Feeding milk and milk products to farm animals on your farm
Find out where you can source milk or milk products to feed to animals on your farm, and if you need to be on the national milk register.
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Processed milk and milk products you can feed to farm animals on your farm
You can feed the following milk and milk-based products to farm animals on your farm without restriction:
- milk, colostrum and milk-based products that are produced from animals on your own farm
- commercial feed products containing processed milk that are available for general sale, such as substitute milk powder for orphan animals
Unprocessed milk and milk products you can feed to farm animals on your farm
You can feed your farm animals unprocessed milk or milk products if they are from:
- a milk processor (dairy or creamery) that is registered on the national milk register
- an unregistered food retail or manufacturing business, for example you can have an arrangement with a local supermarket to take its out of date cheese
- any other intermediary if the intermediary has sourced the milk from a registered milk processor
In England or Wales you need to register your farm on the national milk register before feeding unprocessed milk or milk products.
In Scotland farms don’t need to be registered.
Registering on the national milk register in England or Wales
In England or Wales you must be registered on the milk register if you want to feed unprocessed milk or milk products to your animals.
To register send an email or write to:
APHA Customer Service Centre - One Health
Animal by-products
Worcestershire County Hall
Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP
You need to provide:
- the name of your organisation or trading name
- your full address, telephone number and email address
- a designated contact person from your organisation (this can be you)
- a list of the milk and milk products you will use as farm animal feed
- details of any milk processing establishments or food retail or manufacturing businesses that have agreed to supply you with feed
If your farm is in Scotland, you don’t need to register to feed unprocessed milk or milk products to your animals.
Milk and milk products you can’t bring on to your farm
You can’t bring milk to your farm from another farm, unless the farm is also a registered milk processor.
The only exception is colostrum brought to your farm from another farm to be fed to orphan animals (an animal is orphaned if its mother has died and can’t feed the animal).
If you decide to bring colostrum to your farm to feed orphan animals, you should be aware of the risk of introducing diseases on to your premises.
Movement restrictions on animals that are fed raw milk
Movement restrictions will apply to any holding (apart from a slaughter house) that you send animals to if you feed any of the following to your farm animals:
- raw milk
- raw milk products
- white water (water used to clean dairy equipment) that has been in contact with raw milk
You must inform the owner of the other holding in writing that animals susceptible to foot and mouth disease can’t leave that holding for 21 days after animals arrive from your farm.
You will need to keep a copy of the letter and email or post a copy to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
APHA Customer Service Centre - One Health
Animal by-products
Worcestershire County Hall
Spetchley Road
Worcester
WR5 2NP
CSCOneHealthABP@apha.gsi.gov.uk
The 21 day standstill requirement doesn’t apply if:
- the animals on the other holding are also being fed raw milk, or raw milk products
- the animals from the other holding are sent directly to a slaughter house
Updates to this page
Published 5 September 2014Last updated 9 October 2014 + show all updates
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AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
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AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
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First published.