Dairy Farmers of Manitoba reports nearly all Manitoba producers have registered in the Canadian Quality Milk Program.

"The vast majority of producers have been registered, which means they've met all the requirements. The uptake has been very good in the last three months," says DFM chair David Wiens. "We anticipate that by March all producers will have been validated and registered."

The CQM program is a HACCP-based on-farm food safety program for dairy producers. It was developed by farmers through the Dairy Farmers of Canada.

"It's a program that helps to ensure food safety at a farm level. It's a set of written standard operating procedures, recording treatments, milk temperatures, wash water temperatures and so on. It helps to ensure the equipment is working properly and that all the protocols have been followed properly in the production of milk," he explains.

DFM had previously set a compliance deadline of August 1st, 2010.

"A few producers missed that target, but many of them have since been validated. There are penalties that apply to those that are not registered as of August 1st of 2010. Coming in March is a deadline where we would absolutely require them to be registered. If they're not registered, in order to continue milk pick-ups, they would have to provide us with a plan of action for becoming registered," says Wiens.