by Patricia Grotenhuis, lifelong dairy farmer and agricultural advocate
I always found, growing up, one of the hardest questions to answer was “what’s your favourite season?” I loved them all! As each change in the seasons came, I would look forward to the change with anticipation.
Scenes like this may still be a few weeks away but we're already looking forward to them!
Spring, to me, meant a time for new life. Not only in the barn, either. Dairy cows have calves year round, which is why we have a steady supply of milk in the grocery stores. Other animals, like beef cows, sheep and meat goats, have most of their young during the late winter and spring months. I have always loved driving down the road in the spring, and seeing the young animals out on pasture. It is a sight that will make me smile every time, no matter how often I see it.
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Posted by FFC on March 25th, 2011 :: Filed under
Crops,
Dairy cattle,
Farm life,
Other livestock,
spring,
WeatherTags ::
dairy cattle,
farm,
Farmers
by Patricia Grotenhuis, Lifelong farmer and agricultural advocate
In an earlier post, I highlighted what a day in the life of a tie stall dairy farmer looks like. Today, I thought I’d cover the other type of dairy farming – a free stall farm.
Here's a milking parlour awaiting cows for one of two daily milkings on one Canadian dairy farm
On any dairy farm, days are laid out based on the milking schedule. Cows cannot miss a milking, so someone always has to be present. Dairy farmers milk their cows two or three times per day. The farmer makes the decision about how often the cows are milked, and a big factor to consider is how many employees work at the farm. For farms that milk three times each day, extra workers are required.
At my parent’s farm, cows are milked twice per day. George and Agnes wake up at 5 a.m. to go to the barn and begin milking by 5:30. They have a free-stall barn, which means the cattle live in a large open space between milkings, and at milking time walk to a central milking parlour to be milked. An example of both a free-stall and a tie-stall dairy operation can be found on the Virtual Farm Tours website at www.virtualfarmtours.ca
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Posted by FFC on February 16th, 2011 :: Filed under
Animal care,
Dairy cattle,
Family vs factory farming,
Farm life,
Sustainability of the family farmTags ::
agriculture,
animal care,
dairy cattle,
farm,
Farmers
By Leslie Ballentine, Farming and food commentator
People forget that farming is a dangerous profession. I recently read about a symposium in Ireland on the danger of farm animals, in this case bulls. And a study into the situation found that, unlike dogs, no breed of cattle was “safer” than another. Authors of the study reported that when investigating fatal accidents, inspectors often hear that a bull could be considered ‘quiet’ for years and suddenly become ‘angry’ and attack.
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Posted by FFC on February 10th, 2011 :: Filed under
Animal care,
animal handling,
Beef cattle,
Canada,
Dairy cattle,
Farm lifeTags ::
agriculture,
animal welfare,
animals,
Canada,
cattle,
dairy cattle,
Farmers,
livestock
Luisa D’Amato, Waterloo Region Record, 02 Aug 2008
It’s Sandi’s turn to be milked.
She stands patiently in the barn, her pale-pink udder bulging between her long legs, as dairy farmer Terry Lebold wipes her teats with antibacterial solution and attaches four suction cups to them.
Within five minutes, about 20 litres of milk has been vacuumed out of her, the white liquid whirling through transparent plastic tubes. Lebold touches her hind flank lightly, disconnects the machine and quickly dips her teats in a reddish iodine solution to prevent infection.
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Posted by FFC on July 22nd, 2009 :: Filed under
Canada,
Dairy cattle,
Farm life,
VealTags ::
agriculture,
Canada,
Consumers,
dairy cattle,
Farmers,
food,
milk,
Ontario
Jennifer Bain, Toronto Star, 2007.04.04
The real deal about veal; The Ontario Veal Association president opens her barn for a tour, encouraging butchers, supermarkets, chefs and consumers to learn more about this lean red meat
Ontario farmers want you to know how they do – and don’t – produce veal.
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Posted by FFC on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under
Consumers,
Education and public awareness,
Housing,
VealTags ::
animal care,
cattle,
dairy cattle,
farm tours,
Farmers,
meat,
Ontario,
Veal
An agri-food spin on summer camps help prepare the future leaders of Canada’s agriculture sector
By OWEN ROBERTS, Guelph Mercury, July 30, 2007
The University of Guelph campus is alive this summer with camps and kids making great use of the facilities during the school’s quiet time, and getting a taste of what it would be like to be a student here.
The agricultural community has a special vested interest in having pre-university students on campus early and often, to excite them about joining the ranks of the storied Ontario Agricultural College “Aggies,” who time and again assume leadership positions in Canada’s vital and growing agri-food sector.
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Posted by FFC on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under
Consumers,
Dairy cattle,
Education and public awarenessTags ::
dairy cattle,
education,
Ontario,
Unviersity of Guelph
By Sally Cole, The Guardian (Charlottetown), 2007.07.30
Dylan Howard’s face lights up when he talks about dairy farming.
“There’s a definite routine, but every day is different. One moment you could be treating a cow for mastitis (inflamed udder), the next you could be fixing a piece of broken machinery, building a barn or watching calves being born.
“So for me, it’s not work, it’s something that I really enjoy,” says Howard, laughing as a day-old calf tries to suck his finger during mealtime at Howardvale Holsteins.
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Posted by FFC on July 13th, 2009 :: Filed under
Animal health,
Canada,
Dairy cattle,
Farm lifeTags ::
dairy cattle
By Suzanne Atkinson – AgriNews Contributor, Eastern Ontario AgriNews
June, 2008
Bart Nelson is bored. So are his cows.
On a day that could be fraught with bawls of distressed cattle, classic man vs. beast battles of brawn and lost production, boredom is a good thing.
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Posted by FFC on July 13th, 2009 :: Filed under
UncategorizedTags ::
animal welfare,
Canada,
dairy cattle,
Farmers,
nutrition
By Sarah Trickett, Farmers Weekly (UK), 20/11/2008
It is hard to comprehend the fact that Canadian dairy farmers pay a quota cost of $30,000 (£16,470)/kg of butterfat a day. With an average butterfat at just over 1kg, you are looking at a bill of $45,000 (£24,706)/kg of butterfat a day.
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Posted by FFC on July 13th, 2009 :: Filed under
Canada,
Dairy cattle,
Family vs factory farming,
Housing,
Innovation and technology,
Regulations,
VealTags ::
animal welfare,
dairy cattle,
Traceability
