Tips to best prepare for your NZFAP audit

To prepare for a New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP) audit, you need to know and implement the Standard’s expectations and requirements, as well as any changes that have been made since your previous audit.

We’re 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) that must be closed out within the required timeframe. You can familiarise yourself with these recommendations 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:

• Animal husbandry events
• Remedy/preventative animal health treatments
• Targets: liveweight/BCS
• Monitoring: liveweights/BCS
• Tests required
• 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’s 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 seven afters after they have been issued. Therefore, if RVM treatment has been administered, you’re 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 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:

• Fuel storage sites 
• Chemical storage
• Nutrient storage sites, such as fertiliser or compost bins, worm farms
• Offal pits
• Waste or rubbish disposal sites
• Sick paddock/quarantine pen
• Septic tank
• Animal remedy storage
• Yards, stockholding areas, load in/out facilities 
• Shearing sheds
• Silage and/or any other conserved or supplementary feed storage areas
• Houses and other buildings
• Safe entry points
• Farm boundaries
• Agrichemical washdown areas
• Leased and/or licensed land 

It’s 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.