Each summer DVM students from the Ontario Veterinary College delve into that practical experience at veterinary clinics across Ontario and additional locales. These blog posts are an opportunity to tag along with the five of them this summer.

By Chelsea Allan

Week three has come and gone and for some reason this week it has seemed to be extra busy. I’ve been up and at er’ by 5 a.m. almost every morning. But nothing beats waking up early in the morning and driving the countryside. It may seem kind of silly, but I love watching as all of the crops emerge and grow from the ground. Nothing is quite as pleasing as seeing the rows upon rows of perfectly straight lines of wheat, corn and soybeans. And every time I see a sprayer on the road I get this tingling urge to see if I could drive under it.

Here is a sprayer in relation to cars…see I think it is a definite possibility but for sincere safety concerns I would not recommend it to anyone!

This week I had an exciting, but also slightly nerve-wracking, venture to tackle. Navan started a Fresh Cow Program. This program consists of me visiting farms once or twice a week to look at their fresh cows. Holy cow, although I was nervous about making sure I did a good job, I think I was more worried about getting lost. I will fully admit that my sense of direction sucks. Anyway, fresh cows are cows that have recently calved and have started producing milk. During this freshening or transition period there are many potential causes of illness. It is an important time to make sure that they remain healthy because they have significant energy demands from the milk they are producing and they have a potentially decreased immune system because they have just recently given birth.

To read what Chelsea’s job entailed this week, continue reading here.

 

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 27th, 2014 :: Filed under AgVocacy,animal handling,Speaking out,Uncategorized
Tags :: animal care, education, OVC

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Jean L Clavelle

Let me begin by saying that this is an incredibly complex issue. To be truthful I do not fully understand how supply management impacts international trade or even really the nuts and bolts of the supply manager system itself so I will not discuss that here (Dairy Farmers of Canada have produced some fantastic background information http://www.dairyfarmers.ca/content/download/1164/13161/version/2/file/Economic-Rationale2011_EN.pdf on the economics of supply management if you would like to know more). Despite my ignorance, I do think dairy supply management is incredibly important to dairy producers and Canadian consumers.  And I want to attempt an explanation of why from the perspective of a consumer not as someone with a dairy background (which I do not have).

Many have critiqued this system but it seems they have oversimplified and under complicated the issue to the extreme.  It had been said that supply management isn’t good for the producer or for the consumer.  But I think ‘they’ are wrong.

So what is supply management?  Supply management controls the volume of milk produced on a provincial and annual basis. Provincial boards manage the milk supply to coincide with demand for their products.  By effectively controlling production, expensive and costly surpluses are avoided.  A price is then set by a federally managed board based on cost of production, consumer price index and multiple other factors.  Not just anyone can supply milk either, dairy producers purchase quota essentially for the right to sell milk. Without quota no one can legally sell milk.

So why do I think it’s important?  Well, the objective of supply management is two fold 1. to provide Canadian consumers with an adequate supply of the product at reasonable prices and 2. to provide efficient producers with fair returns.  And that is the crux of my argument.  Under this system producers are paid a fair price.

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Posted by FACS on June 25th, 2014 :: Filed under Agricultural Advocates,Animal care,Consumers,Dairy cattle,Regulations,Uncategorized
Tags :: animal care, Canada, dairy cattle, supply management

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By: Chloe Gresel, CanACT member, University of Guelph

The beef with growth implants in cattle production

There is much buzz in today’s media about wanting hormone free meat. Can I let you in on a secret? There is no such thing. You see, just like humans, all animals have naturally occurring hormones in their bodies. What the consumer is actually trying to get when they ask for “hormone-free beef” is animals that are raised with no hormones outside of their own. Companies such as A&W are trying to scare consumers into thinking that their products are better because they are using beef that is raised without growth hormone implants.

Can I let you in on another secret? Implants are not the enemy. Growth implants are used to help beef animals convert feed more efficiently. This means the animals develop more lean meat and grow more on less feed. Beef animals that are implanted have increased weight gain from 5 to 23 per cent and convert feed to meat 3 to 11 per cent more efficiently than non-implanted cattle. By using less feed, costs are reduced for the farmer and beef is kept at a reasonable price for the consumer. There is also a smaller environmental impact when cattle are implanted, as farmers are using fewer resources to get them finished and ready for harvesting. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Animal Science stated that if we were to remove growth implants from our cattle production system, we would need 10 per cent more cattle, 10 per cent more land and feed, and 7 per cent more fuel and fertilizers to raise the same amount of beef.

