and birds
d) Satisfy the nutritional needs of animals
e) Favourably affect the environmental consequences of animal production
f) Favourably affect animal production, performance or welfare, particularly by affecting
the gastro-intestinal flora or digestibility of feedingstuffs,
g) Have a coccidiostatic or histomonostatic effect (Regulation (EC) No 1831/2003)
The Additive Categories are;-
(a) technological additives: any substance added to feed for a technological purpose;
(b) sensory additives: any substance, the addition of which to feed improves or
changes the organoleptic properties of the feed, or the visual characteristics of the food
derived from animals;
(c) nutritional additives;
(d) zootechnical additives: any additive used to affect favourably the performance of
animals in good health or used to affect favourably the environment;
(e) coccidiostats and histomonostats.
For the purpose of these Codes of Practice, the term “additive” includes additives which
are included within a medicated premixture, or an additive premixture

 


Approved Suppliers

certificated merchant or feed manufacturer participants in the
AIC Universal Feed Assurance Scheme



Batch
a specific quantity of material produced in a process or series of processes that is
homogeneous

 

Carry-over
the level of transfer of a “contaminant” from one production batch to the immediate
subsequent batch in a particular section of the plant, for example, a mixer or a hand tip
point

 

Complementary feeds
mixtures of feeds which have a high content of certain substances and which, by
reason of their composition, are sufficient for a daily ration only if they are used in
combination with other feeds
Complementary mineral feeds
mixtures of feeds which have a high content of certain substances and which, by
reason of their composition, are sufficient for a daily ration only if they are used in
combination with other feeds



Complete feeds
mixtures of feeds which, by reason of their composition, are sufficient for a daily ration

 

Compound feed
mixtures of products of vegetable or animal origin in their natural state, fresh or
preserved, or products derived from the industrial processing thereof, or organic or
inorganic substances, whether or not containing additives, for oral animal feeding in the
form of complete feed or complementary feeds

 

Contaminant
impurities of a chemical or microbiological nature or foreign matter

 

Contamination
the undesired introduction of impurities of a chemical or microbiological nature or
foreign matter into or onto an incoming or a finished feed during production, sampling,
packaging or repackaging, storage or transport

 

Control Measure
any action and activity that can be used to prevent or eliminate a food / feed safety
hazard or reduce it to an acceptable level

 

Controlled products
VMPs, SFAs, premixtures containing VMPs and/ or SFAs
Corrective Action
action to eliminate the cause of a detected nonconformity or other undesirable situation

 

Critical Limit (Codex)
criterion that separates acceptability from unacceptability

 

Cross-contamination
the undesired introduction of a residue of a feed ingredient from previous batches that
is present in subsequent batches at unacceptable levels

 

DARD
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Northern Ireland. Within the UFAS
Documents read as equivalent national competent authority for other countries

 

Defra
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of Great Britain. Within the UFAS
Documents read as equivalent national competent authority for other countries

 

DoH
Department of Health of Great Britain. Within the UFAS Documents read as equivalent
national competent authority for other countries
Feed (or feedingstuff)
any substance or product, including additives, whether processed, partially processed
or unprocessed, intended to be used for oral feeding to animals (Regulation (EC) No
178/2002)

 

Feed Hygiene
the measures and conditions necessary to control hazards and to ensure fitness for
animal consumption of a feed, taking into account its intended use (EC Feed Hygiene
Regulation 183/2005)

 

Feed Ingredients
means all ingredients included in a compound feed, including feed materials, veterinary
medicinal products, medicated premixtures, specified feed additives and other
additives, and any other materials or products

 

Feed materials
various products of vegetable or animal origin, in their natural state, fresh or preserved,
and products derived from the industrial processing thereof, and organic or inorganic
substances, whether or not containing additives, which are intended for use in oral
animal feeding either directly as such or after processing, in the preparation of
compound feeds or as carriers of premixtures

 

Feed Safety Assurance
part of feed safety management focused on providing confidence that feed safety
requirements will be fulfilled

 

Feed Safety Management
coordinated activities to direct and control an organisation with regard to feed safety

 

Finished Feed
general term used to denote products obtained at the end of the processing chain of the
company, i.e. compound feeds, medicated feeds or premixtures, and ready for delivery
to customers

 


Food
any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed,
intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans (Regulation (EC) No
178/2002)

 

FSA
Food Standards Agency of the UK. Within the UFAS Documents read as equivalent
national competent authority for other countries.

