Merck announces new dairy training module

Merck Animal Health has announced a new training module from Dairy Care365, Creating a Culture of Care, to help dairy owners and managers improve on-farm cultures to put animal care first, year-round.

This is the first module from Dairy Care365 that is tailored to leadership roles on dairy farms. The other modules previously released focus on the employees of diaries and cover topics like dairy stockmanship, newborn calf care, and non-ambulatory cow handling.

"Merck Animal Health provides these online training modules as a value-add to our customers at no charge, to help protein producers provide the best in animal care and welfare," says Tom Schad, Merck Animal Health director of communications. "It's all part of our unconditional social commitment that demonstrates our customer focus and our purpose behind the transaction."

Creating a Culture of Care is a five-lesson module, and each lesson is six to eight minutes long.

The lessons are:

• Leadership Pledge
• On-farm Commitment to Zero Tolerance for Animal Abuse
• Creating Protocols and SOPs
• Developing a Training Plan
• Monitoring and Measuring for Accountability

"As dairy producers, we appreciate the training resources Merck Animal Health provides through Dairy Care365. This new module aligns perfectly with our goal to be an outstanding dairy producer through quality care of animals, sustainable practices, environmental accountability, and constant attention to detail," says John Vosters, vice president of livestock, Milk Source LLC, Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Milk Source and its staff collaborated with Merck Animal Health on the new module content.

Merck Animal Health worked with Brandon Treichler, an expert in animal welfare, milk quality, residue avoidance, and human resource management, to create the Culture of Care module.