Caring Dairy Standards

Basic standards for being a Caring Dairy farmer (required for all farmers who participate in the program)

The basic standards are specific to Cow Care, Planet Stewardship, and the Farmer & Farm Worker. In order to participate in the Caring Dairy program and qualify for financial incentives a farm must meet all these standards.  All participating farms undergo a third party verification by Where Food Comes From, to evaluate how each farm is meeting the required Standards.  For a farm to qualify as a Caring Dairy farm, it must meet the Basic Standards for participation.  From there, farms can strive for Silver or Gold level recognition and received a larger compensation for their achievement. 

Mass Balancing

Ben & Jerry's has used the Caring Dairy program to drive improvements in the dairy industry through an approach called “mass balancing.” Ben & Jerry's uses cream and skim milk in our ice cream recipes and these dairy components come from fluid milk. Since 2012, the St. Albans Co-op Caring Dairy farmers have supplied cream and skim milk derived from a volume of milk equivalent to what Ben & Jerry's uses to produce all products sold in North America, and the St. Albans Co-op and European Caring Dairy farmers together have produced a volume of milk equivalent to Ben & Jerry's requirements worldwide. 

Due to supply chain limitations, it is not a viable proposition to segregate the fluid milk and use only milk from dairies participating in the Caring Dairy program in Ben & Jerry's products. Among other things, these limitations include that milk from St. Albans farms is dispatched to various processing plants, milk from the farms is generally combined into large tanks for transport to the processing plants, and milk is perishable, requiring prompt processing. However, through mass balancing, Ben & Jerry's is able to ensure that the milk output from all the Caring Dairy farms equals the output needed to cover Ben & Jerry's demand on the dairy industry. In short, Ben & Jerry's accounts for its dairy “footprint” with Caring Dairy farms. 

Mass balancing allows Ben & Jerry's to have the same impact on dairy farming practices as if all the dairy we receive is from cows at Caring Dairy farms. To create a segregated supply chain would dramatically increase the Caring Dairy program costs and the cost to consumers without increasing any on-farm program benefits. Costs would increase to facilitate logistical aspects such as segregated shipping, handling, and storage. Instead, Ben & Jerry's prefers to invest in improving on-farm programs that benefit the farmers, farmworkers, animal care, and improvements in the overall farm ecosystem.

Standards for Cow Care
1.    Participation in animal welfare monitoring program (bi-annual vet review at Ben & Jerry’s expense)
2.    Commit to no tail docking and to the use of anesthesia for dehorning 
3.    Active herd health plan implemented annually.

Standards for Planet Stewardship
1.    Participation in environmental monitoring program to measure greenhouse gas emissions associated with the dairy farm (COMET Tool developed by NRCS).
2.    Have and implement a State Approved nutrient management plan.
3.    Cover crop a minimum of 25% of annually planted fields.
4.    Meet all Required Agricultural Practices  (as defined by Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Market)
5.    Manure storage for 180 days (including use of satellite pits)
6.    PSNT test or other nitrogen testing on all corn before top dressing fertilizer
7.    Must be able to demonstrate you have enough land to spread manure to meet your nutrient management plan (this can include leased land or manure applied by partnering farms)
8.    Completion of metric that tracks CPP (Crop Protection Products, this includes herbicides and pesticides) 

Standards for Farmer & Farm Worker  

On October 3, 2017, Ben & Jerry’s became the first company in the world to sign onto the Milk with Dignity program, a labor standards program design by dairy farmworkers for dairy farmworkers. As of that point forward, the Milk with Dignity program covers labor standards for farms that are participating in the Caring Dairy Program. More about the Milk with Dignity program can be found here.

