At its meeting on February 26, 2018, the CDN Board of Directors approved the establishment of its new DairyTrace Advisory Committee, the associated terms of reference and its membership, which includes representatives from the Boards of Directors of CDN and Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), industry partner organizations and regional representatives from provincial dairy associations.

The DairyTrace Advisory Committee held its inaugural meeting on March 23, 2018 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel at the Toronto airport. The following is a summary of key discussion points, actions and recommendations stemming from that meeting, which will be considered for approval by the CDN Board of Directors at its meeting on April 13, 2018.

• CDN and DFC staff provided committee members with an overview of important background information related to national livestock traceability in Canada and, in particular, the vision of the DairyTrace Program for the dairy cattle sector. Key information points included:
• As an outcome of a process led by the DFC Board of Directors to assess various
  options to establish a national traceability solution for dairy cattle, CDN was identified
  as the preferred organization to be the Responsible Administrator.
• The definition of a Responsible Administrator for livestock traceability and the
  requirements that must be met by an organization interested in being approved by the
  Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
• Committee members were also updated on the following key successes achieved to date in
  terms of the development and implementation of the DairyTrace Program:
• CFIA confirmed that CDN meets the qualification criteria required to become the
  national Responsible Administrator for dairy bovine animals in Canada under Part XV
  of the Health of Animals Regulations.
• DFC amended its existing contribution agreement with AAFC under Growing Forward 2
  to request funding for the initial stages of the development and implementation of
  DairyTrace, which was approved by AAFC.
• CDN has signed agreements with Agri-Traçabilité Québec (ATQ) to license the use of
  the AGTWeb platform, with authorization from MAPAQ, and to develop the DairyTrace
  database and the associated traceability functionalities.
• CDN and DFC Boards of Directors have approved the DairyTrace Program Charter
  that outlines the governance structure and main areas of activity as well as the
  expected deliverables of the DairyTrace Program.
• The CDN Board of Directors, in collaboration with the DFC Board of Directors, has
  established the new permanent DairyTrace Advisory Committee of CDN with the key
  mandate of making recommendations about this important initiative for the dairy cattle
  sector nationally.
• As part of the Administrator Agreement required between CDN and CFIA, a determination is
  required to define which bovine animals would be considered as “dairy cattle” and therefore
  fall under the responsibility of CDN as the national dairy cattle traceability administrator.
  Given that NLID uses a specific tag number series for dairy cattle born outside of Quebec,
  CFIA has determined that a similar approach should be used nationally. Such an approach
  would require dairy animals born in Quebec to also be identified with tags within a specified
  number series as managed by ATQ. This concept is being assessed in detail for possible
  implementation in the coming months.
• Details of the DairyTrace Program Charter were presented to committee members. The
  spectrum of DairyTrace activities that fall under the responsibility of CDN include (a)
  administration and coordination of the program including reporting to CFIA, (b) management
  of all data collected for the national traceability solution, (c) customer services, especially to
  dairy producers, (d) ordering and distribution of tags via NLID and ATQ, and (e)
  communication and training of producers and industry personnel.
• As a key part of the DairyTrace database development and functionality, CDN will be
  discussing data flow options with other major stakeholders involved with the traceability of
  cattle, specifically the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA), ATQ and NLID. To this
  end, the DairyTrace Advisory Committee recommended that dairy cattle traceability data
  from commingling sites outside of Quebec that handle both dairy and beef cattle should be
  collected and received by CDN in a manner that is most cost effective and least disruptive to
  such commingling sites. In addition, recording of all move-out data is highly encouraged.
• For farms that have some cattle with tags identifying them as dairy and other cattle
  considered to be beef, the Committee recommended that DairyTrace should allow for the
  reception of traceability data for all cattle from such farms to facilitate traceability reporting
  by dairy producers.
• The Committee members received a demonstration of the DairyTrace software currently
  being developed by ATQ in accordance with the contractual agreement with CDN.
  Development is progressing actively and Committee members will finalize the dairy cattle
  traceability business requirements in the coming months.
• In terms of longer term planning, a funding request proposal for the continued development
  and implementation of the DairyTrace Program and related traceability functions is currently
  being prepared for submission to the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program of
  AAFC. The DairyTrace Advisory Committee members identified various activities and
  deliverables that could be included in the scope of this proposal, which also helps to define
  the annual budget of expenses for the coming years.
• Committee members also discussed the need to develop a DairyTrace communication plan
  including materials for different target groups as well as training sessions for industry
  stakeholders that will be service providers to help dairy producers comply to dairy cattle
  traceability recording and reporting requirements.
• The next meeting of the Committee has be tentatively scheduled for the week of June 18,
  2018, again at the Sheraton Gateway Toronto Airport Hotel.

For further clarification regarding the above discussion points, please feel free to contact Chairman, Gert Schrijver (Gert.Schrijver@xplornet.ca), or Brian Van Doormaal (Brian@cdn.ca).