Hitting the QA mark in Mayo

There are now over 50,000 farms in the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Quality Assurance Scheme (SBLAS). Every year some issues come up around passing the inspection and the aim of this farm walk was to help farmers understand what is needed to pass the Bord Bia Quality Assurance audit. The Mayo event highlighted some common pitfalls that farmers make when completing their records. Changes to the scheme in 2017 have now meant there is a closeout model. This means that if there are issues identified as part of the audit and the farm does not pass, the farmer has one month to rectify the issues and once rectified the farm will then be quality assured. Quality Assurance status is not affected during this one month close-out period. The audit takes place every 18 months and Bord Bia has a help desk (01-524 0410) available to farmers to assist them with audit preparation and noncompliance issues raised during an audit. It’s important to remember that several of the requirements of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme are also required by the Department of Agriculture under cross compliance rules so keeping good records will help pass other inspections as well.

What is Origin Green?

Consumers want assurances on animal welfare, traceability, production systems and sustainability claims and the quality assurance programme provides this. Origin Green is Ireland’s food and drink sustainability programme. It’s a voluntary programme, led by Bord Bia, that brings together the food industry from farmers to food producers, retailers and food service operators with the common goal of sustainable food production. The programme aims to set and achieve sustainability targets and crucially allow this to be measured. Any farmer that is certified under the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme is a verified Origin Green member.

Records required for your Bord Bia audit

1. Bovine register/flock register

This can be recorded in the blue book or on agfood.ie. Agfood.ie must be available to be accessed by the auditor on the day of the audit. Where the blue book is in use it must be available to be viewed by the auditor on the day of the audit. Blue passport cards must be available for all cattle on the farm.

2. Animal remedy purchase record

Table 1 outlines an example of the Animal Remedy Purchase record and how it should be recorded. These records are required to be kept under legislation. All types of remedies should be recorded including antibiotics, vaccines, doses, drenches etc.

Records can be kept in a number of formats including purchase receipts, merchant statements, Bord Bia farm book or a computer programme. Date of purchase, medicine name, quantity purchased and name and address of supplier should be included.

3. Animal remedy usage record

The next step after purchase is usage and both need to match up. Common mistakes are made where 100ml of a remedy is purchased and 20ml are used but the 80ml that was left isn’t in the medicine cabinet.

The date of administration, name of the medicine, quantity administered to the animal, animal identification or group, date of end of withdrawal period, name of person administering medicine and prescribing vet if applicable are all needed in this section.

Bord Bia QA auditor Tom Callanan told farmers that he finds the most amount of issues are with withdrawal dates incorrectly recorded.

“There is a thought out there that every medicine has a withdrawal date of 28 days, but that’s not the case. It’s important to look at sheep and cattle withdrawal times as they are often different” What does the auditor look for regarding remedies as part of the audit?

• Will look at the remedy purchase record, remedy usage record and animal health plan.

• Will look at medicine store and note examples of medicines in use.

• Will ask farmer about medicine and routine for dosing etc.

• Will look for evidence of all information correlating.

• Auditor must determine if best practice is followed and responsible use is being adhered to.

4. Animal Health Plan

This is the farm’s plan for the year in relation to the farm’s dosing, vaccinations, etc. This can be completed by the farmer themselves or in conjunction with the vet.

This is in the format of ticking months when specific actions take place.

5. Feed Purchase Record

This is another requirement under legislation and information can be recorded in the Bord Bia farm book. All feed brought onto the farm must be recorded. This can be recorded by retaining all receipts, dockets or recording in a farm diary, computer programme or mobile app.

6. Own Farm Feed Record

The date of purchase, product name, batch number, quantity purchased and name and address of supplier. If there is feed produced on the farm e.g barley, the record of feed produced and quantity fed to animals should be kept.

7. Pesticide Usage Record

These records are required under legislation (Sustainable Use of Pesticide Directive). All pesticides used on the farm including the tillage enterprise must be recorded. Product name, PCS number, crop of intended use, area/tonnage treated, volume of water used, date applied and professional user number must all be recorded.

8. Farm Safety Statement

A farm safety statement is required where there are more than three employees on the farm. A sign must indicate its availability upon request. It’s important that these documents are regularly reviewed.

9. Sustainability Survey

The sustainability survey is posted out to a farmer pre-audit and can be completed beforehand to reduce the length of the audit time. The survey can also be completed online. The sustainability survey includes information on:

MCPA issues

Teagasc adviser Mary Roache gave a presentation on responsible use of pesticides. She explained that 20 years ago the level of watercourses attaining Q5 quality status of pristine was 13%.

This has now dropped to 0.7%. MCPA issues are more prevalent in areas where there is poor drainage, high water tables and rush infestation.

A foiled seal has enough MCPA to contaminate a 30km stream 1 metre wide. Mayo has a particular issue in relation to water quality problems and responsible use is needed to reverse this decline. Roache reminded farmers of the requirements under the sustainable use of pesticides which includes the training of the user and also the calibration of sprayers.

Quality Payment System (QPS)

There has always been some confusion around quality assurance and the quality payment system.

While your farm may be quality assured, this doesn’t necessarily mean all cattle and sheep sent for slaughter off your farm will receive the quality payment system bonus of 12 cent/kilo.

The QPS bonus is paid on steers and heifers and under 16 month bulls. Over 16 month bulls and cows are not included. The QPS bonus is paid by the processor and depends on meeting a number of criteria including having quality assurance (QA) status. Other criteria for making sure that QPS bonuses are attained include:

Carcase weight This can vary from processor to processor but in general will range from 250kg – 420kg depending on the type of cattle that are being slaughtered.

Age at slaughter

The 30 month age limit is the cut off to attain the Quality assurance payment. Processors say there are still an alarming number of cattle being killed at 31-32 months just outside the age limit. Make sure you check ages on cards regularly to ensure you attain all bonuses possible

Conformation grade

The grade of the animal will also determine getting the QA bonus. The range of grades that attain the QA payment are from an O= to a U+. E grade cattle will also attain the bonus.

Fat score

There are certain fat scores that are acceptable to attain the QA bonus. This is based on very lean cattle or over fat cattle being difficult to market so the bonus is paid on animals within the range of 2+ and 4= on fat score.

Residency rules

According to the Bord Bia rules cattle must have spent the last 70 days (unbroken) on a quality assured farm or farms to be deemed eligible for the QA payment. The animal can have spent 70 days on different farms once they were all quality assured and the chain hasn’t been broken. The residency requirement for sheep is 42 days. It’s important to check with the factory as to what the exact specifications are for movements for each particular factory

Movement rules

While many processors require that an animal has less than four movements in their lifetime before slaughter, this rule is not part of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance programme. It’s important to check movements on animals prior to purchase and talk to your processor about individual requirements.

Checking QA status

It is vital to check your QA status prior to slaughtering animals as once animals have been slaughtered it’s too late. Nothing can be changed post slaughter if there is a dispute.

You can check your herd/flock QA status prior to sending animals for slaughter at: https://qas.bordbia.ie/beef/verify/