How It Works
protection. prosperity. peace of mind.
Traceability is the process of following an item or a group of items – be it animal, plant, food product or ingredient – from one point in the supply chain to another, either backwards or forwards. The concept, introduced to the dairy industry about 25 years ago, was designed for emergency management to respond quickly to animal health, public health and food safety issues.
Three Pillars of Traceability
Premises Identification
The identification of sites where animals are born, kept, assembled or disposed.
Animal Identification
(Ear Tags)
A unique lifetime identification number applied to each animal.
Record & Report Animal Movement
Reporting animal movement events using the premises and tag identifications.
Is Traceability Regulated?
Under federal regulations and/or proAction requirements, everyone who owns or has the possession, care or control of dairy cattle must record and report animal identity, movement, location, and custodianship information to DairyTrace, the responsible national administrator for dairy cattle traceability.
Dairy producers and other stakeholders have various options when submitting traceability information. These methods may differ to respect government regulations in their respective province.
Who is Involved?
In Canada, livestock traceability includes all stakeholders from the farm of origin to the terminal site. All have different responsibilities depending on their place in the production chain.
If you have questions about the traceability module of proAction and its requirements, please contact your provincial traceability coordinator.
BC
BC Dairy Association
Emma Strazhnik
604 294-3775
AB
Alberta Milk
Morgan Hobin
780 577-3318
SK
SaskMilk
Deb Haupstein
306 721-9486
MB
Dairy Farmers of Manitoba
Seylene Chestley
204 488-6455
ON
Dairy Farmers of Ontario
Kateryna Dmytrakova
905 817 2166
QC
Les Producteurs de Lait du Québec
Marie-Pier Beauchamp
450 679-0540 (ext. 8895)
NB and NS
Dairy Farmers of New Brunswick & Nova Scotia
Lindy Brown
506 435-2117
PE and NL
Dairy Farmers of Prince Edward Island
Nancy Douglas
902 892-5331
Record Keeping
When proAction® validators visit your premises, they may ask to see animal records. All identification, movement and location information, including tag retirement, must be reported to DairyTrace and records must be kept for a period of five (5) years and 10 years for farmers in Alberta.
Lactanet and Holstein Canada have excellent tools to help with on-farm traceability compliance. For those that prefer paper, the Logbook is perfect for recording events. There are also software solutions such as DairyComp or Lac-T that are fully automated to capture, record, and report right to DairyTrace. Other herd management software providers may also offer tools to facilitate the recording and reporting of traceability information to DairyTrace.
On-line Access
DairyTrace provides a free web portal and a mobile app to help with reporting traceability events electronically.