National Dairy FARM Program

Definition

The National Dairy FARM Program (Farmers Assuring Responsible Management) is the US dairy industry’s on-farm assurance program. It was created in 2009 by the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), which runs it, with support from Dairy Management Inc. (DMI). Farms take part through their milk buyer: cooperatives and processors enroll and require their member or supplier farms to participate, so in practice it is a condition of selling milk to most US buyers.

FARM is organized into program areas, each with its own standards document (reference manual), version number and evaluation:

Animal Care: animal handling, health and welfare standards, evaluated on the farm. This is the mandatory core of the program. See FARM Animal Care.
Antibiotic Stewardship: responsible drug use, the VCPR, treatment records and residue avoidance. Its best practices are built into the Animal Care standards and checked in the Animal Care evaluation, not in a separate one.
Environmental Stewardship (ES): a greenhouse-gas and energy footprint evaluation, launched in 2017. Version 3 (October 2024) runs on the RuFaS model. See FARM Environmental Stewardship.
Workforce Development: human-resources and worker-safety resources (training, safety, HR management) for farm employers, started in 2018. Its second-party evaluation (launched 2020) is voluntary and separate from Animal Care.
Biosecurity: on-farm disease-prevention resources, added in 2021, in two tiers. “Everyday” gives plan templates and training material. “Enhanced” follows the Secure Milk Supply plan for continuity of business in an outbreak. See biosecurity plan.

Who evaluates

Second-party evaluations are done by trained evaluators employed or contracted by the cooperative or processor, using the FARM evaluation app and the current reference manual.
Third-party verification: each year an independent auditing firm re-checks a random sample of farms, to confirm that second-party evaluations are consistent.
Evaluator training and certification is run by FARM. Evaluators must be re-certified for each new standards version.

FARM is not a regulatory program. It does not replace Grade A inspections (see Grade A PMO), and failing it does not revoke a milk permit. A buyer can, however, stop picking up milk from a farm that does not resolve required corrective actions.

Requirements change; confirm the current version with the program or your milk buyer. This page is reference material, not legal advice.

How to pull it in DC305

FARM is mostly not in DC305. The evidence lives in written documents:

The signed VCPR and written herd-health protocols (see VCPR).
Written SOPs and employee training records, including signed cow-care agreements (see SOPs and training records).
Treatment records (see treatment records).
For ES, utility bills, fuel purchases and feed records.

DC305 does supply supporting numbers an evaluator will ask for:

COUNT FOR LACT>0                    adult cows on hand (herd size)
COUNT FOR LACT=0                    heifers on hand
COUNT FOR LACT>0 RC<>6              lactating cows (RC 6 = dry; <> = not equal)

RC 6 is dry (see DC305 RC codes). A herd that moves cows to a dry pen without entering the dry-off event will undercount dry cows by RC; see cow count definitions.

Treatment, death and lameness events support the Animal Care sections; see FARM Animal Care. Event names vary by herd, so use the herd’s private dc305-vocab mapping.

Typical range

Herd context: US dairies of all sizes; requirements as of FARM Animal Care Version 5.

Item	Requirement
Animal Care evaluation	At least once every 3 years per farm (second-party); not unannounced
Third-party verification	A representative random sample of farms each year, drawn from farms evaluated in the previous 6 months
Animal Care standards version	Version 5, in effect July 1, 2024 through the end of 2027 (as of November 2026, FARM)
Next version	Version 2028, set to take effect January 1, 2028 after NMPF board approval (planned March 2027)
Version cycle	Standards revised about every 3 years (the Version 4 cycle was extended for COVID-19)
Corrective actions	Immediate Action: met at once, or conditional certification for 48 hours or less. Mandatory Corrective Action Plan (MCAP): met within 9 months or less. Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP): met within 3 years or less

The Version 5 manual cover reads July 2024 to June 2027. FARM later moved the end of Version 5 to December 31, 2027, with Version 2028 starting January 1, 2028.

Participation covers almost all of the US milk supply, because most cooperatives and processors require it. FARM’s own pages give 98%; some older NMPF pages say more than 99%. Use the figure on the current FARM site.

Common mistakes

Preparing for the evaluation instead of running the program. Protocols written the week before the evaluator arrives tend to be generic, unsigned or not followed. Evaluators ask employees what they actually do.
Using an old manual. Each Animal Care version changes requirements. Protocols and training records written to Version 4 may miss Version 5 items.
Missing signatures and dates. The VCPR form, protocols and cow-care agreements must be signed and current. An expired or unsigned document counts as missing.
Training records that don’t match the payroll. New hires and seasonal workers who handle animals also need training and a signed cow-care agreement.
Treating FARM as the whole compliance picture. FARM does not cover Grade A permits, environmental permits or OSHA obligations, and some buyers add their own third-party audits.
Not tracking corrective-action deadlines. A corrective action that isn’t closed on time can escalate with the milk buyer.