You might be thinking that it’s great that implanted beef has a smaller environmental impact, but you still don’t want all those extra hormones in your own body. Well then, let me share this tidbit of information: 15 ml of soybean oil has over 28,700 nanograms of plant estrogen, while a 100 gram serving of beef raised with growth hormones has only 2.2 nanograms. Surprising, isn’t it? Studies have shown that there are greater differences in hormone levels between the different sexes of cattle then there are between cattle raised with growth hormones versus cattle raised without growth hormones.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 23rd, 2014 :: Filed under Agriculture Education,Animal health,Beef cattle,Consumers,Feeding the world,Food,Food safety,Innovation and technology,Misconceptions,Regulations,Speaking out,Sustainability
Tags :: animal care, animals, beef, Consumers, diet, environment, food, food safety, misconceptions, regulation, sustainability, technology

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By Kelly Daynard

Napanee - You may not have thought of celebrating Christmas with a herd of dairy cows but that’s just what residents of Napanee did last year when they were invited to a special holiday open house event at Ripplebrook Farm.

Ripplebrook Farm is a third generation family farm operated by Kevin MacLean, his parents Barton and Barbara and his step-son Taylor. The family milk 130 cows and crop 750 acres.

The family always embraces opportunities to showcase the farm and often host tours throughout the year. Last year, they decided to host a “Christmas with the Cows” event for their community. They had no idea how many people might attend and were both surprised and pleased when 200 showed up to watch their evening milking and spend the evening in the barn.

That’s just one example of Kevin’s work as an agricultural advocate – or agvocate. Youth groups, service groups and school trips all enjoy feeding the young calves and “helping” to milk the cows. A friendly member of their herd, nicknamed “Carrie the Curious Cow” is always a special hit with the visitors.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 20th, 2014 :: Filed under 4-H,Agricultural Advocates,AgVocacy,Dairy cattle,Education and public awareness,Faces of Farming,Horses,milk
Tags :: agriculture, animals, dairy cattle, Faces of Farming, farm, farm tours, Farmers, livestock, Ontario

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By Rudi Spruit, CanACT President, University of Guelph

Here in Canada, we have some of the lowest cost and safest food in the world. Canada has one of the lowest food freedom dates in the world – the date at which the average Canadian has made enough money to pay for their food for the entire year. This date, for the typical Canadian, sits around Feb. 14. That is a real testament to how well farmers and all other steps in the supply chain have worked to reduce their costs and pass that discount on to the consumer.

In Canada, about 12 per cent of income is spent on food, but in Egypt, that number sits up near 43 per cent. In China, the average citizen spends about 22 per cent of their income on food, and in Russia, about 31 per cent.

Not only do we have some of the lowest-cost food around the world, but it is also the safest food available. Canada continues to keep their reputation for the safest place to import food from, and passes the most stringent food safety rules, and thus the farmers in Canada are able to send food all around the globe.

There are very strict rules about food production due to a tough governing body, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The CFIA does regular inspection at processing plants, all seed plants, and even at farms. They are responsible for the food safety of Canada, from beef to dairy to honey, which may even include fining businesses for non-compliance to the laws.

Some examples of food safety are the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in cattle. Each farmer will have a unique identification, and as the cattle go through its life, this number will stay with them forever. This way, when the animal gets processed, if there is a problem with the meat or there is a recall on the meat, it can be traced back to the farm it came from. Even in milk production there is a sample taken at every farm before the milk is picked up, so if there is ever a problem, it can be traced back to one specific farm on one specific day. A record is kept of each farm based on their quality of products and history of non-compliance, which can give a very good indicator if that farm might need more inspections to keep up the excellent reputation of Canada’s food system.

As Canadians, we should all be proud of this reputation. Most countries look to Canada to see how to develop a food safety program – they will buy food and raw materials only from Canada, and will base the success of their food programs on the Canadian food freedom date. This is an amazing fact, and due to the hard work of many Canadians, we can truly say that we have some of the safest food in the world at one of the lowest costs.

Inside Farming is a series of articles written by Canadian Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (CanACT) members at the University of Guelph.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 13th, 2014 :: Filed under Food,Food safety,Speaking out,Uncategorized
Tags :: food, food safety

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By Patricia Grotenhuis

Over the past few months, as people hear I’m now working in the barn alongside my husband, there’s one question

that we commonly get asked. “What do you do with the kids while you’re in the barn?”

It’s a valid question. We have three children, and the oldest is only five. Farms have many dangers, both obvious and hidden, and our barn is full of Holsteins, which are a large dairy breed.

As soon as we moved to the main farm, before we were even in the succession planning process, I began bringing the boys out to see my husband during chores and to slowly start teaching them how to behave in the barn. We started slow, with the boys riding their bikes in the heifer barn. As time went on, we started adding in visits to the barn the milking cows are in and visits to the calves in the nursery.

By the time I started helping with night chores nearing the end of the succession planning process, the kids were pretty good about staying close, asking before touching anything, and knowing what they were and were not allowed to do. The baby is the easiest one to manage in the barn, as he happily sits in his barn stroller watching us work. When he was younger, the sound of the milking machines frequently put him to sleep and he would have his best naps during chore time. Now he prefers to watch everything that is going on, play with the dog whenever she walks past his stroller, and, in the heifer barn, sit in the play pen we put out there for him.

