Receipt in dairy farming about agreement BGP

ZuivelNL and Stichting Geborgde Dierenarts (SGD) have reached an agreement on the implementation of the Company Health Plan (BGP) and KoeAlert, which are mandatory for livestock farmers. This deal is against the sore leg of the Dutch Dairy Farmers' Union (NMV), which feels passed over in the decision-making process.

The NMV is distancing itself from the agreement, the dairy farmers announced in a short statement on Monday evening (February 22). "The NMV is one of the supporting parties within ZuivelNL and the agreement came out of the blue for us. The board of the NMV has therefore not granted permission."

Share data
The agreement that has been reached aims to make the business control process more efficient. ZuivelNL and SGB report in the joint statement that it has been decided to add the official control of part of the European hygiene regulation by an SGD veterinarian to the BGP. They also decided that data about dairy farms can be shared from KoeKompas (ZuivelNL) and the BGP tool developed by the vet. This exchange of data is demarcated and complies with the rules of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), both parties emphasize.

The annual regular CowAlert can also be taken along with the official check by the vet. To avoid duplication of work, ZuivelNL and SGB advise dairy farmers to share the results of the official control with his or her dairy buyer. Again with due observance of the AVG rules.

Provide clarity
Apart from the implementation of the BGP and the official control, dairy farmers must also meet the requirements of the quality system of their dairy processor. "Signal-driven CowAlerts can follow from this. These signal-driven CowAlerts must be performed at the request of the farmer by a veterinarian (this can be a veterinarian certified by SGD)", according to the statement.

ZuivelNL and SGD are confident that they have provided clarity to all stakeholders with this statement. But that is not the case with the NMV. Prominent member John Spithoven left on dairy fora already know to criticize the entire state of affairs in decision-making within ZuivelNL and demand clarification via a request to LTO chairman Sjaak van der Tak.

Apart from the method of decision-making, the exchange of data in the new agreement is also bothering him. In the new set-up, data is shared between the vets' system and that of the dairy industry's quality programs. According to Spithoven, this gives the dairy industry too much influence. "Isn't it time for a single dairy cattle sound, democratically chosen, with a clear separation between advocacy and the processing industry," he asks.

Authority of Director
His opinion is shared by Toon van Hoof, board member of SGD and former top executive of LTO Nederland and ZLTO, who withdrew as a board member after the agreement was concluded. He reports Dairy.nl: „Within SGD we had a structure with a committee of stakeholders, where substantive matters were discussed and decided. Now we are entering a system in which the quality system of the SGD is mixed with the quality system of the dairy sector. This means that the dairy sector will soon make decisions about matters that were the responsibility of the SGD in the past. I don't think that is appropriate for an independent vet."

Roald van Noort, director of ZuivelNL, states in the same article that as director he has the authority to make decisions about the operation of KoeMonitor. According to him, the NMV is indeed not involved in the decision-making, 'but neither are the NZO and LTO Nederland'.

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.