 

Hazard
biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of feed with the potential to cause
an adverse health effect (Regulation (EC) No 178/2002)

 

Hazard Analysis
the process of collecting and evaluating information on hazards, and conditions leading
to their presence, to decide which are significant for feed safety and therefore must be
addressed in the HACCP plan

 

Hazard Identification
the identification of biological, chemical, and physical agents, including those arising in
the production process, capable of causing adverse health effects and which may be
present in a particular feed

 

Incoming Feed
a general term used to denote raw materials delivered at the beginning of the
production chain i.e. feed materials, feed additives, processing aids and premixtures



Invoice-only merchant
a merchant participant who does not store, transport or otherwise handle the feeds they
trade. Participants who contract other parties to store, transport and/ or otherwise
handle feed on their behalf are not considered to be invoice-only merchants.

 

Lot or Run
a specific quantity of finished products that is expected to be homogeneous within
specified limits. A lot or run may correspond to a defined fraction of the production and
be composed of one or several batches. A lot or run size may be defined either by a
fixed quantity or the amount produced in a fixed time interval

 

Manufacture/ Production
all operations including receipt of materials, production, packaging, repackaging,
labelling, relabelling, control, release, storage, and distribution of premixtures,
compound feed and medicated feed and the related controls

 

Medicated Feed
any mixture of a veterinary medicinal product or products and feed or feeds which is
ready prepared for marketing and intended to be fed to animals without further
processing, because of its curative or preventive properties or other properties as a
medicinal product

 

Medicated Premixture
a mixture of a veterinary medicinal product or a specified feed additive with feed
materials, not intended for direct feeding to animals. For the purpose of these Codes of
Practice medicated compound feeds for further mixing on farm (“medicated
concentrates”) are not defined as medicated premixtures but are described as
medicated complementary feeds

 

MFS Prescription (MFSp)
a prescription made out by a registered veterinarian and personally signed and dated by
such veterinarian

 

Premixture
a mixture of feed additives or mixture of one or more feed additives with feed materials
or water used as carriers, not intended for direct feeding to animals. For the purpose of
these Codes of Practice compound feeds for further mixing on farm (“concentrates”)
are not defined as premixtures but are described as complementary feeds

 

Producer
organization or person that produces, manufactures, processes or grows the feed
ingredient. If they supply direct to the UFAS manufacturer, they are also “suppliers”
(see below)

 

Quality Controller
the designated person responsible for Quality control
UFAS Scheme Manual


Record
document stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed. May be
in paper or electronic format.

Reworks (Potential)
those feeds which are generated either during the production process, or subsequently,
which may be suitable for reworking if approved for this purpose

Reworks (Approved)
those feeds which have been confirmed by an appointed and competent person as
being suitable for reworking in accordance with the mill operating procedures and the
requirements of this Code of Practice and the mill HACCP study

Risk
a function of the probability of an adverse health effect and the severity of that effect,
consequential to a hazard (Regulation (EC) No 178/2002)

Site
factories / buildings sharing the same premises

Supplier
organization or person that directly supply the company with feed ingredients or
compound feeds

SFA feed
a feed containing one or more specified feed additives
Specified Feed Additive (SFA)
only these additives:
(a) coccidiostats,
(b) histomonostats, and
(c) all other zootechnical additives except:
(i) digestibility enhancers,
(ii) gut flora stabilisers, and
(iii) substances incorporated with the intention of favourably affecting the environment

Traceability
ability to trace the history, application or location of the product produced which is under
consideration

Undesirable Substances
Any substance or product, with the exception of pathogenic agents, which is present in
and/or on the product intended for animal feed and which presents a potential danger to
animal or human health or to the environment or could adversely affect livestock
production (Directive 2002/32/EC)
Veterinary Medicinal Product VMP (Medicinal substance)
(a) any substance or combination of substances presented as having properties for
treating or preventing disease in animals; or
(b) any substance or combination of substances that may be used in, or administered
to, animals with a view either to restoring, correcting or modifying physiological
functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action, or to
making a medical diagnosis

VMD
Veterinary Medicines Directorate of UK#. Within the UFAS Documents read as
equivalent national competent authority for other countries
#Enforcement for Northern Ireland delegated to DARD

Wormers
in-feed wormers (i.e. anthelmintics) are classified as POM-VPS (i.e. Veterinarian,
Pharmacist, Suitably Qualified Person) in legislation. These products are subject to the
same cross contamination controls as other VMPs and feeds containing these products
are to be labelled as medicated feed

Zootechnical Additive
any additive used to maintain animals in good health or favourably affect their
performance.