To help them pass the time in the barn, we have left the bikes in the heifer barn and have also brought out their pedal tractors with wagons. When they just want to have fun, they ride their bikes around the barn. If they want to help, they get on their pedal tractors, hitch up their wagons, and either haul hay or straw, or use the buckets on the tractor to push the heifers’ feed up. It’s always fun to watch them out there.

The cow barn is set up differently, and their bikes and tractors are not as practical in there. For the cow barn, we either have them helping my husband milk, they ride in the feed carts while I’m feeding the cows (the carts aren’t motorized and feed is forked out by hand), or they play on the steps of the hay mow with toy tractors.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 9th, 2014 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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Jean L Clavelle

A friend has recently begun to show me articles circulating through social media that pertain to farm animals to ask “does this really happen?!”.   These are the frustrating ones to those of us in agriculture. They are brilliantly written in that a tiny nugget of truth is wrapped up in propaganda and misinformation and sometimes blatant lies so that livestock agriculture appears to be nothing short of horrific (which is generally the point of these articles – to convert animal loving meat eaters into animal loving vegans).

I expressed my frustration with the most recent article she showed me to which she replied why hasn’t agriculture done a better job of sharing what actually happens on farms then? Good point. So today I would like to share with you some of what happens on a cow calf farm.  Because managing cows is a little bit complicated we will only cover what happens during the summer and discuss other seasons in future articles.

Cows (mature female cattle) and their babies (called calves) are brought to pasture with bulls (mature breeding males) in the early summer. In Saskatchewan, pastures are generally large tracts of land (often up to a mile by a mile square or more) of grass or hay referred to as forage. This land is often too hilly infertile, or otherwise not suited to growing food crops for human consumption. On pasture cattle are able to eat, sleep, play, run, lie down or do anything else that a bovine wishes to do.

Cows are turned out to pasture for a number of reasons. The first is that forage is an efficient way of providing a nutritious feed source for beef cattle. Did you know that 80 to 85% of all feed consumed by cattle cannot be eaten by humans? This is because forage is mostly fiber which humans simply cannot digest. Cattle have four separate stomach components which allows them to digest a very fibrous substance – forage – into something they can use. It’s a lengthy process too. A cow will spend about six hours a day grazing (eating) and then another 8 hours a day chewing its cud – this is kind of a cool process where they regurgitate the recently eaten feed in their rumen (the first of their four stomachs), chew it and then re-swallow it to be further digested through the remaining 3 stomachs. As you drive by a herd of beef cows lying in the grass slow down and check out a cow as she methodically chews the feed she’s eaten that day.

The next important objective for the summer months is to ensure cows are bred. Cows have a 9 month gestation (pregnancy) so the next calf will be born in the early spring in time for the new grass. Calves will begin the summer nursing but as they grow they will begin to consume more and more forage in their diet.

Beef cattle are gregarious, that means they enjoy the companionship of other beef animals (this is known as a herd). In Saskatchewan the average beef cow herd is around 75 cows and these are all usually managed together as one for the summer months.

On a regular basis producers will check their animals to ensure they are all healthy, active and present. Any sick animals are treated on site and if that isn’t enough they are taken to a veterinarian. In addition to forage, producers also provide minerals to ensure they have a healthy balanced diet. A balanced diet as we all know prevents disease and helps maintain good health.

Cows seem like gentle giants and they are for the most part. Some cows however can be very aggressive. A small proportion of cows – about 6% - will attack anyone or anything that gets close to their calves. This incredible picture shows a herd of cows attacking a black bear that attempted to steal a calf.

And that’s where we will end for now. Stay tuned this fall as we discuss more of what happens on a cow calf farm in the next season. If you decide you just can’t wait till then, please visit farmfoodcare.org or skstockgrowers.com.

 

 

 

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Posted by FACS on June 9th, 2014 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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By Melanie Epp

Koskamp Family Farms Ltd. is a dairy farm near Stratford. Several years ago, brothers Fred and Henry Koskamp,

along with their wives, Irene and Inge, decided they wanted to expand their operation by adding something new to their dairy cow herd. The goal of the two-family operation was not only to make the farm more economically viable, but also more environmentally sustainable.

In May of 2007, the Koskamps began looking for a herd of water buffalo that would meet Canada’s import requirements for dairy production. Their first young female calves arrived later that year. Beginning in 2009, their first water buffalo calved and were ready for milking under the company name Tenderbuff Water Buffalo. At the time, according to Koskamps, it was Canada’s second water buffalo herd – and Ontario’s first.

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Posted by Farm and Food Care on June 2nd, 2014 :: Filed under Environment,Farm life,Uncategorized
Tags :: #loveONTfood

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