2. FIRST PURCHASER ADOPTION OF THE NATIONAL STANDARDS

Acceptance at all levels of the dairy industry of the National Standards has created the opportunity for all first purchasers to investigate how these standards can be adopted. At one end of the spectrum many milk buyers already have a farm assurance scheme in place and at the other end, some organisations are yet to introduce a farm assurance scheme, and will introduce the National Standards as their first scheme.

The Scheme has also developed a National Standards Checklist, (the Checklist), that must be used for on-farm assessment and related Guidance Notes for use by both assessors and farmers in an effort to ensure a common understanding and approach to assessment and the attainment of the National Standards.

The National Standards are the minimum requirement that every first purchaser registering with the scheme must adhere to. Many first purchasers with existing schemes will have criteria that are additional to the National Standards and will wish to include these criteria alongside the National Standards. This is an acceptable approach in so long as the Scheme administration is able to ensure that all of the Checklist is incorporated into the first purchaser documentation and procedures. It is a strict requirement of registration and membership of the Scheme that a first purchaser company scheme must incorporate all of the Checklist questions into their farm assessment documentation.

The Scheme documentation is available to registered first purchasers in two formats. Dependent on individual company requirements, the documentation can be obtained either in a published version or as a 'text file' on disk.