New Legal Requirement To Record Raw Milk Movement

Scoop

2 days ago

An ongoing risk in the fight to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis has led to some new requirements for raw milk destined to be used as cattle feed.
Disease eradication agency OSPRI is alerting farmers to new legal requirements which apply from 1 July 2025 to keep records of the movement of raw milk on and off farm.
OSPRI's national manager, Mycoplasma bovis, Mackenzie Nicol, says it's known that M. bovis can spread between properties when raw milk is used for cattle feed, so, from 1 July, the new National Pest Management Plan for M.bovis requires anyone receiving raw milk on to a farm with the intention of feeding it to cattle, to accurately record it.
"Farmers and industry have worked so hard to eradicate M.bovis, what we are doing with this requirement is all about closing one of the last loops, where we know there is risk of disease spread. It makes good sense to be vigilant.
"We know this change will affect businesses transporting raw milk to be used for cattle feed, the farmers receiving it, and will rely on dairy processing operators offering up information about the milk they supply.
"Luckily most of this information is already recorded - so the requirement should fit with good farm biosecurity practices," Mackenzie says.
To help with the record-keeping, OSPRI has created a template form which can be downloaded from its website.
"When you use our form, you'll be noting down all the information we need to collect, like the date and time of delivery, where the raw milk came from, how it got to your farm and how much was delivered.
"It would also be worthwhile to make notes on sales invoices or receipts for raw milk purchases, the farm diary, or a driver's logbook.
"We need to do the best we can to keep track of all the risks we know of when it comes to extremely tough diseases to fight, like M.bovis," Mackenzie says.
Recording these movements could also play an important role in containing and limiting the spread of other infectious diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease or bovine viral diarrhoea.