ARLAGÅRDEN®: OUR FARM MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME

Responsible dairy farming

MILK QUALITY, ANIMAL WELFARE AND CARE FOR NATURE

Producing quality milk and taking care of cows and nature

The milk that we use in our products has to be of the best quality and it has to be produced in a responsible way. That's why our farmer owners have agreed to manage their farms according to a shared set of principles to ensure milk quality, animal welfare and care for the climate, the environment and the people working on Arla farms. These principles are collected in our farm management programme, Arlagården^®.

"In our cooperative, farmers work hard to manage their farms professionally and responsibly and we take huge pride in our profession. Every Arla farmer knows that a healthy, comfortable and well-fed cow lives longer and produces more high-quality milk."

- Jan Toft Nørgaard, Farmer Owner & Chairman of Arla's Board of Directors

The 4 Focus Areas of Arlagården®

Arla's farmer owners have agreed to live up to high standards for dairy farming within the following four focus areas.

Milk quality and food safety

The core of our farmer owned dairy company is that our farmers take pride in responsible and safe milk production.

Animal Welfare

Every Arla farmer is committed and held accountable to ensure optimal conditions for the health and wellbeing of every cow and calf.

Climate and nature

We have to protect and take care of the climate, environment and biodiversity, while producing nutritious food for the world.

People

The dairy farm is a place to live and work. Respectful relations are part of the heritage of our cooperative and are just as important for the generations to come.

The four focus areas within Arlagården® contain a total of 33 requirements that are currently operationalized through 117 checkpoints. You can take a deep-dive into our farm management programme in our Arlagården® catalogue.

Download the Arlagården® catalogue

How Arlagården® is audited

All Arla farmers are obliged to adhere to our Cooperative's farm management programme Arlagården® at any time. To strengthen transparency and trust in our high-quality milk Arla farms are audited. The audit system consists of two steps:

Self-assessment: Each farmer must assess their own performance against the Arlagården® requirements and complete the survey Farm Information.
Third party audit: an on-farm verification of compliance with the Arlagården® requirements, carried out by Arla’s external audit partner SGS.

You can read a detailed description of the auditing setup by following the link below.

Learn more

Animal welfare

Taking care of our cows

Cows on grass. Cows in sheds. We have all seen cows grazing in the fields. But have you visited the cows in the shed lately?

Not many of us know a farmer and have the possibility to visit a farm. But take a look at this farm to see how the cows live when they are not on grass and how we make sure that they're taken care of.