Silver and Gold Standard Practices for Caring Dairy Farmers
Those farmers that want to receive a greater compensation from the Caring Dairy program must demonstrate achievement of the Silver and Gold Standards. All farmers who aspire to achieve these standards will be 3rd party verified by Where Food Comes From.
Standards for Silver Tier

• Must meet Caring Dairy program’s Basic Standards
• For all sections of the Caring Dairy Assessment, no sections scored in red, and 50% or more sections receive green scores
• Must achieve a Green score on Animal Care section of Caring Dairy Assessment
• Must achieve more than 50% of the applicable Gold standard requirements
• Must agree to verification by a third party 
• Must have third-party farm energy use and potential efficiencies reviewed within the last 5 years
• Must have a written succession plan for farm

Standards for Gold Tier

• Must meet Caring Dairy program’s Basic Standards
• For all sections of the Caring Dairy Assessment, no sections receive scores in red, and 75% of sections score in green 
• Must achieve a Green score on Animal Care section of Caring Dairy assessment
• Must agree to verification by a third party 
• Must have third-party review of farm energy use and potential efficiencies within the last 5 years
• Must have a written succession plan for farm
• Must meet 2 out of the first 3 standards and ALL of the remaining 8 of the requirements below. 

Minimum Gold Standard Requirements (TO ACHIEVE GOLD 2 OF THE FIRST 3 REQUIREMEMENTS MUST BE MET)
1.    Partial grazing (meaning young stock and/or dry cows) for dairy farmers in Northeast region of US.  Recommendations for grazing levels by farm size: farms under 100 lactating cows graze approximately 50% of young stock or dry cows during grazing season, farms over 400 lactating cows graze approximately 20% of young stock or dry cows during the grazing season. For every increase of 100 lactating cows, reduce grazing percentage by 10% to no lower than 20% total (for example: 200 cows graze 40%, 300 cows graze 30%, 400 cows graze 20%, over 400 cows still must graze 20%).

o    For UT: Must be able to demonstrate the adoption of water-saving techniques in milking parlour, animal cooling and irrigation.  100% of irrigation must be done through water saving application systems (drop nozzle, laser levelled, piped ditches, etc.).

2.    60% of corn planted using no-till or other approved methods.  Other approved methods include strip till, zone till and shallow till (one pass tillage no deeper than 3 inches may be used in conjunction with injection). No fall tillage is allowed other than injection. 80% or more of total corn acres cover cropped (50% required, 30% weather dependent, must contact CD staff as soon as weather issues or concerns occur to receive variance) with 100% cover cropping of HEL designated land or land in continuous corn.  
3.    At least 75% of annual crop acres must be in a crop rotation: 25% in no more than 3 consecutive years of annual crops, 25% in no more than 4 years of annual crops, and 25% in no more than 5 years annual crops.  25% of annual crop acres can stay in annual crops over 5 years.   

All of the following 8 requirements must be met to meet requirements for the Gold Standard.

4.    The individual farm carbon footprint is measured annually and reduction goals are established with practices identified to support reductions.
5.    The farm keeps records of culling, reason for culling, and death loss to demonstrate a death loss record of less than 6% for un-weaned calves, less than 2% for weaned heifers, and less than 4% for cows. 
6.    The farm tracks antibiotic use: Keep a record of each treatment of antibiotics used on the mature cow herd (this includes all heifers once first calf is born and dry cows).  Antibiotics includes dry-off treatments.    
7.    Pay livable wage to labor (as outlined in http://www.leg.state.vt.us/jfo/reports/2017%20BNB%20Report%20Revision_Feb_1.pdf
(for the US $13.06/hr in 2016) & offers trainings for employees. This standard applies only to employees of over 30 hours/week. A list of allowable deductions worksheet will be provided that calculates deduction based on hours worked/week to determine what wages need to be after deductions.  The lowest allowable wage after allowable deductions will be $10.00/hr. Allowable deductions will be limited to: transportation, housing, heat, electricity, food (all), food (partial), TV/internet, health care, miscellaneous.
8.    Must complete Phosphorous Balance on farm and develop target for reduction if needed. (http://nmsp.cals.cornell.edu/projects/massbalance.html)
9.    Track CPP (crop protection product) use and demonstrate scouting on all fields and reduction of chemical use through spot spraying and other CPP reduction techniques.
10.    If a tie-stall barn is used, animals must have a turn out area they have access to for at least 1 hour a day, weather permitting.  We recommend that cows are out for more than 2 hours a day weather permitting, but the minimum is for at least 1 hour. Weather conditions where outside access may be restricted would include: mud, heat, excessive cold, and ice. 
11.    Farmer must develop a Biodiversity Action Plan and at least 5% of total farm land (arable and non-arable) should be designated to enhance biodiversity.