The National Office of Animal Heath said its Animal Medicines Best Practice (AMBP) farmer training can help fulfil the new Red Tractor standards that – from today, Monday, November 1 – make the completion of medicines training for their beef, sheep and pig producers a requirement.

Produced in partnership with Lantra, the AMBP programme offers a flexible and affordable solution for farmer training in the responsible and safe use of medicines, including species-specific modules.

The training has already proved its worth to dairy farmers since a similar requirement was introduced for that sector in 2019. Almost 800 farmers across all sectors have already used the programme since its launch in 2018.

Dawn Howard, NOAH’s chief executive, said: “Years of collaborative work, focused on the responsible use of antibiotics, has shown how livestock sectors can achieve ambitious targets and reducing the need to treat whilst maintaining the health and welfare of livestock.

“As we move towards the long-term sustainable use of antibiotics, these new Red Tractor training requirements will help demonstrate how farmers are supplying high quality, nutritious and safe food from our farmed animals, and will support them as they produce this food from healthy animals, more sustainably.”