Further tips to best prepare for your NZFAP audit
Posted on Wednesday, 30 April 2025
It is important for farmers who follow and implement the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP) to clearly understand the requirements of the Standard. This is essential to best prepare for an audit, so you are aware of the expectations and any changes that have been made since your previous audit.
We are seeing a trend in the volume of non-conformances at NZFAP audits for Animal Health Plans, Restricted Veterinary Medicine (RVM) records, and Farm and Infrastructure Maps. When farmers do not sufficiently meet a requirement, they are issued with a Corrective Action Request (CAR) which must be closed out within the required timeframe. Read the recommendations below to best prepare for your audit and understand specific requirements of NZFAP.
NZFAP requirement 4.3, Animal Health - Documented Preventive Animal Health Plan
- A documented animal health plan must be prepared annually for all animals on the farm, including dogs. The plan must be implemented by or under the supervision of a competent person, such as a vet or animal health advisor. Below are some recommendations of components that can be included in an animal health plan:
o Animal husbandry events
o Remedy/preventative animal health treatments
o Targets: liveweight/BCS
o Monitoring: liveweights/BCS
o Tests required
o Other animal health events applicable to your farming system
An Animal Health Plan template is available in our ANZCO Records book. Please contact the ANZCO Foods QA Team to request a Records book.
NZFAP requirement 4.3, Animal Health - Restricted Veterinary Medicine (RVM) treatment records
- Restricted veterinary medicines (RVM) shall only be obtained from a New Zealand registered veterinarian and be used in accordance with the veterinarian’s instructions. It is helpful to keep all RVM records in a dedicated file or area that can be easily accessible to verify at audit.
- RVM records must be stored by a veterinarian for 7 afters after they have been issued. Therefore, if RVM treatment has been administered you are able to contact your vet for the record if you didn’t receive it initially.
- An Animal Treatment records template is available in our ANZCO Records book to help you keep note and track of what treatments administered are RVMs. This template is helpful leading up to your audit to cross-check and ensure that you have all RVM records available for the treatments. Please contact the ANZCO Foods QA Team to request a records book.
NZFAP requirement 5.1, Farm Infrastructure – Farm and Infrastructure Map
- Each farm must have a Farm and Infrastructure map showing the approximate farm shape with the following environmental/hazard points recorded:
o Fuel storage sites
o Chemical storage
o Nutrient storage sites, such as fertiliser or compost bins, worm farms
o Offal pits
o Waste or rubbish disposal sites
o Sick paddock/quarantine pen
o Septic tank
o Animal remedy storage
o Yards, stockholding areas, load in/out facilities
o Shearing sheds
o Silage and/or any other conserved or supplementary feed storage areas
o Houses and other buildings
o Safe entry points
o Farm boundaries
o Agrichemical washdown areas
o Leased and/or licensed land
It is important to record all the points above that are applicable to your farming system on a Farm and Infrastructure map. The map can be created and updated independently, so long as the points above are clearly identified and represented. There are also a variety of resources, services, and software available to assist you in creating a Farm and Infrastructure map. Please contact the ANZCO Foods QA Team if you need guidance in implementing a Farm and Infrastructure map.