Stocksmanship Video Released by Milk Producers Federation

A new 27-minute video designed to help dairy producers on proper animal handling, or stocksmanship.

Emily Yeiser Stepp, Director of Animal Care for the FARM program, said the video was born out of partnership with the Beef Quality Assurance program.

“Proper stocksmanship and handling of dairy animals, whether they’re calves to adult cows. It deals a lot with slow, purposeful interactions with the cows, keeping things very calm and easy going.”

It covers topics like flight zones, points of balance, effectively moving cattle amongst other topics.

Yeiser Stepp said this also helps satisfy the FARM Animal Care Version 3.0 requirement, something that is becoming increasingly important because of the changes in the customer base.

“Our farms take great care of their cows because it’s the right thing to do, but our customers and our consumers as we know are a changing demographic today and they want that additional proof to assure them that their milk is coming from a good place.”

The video is broken up into chapters, so the full 27 minutes don’t have to be watched all at once, but rather producers can highlight areas to reinforce, or remind them what they do.

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