Dairy Crest is continuing to support its farmers to deliver herd health improvements and achieve greater efficiency with the introduction of a new practical farm assessment, based on cow welfare measures within the farm environment.

The ‘MilkWell’ initiative is the latest in a series of developments to the WhiteGold Service, an on-farm support package available free of charge to Dairy Crest suppliers.

MilkWell has been developed in conjunction with the Dairy Herd Health & Productivity Service provided by The University of Edinburgh Vet School and one of the core services within the WhiteGold package. It will be exclusively available to the 1,300 farmers supplying Dairy Crest and will cover key herd health areas including lameness, mastitis, fertility, infectious disease, cow environment and feeding management.

Simon Phelps, Strategy Director from AB Sustain, who provide the WhiteGold Service stated: The aim of the new initiative is to help farmers identify the root cause of problems and provide practical support on how best to deal with these. The assessment will focus on outcome measures, a concept that is to be adopted by the Red Tractor Assurance Dairy Scheme. The farmer will receive a detailed report of performance together with recommendations on areas of potential improvement.

We have worked closely with the University of Edinburgh to compile practical information sheets and booklets, bringing together the latest information from the UK’s leading sources. Further support will also be available from the farmer’s dedicated WhiteGold adviser.

Group Milk Procurement Director for Dairy Crest, Mike Sheldon explained why he supports this new initiative, which is due to be launched later this year. “MilkWell has the potential to provide significant benefits to our supplying farmers and will complement the range of services already provided by WhiteGold. We are committed to supporting our farmers to achieve the highest standards and increase on-farm efficiency – our continued funding of the WhiteGold Service and delivering innovative solutions are key to our strategy.”