Life on the Farm - April 2017
Here are updates about life on the farm for April 2017. For other updates take a look at the menu to the right.
Pasture Prep
Spring is in the air. Farmers and cows alike are getting restless. The pasture is not quite ready yet for the ladies.
There is not enough grass and fences have to be mended.
That is what Martin is working on here, under Bliss' supervision.
Breakfast Time
After a coffee, Martin goes to the barn to check up on the ladies and serve them their breakfast between 5:30am and 6am.
Breakfast is a good helping of hay top dressed with a big heap of corn flakes.
Seriously... corn flakes – rolled dry corn.
To learn more about what the cows eat also visit What the Cows Eat & Monitoring Nutrition
Hosting Tours
Martin welcomed a group of students from the University of Waterloo studying food systems on the morning of April 26th.
Vegetarianism was discussed a lot, with at least 3 of the students being vegetarian. Martin gave them lots of food for thought on the topic as he strongly believes eating some grass fed beef is important.
Along with this, animal welfare was also a big topic with the group. The students were very interested in the housing and compost pack for the cows - and the resulting ability for the cows to choose what they do - sleep, eat or get milked.
Visitors and tours are welcome at the farm to help everyone learn more about where their food comes from, and the importance of organic agriculture.
Cow Whisperer
Sometimes cows are late for the robot and need a little reminder from the cow whisperer (aka Martin in this case) to get up and go.
But how does Martin or Arwa know a cow needs a whisper?
The computer in the voluntary milking system keeps track of when a cow gets milked. If she goes over a preset limit, based on time and expected production, the computer sends a mesage that she is late.
Usually this situation happens to late lactation cows who aren't producing a lot of milk or young cows that just calfed and have to get used to the system.
