Saputo is making another investment in the dairy welfare program it initiated a decade ago.
The Saputo Dairy Care Program was launched with $500,000 in funding from the company at the Ontario Veterinary College and the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare.
It continues to be the world’s first and only dairy cattle welfare training program for veterinarians.
The second instalment of funding will bring Saputo’s total support for the program to $1.75 million.
A new, full time Saputo Dairy Care Program Manager, Anne Schwanke, was hired with the new $500,000 in funding.
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“From the start, a full-time manager was envisioned to coordinate logistics and communications and assist with course development and delivery,” says Todd Duffield, professor and chair of the Department of Population Medicine, “We were hard-pressed to find someone with the unique background we were looking for.”
Schwanke’s interest in food animal care began with family stories about her grandparents’ cattle farm. She earned her degrees at the University of Guelph, culminating in a PhD in Animal Behaviour and Welfare. The focus of her thesis was how dairy cow personalities affect their feeding and milking behaviours.
The results, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, suggest that changes in the environment such as the introduction of new technology like milking robots might impact some cows more than others, affecting their milk production. Understanding cows’ individual characteristics has implications for herd management.
“What attracted me to this role was the opportunity to ensure that research like mine gets put into practice,” says Schwanke.
Schwanke will help organize funded workshops, and continuing education for field veterinarians, and bring dairy cattle welfare researchers from across Canada together with key dairy industry partners for the annual Saputo Dairy Welfare Discussion Forum.
“These are complicated and difficult subjects that can’t be fully addressed in the regular curriculum,” says Lena Levison, rotation instructor and veterinarian. “We offer the students lots of time to debrief and discuss what they’ve learned.”
