Have you stood in line at airport security and seen other travelers just breeze by with their roller bags and a smile through the TSA Pre-Check lane?

Meanwhile, there you stand, stuck in a 20-minute holding pattern like a steer waiting to be loaded on a truck, and telling yourself, “I have got to get Pre-Check so I can avoid this line next time.”

Think of the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Secure Milk Supply Plan as TSA Pre-Check — but for your dairy in case of a foreign animal disease outbreak, said Melissa Hildebrand-Reed, president of the Kansas Dairy Association. She led a panel on biosecurity during the 2024 Kansas Dairy Annual Meeting on March 22 in Manhattan.

Biosecurity plan

Biosecurity is critical for dairies at all times, but with the recent illnesses in dairies in Kansas and the Texas Panhandle, it’s been brought to the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Dr. Elsie McCoy is the Northeast Kansas field veterinarian for the KDA Division of Animal Health. At the time of the meeting, dairies were still concerned about a “mystery illness” that had yet to be confidently identified as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

“Generally, each of you has a biosecurity plan for your farm, written or not,” McCoy said. “There are things you do each day to protect the integrity of your animals and your milk.” The voluntary SMS Plan just puts that on paper in a formal manner and files it with KDA in case there’s ever a foreign animal disease outbreak — like FMD — that would call for a stop movement of all livestock in the state.  

A bonus for farmers is that the process of putting an SMS Plan on paper with your veterinarian or with KDA staff allows a dairy farmer to walk through their plan, identify any holes or weak points, and address them.

Once an SMS Plan is reviewed and approved by KDA, the dairy is issued a certificate that then allows it to bypass a lot of the steps in any permitting after a stop-movement order.

Farm peace of mind

Hildebrand-Reed showed her family dairy’s SMS Plan — a notebook that she says took only 30 minutes to fill out with the help of KDA staff.

Hildebrand Farms Dairy has had biosecurity protocols in place for years, Hildebrand-Reed said. As a farm open to public tours, it must be conscious of where visitors will walk, where their vehicles will enter the farm and park, and many other biosecurity points on the property, she said. They’ve worked with a veterinarian to get those protocols in place.

The SMS Plan, she says, just puts those on paper so that KDA can see them, provide input and approve them.

Now that the SMS Plan was approved by KDA, the family has peace of mind. She said if there’s ever a foreign animal disease outbreak that stops all animal movement, their SMS Plan means KDA can move them to the top of the list for permits to allow animal movement again.

Competition

Tim Stroda, president and CEO of Kansas Pork, was on the panel to provide a perspective from his industry.

“In our world, we have the threat of African swine fever,” Stroda said. The pork industry has its own Secure Pork Supply Plan through KDA, similar to the SMS Plan. Over the last 25 years or so, Stroda’s participated in KDA tabletop exercises, which mock what could happen in a disease outbreak and how the various state and local entities would respond.

McCoy added that Kansas leads the nation in these planning efforts.

McCoy said that in case of a foreign animal disease outbreak, the USDA recommends — but does not mandate — a 72-hour stop-movement order, leaving it up to each state. That means, she said, that any livestock movement, such as pigs moving to their new facility or dairy heifers moving to a new dairy, would stop. And KDA would then take those 72 hours to start permitting livestock facilities to allow them to move animals.

In the case of the pork industry, a stop-movement order would cost farmers thousands of dollars, with pigs at various stages of their life cycles, depending on how long the order lasted.

But with an SMS Plan on file — or an SPS Plan for pork — those steps are bypassed, allowing for quicker permitting.

There are similarities and differences in biosecurity protocols in dairy and swine production, of course. But if a stop-movement order is ever called for in Kansas, all livestock species will be hitting up KDA for permits to allow movement. Every livestock facility, no matter the size or species, will be affected. Feedlots, hog farms, dairies, auction barns — the list is long.

And that makes for one long metaphorical airport security line. The panel emphasized that doing the work today to put your dairy’s biosecurity protocols into this formal document can save time and money if an outbreak ever occurs that would stop the flow of livestock.

Learn more at agriculture.ks.gov/divisions-programs/dairy-inspection/kansas-secure-milk-supply-plan.

What’s in a Secure Milk Supply Plan?

Each Secure Milk Supply Plan filed with the Kansas Department of Agriculture should cover three concepts that dairies should be ready to implement in case of a foreign animal disease outbreak.

A plan also will cover vehicles and equipment entering or exiting the property and their paths, personnel entry and exit procedures, incoming and outgoing animal movement and plans for isolation, milk collection protocols, feeding dairy products protocols, milk disposal, semen- and embryo-handling protocols, carcass disposal, manure management, rodent and wildlife control, and feedstuff protocols.

Consult with a veterinarian or KDA personnel to develop your dairy’s Secure Milk Supply Plan.