Overview
After a medical treatment, animals may not be slaughtered for a certain period, and their milk may not be used. These waiting times are called withdrawal periods. They make sure no residues reach the food chain.
Herdy takes over the calculation and the monitoring. You do not have to remember any dates or do the arithmetic yourself.
How withdrawal periods are calculated
As soon as you record a treatment with a medication, Herdy calculates:
- Basis: the date of the last application plus the withdrawal days of the product
- The period starts on the day after the last application; the release date is the first day that is allowed again
- Three periods are tracked separately: meat, milk and organs
Example
You treat a ewe on 15 March with a product carrying 14 days of withdrawal for meat and 4 days for milk:
- Meat release: 30 March
- Milk release: 20 March
Until those dates the animal has an active withdrawal period. It is quite possible for the milk period to have expired while the meat period is still running.
With several treatments
If an animal is treated more than once, the longest remaining period applies. Herdy always shows the latest release date.
Organic farms: doubled periods
For organic farms, the Organic Ordinance (Art. 16d para. 8) prescribes the doubled withdrawal period for chemically synthesised allopathic products. Herdy applies it automatically:
- Record your farm's organic status in settings (federal organic, Bud, or Bud in conversion)
- From then on Herdy doubles the periods of affected products on every new treatment. The notice appears right in the treatment form, for example «Meat 14 → 28 days, milk 0 → 0 days. Please check against the packaging.»
- The packaging value stays visible for comparison
Whether a product falls under the doubling is controlled by its organic classification in the medication catalogue. Phytotherapeutic and homeopathic products are exempt, as are dry-off products. For a dry-off product the milk is nonetheless only marketable as organic after the single statutory period.
Treatments already recorded stay unchanged if you alter the organic status. A journal is never rewritten after the fact.
No 48-hour minimum. The rule «doubled, at least 48 hours» comes from EU law and does not apply in Switzerland.
Where you see withdrawal periods
Health overview
The Active withdrawal periods card names the number of animals with a running period. If it is greater than zero it is outlined in red. Tapping it opens the treatment journal.
Animal list
Animals with an active period carry a badge with the days remaining. The Withdrawal period filter narrows the list to exactly those animals.
Animal profile
The profile of an affected animal carries a banner at the top with the type of period, the exact release date and the days remaining.
Treatment journal
The journal list carries the period in the Withdrawal period column; the detail of an entry shows the release dates for meat, milk and organs.
Warning on slaughter, sale and departure
If you create a TVD notification for an animal with an active withdrawal period, Herdy shows a warning dialog:
- It names the release date and the days remaining
- You can cancel, or continue with Proceed anyway
Important: this is a warning, not a block. Herdy does not stop you. In some situations an animal has to leave despite a running period, for example an emergency slaughter, and the reporting deadlines of the Animal Diseases Ordinance apply regardless of the withdrawal period. The decision stays yours; it is documented in the journal.
Checking before slaughter
Before you take animals to the abattoir:
- Go to Animals
- Apply the Withdrawal period filter
- Make sure none of the animals you plan to slaughter appears in the filtered list
Recording withdrawal periods correctly
The quality of the calculation depends on the values in your medication catalogue:
- Check the withdrawal periods on the leaflet of every product
- Ask your vet if you are unsure
- Note that a vet may prescribe longer periods than the standard when a product is used off-label. The period in the treatment form can be overridden for the individual entry.
- Deviating periods for organs and for injection sites must be observed; the official form has its own column for them
Tip: use the withdrawal monitoring consistently. It protects consumers and it protects you from findings at an inspection or at the abattoir.