Legenda(i)ry Board Game

Moo-ve to overcome quality and compliance “herdles”

The Dairy Standard Agency (DSA) Code of Practice for Milk Producers aims to support the primary dairy sector regarding compliance with all relevant food safety standards. The aim of the Legenda(i)ry board game is to moo-ve as a “herd” (i.e. team) on the board to greener pastures while interacting with the content of the Code of Practice for Milk Producers.

The code of practice provides a systematic approach towards compliance with food safety requirements at primary production level, and also addresses the minimum requirements for export certification at farm level. These industry norms are firstly applied on a farmworker level and take the following into account: product composition and food safety, animal health, animal feed, milking parlours, the transportation of milk, processing plants and storage. These concepts are not only essential, but mandatory to ensure effective, safe, and ultimately sustainable, dairy farming. Every milk producer is aware of the fact that mandatory training aids in the application of these concepts and is beneficial to economic dairy production. However, organisations and enterprises often face challenges regarding internal participation levels when the matters on the agenda are training, productivity, and policy making.

Legenda(i)ry

The MPO Training Institute has developed the Legenda(i)ry board game which allows milk producers to moo-ve towards compliance in an engaging and industry-relevant manner. It uses gamification as an alternative, cutting-edge training experience for farmworkers to improve their knowledge of the efficient maintenance of the integrity of suppliers’ milk and the management of the supply chain. Gamification techniques such as this board game compel employees to prove their value and knowledge; they boost participation, while at the same time injecting an element of fun.

Practical demonstrations and on-site sessions can be worked into discussion cards. Each card directly correlates with a specific chapter and aspect regarding the code of practice.

The value of gamification for milk producers lies in the fact that this novel way of training:

• increases learning and retention of regulatory concepts regarding food safety;
• increases awareness and understanding of the necessity of the code of practice;
• encourages problem solving, participation and team work;
• uses educationally relevant and experiential learning methods;
• enables “cross-pollination” of learning in the sense that participants assist, correct and encourage each other in providing the most complete, accurate answers relevant to the code of practice; and
• involves all farmworkers – literate and illiterate – in various ways.

The board game Legenda(i)ry serves as a platform for improving internal participation and operations in such a way that milk producers can overcome their compliance “herdles” and “moo-ve” towards the standards of best practice.