Reading Time: 6 minutes “So many people told us ‘You can’t do it’. I think that just lit a fire underneath us and made us work harder.” Which is what Dave and Jennifer Bryson of Dobbinton, Ont., have done, proving all the doubters wrong. But they did something else too. The Brysons developed a decision-making model that keeps them […] Read more
Bryt Farms positions itself for growth in dairy industry
Whether it’s a classic expansion or a leap into the unknown, the pressure is on
The right side
What does it take to be seen to be working toward a healthier world? The globe’s machinery makers have an answer
Reading Time: 5 minutes Agriculture is becoming the target of fringe activist groups. No, let me re-state that. Agriculture is already the target of these groups. The reasons are many and varied but they’re almost always linked to the same basic problem — knee-jerk responses to complex issues — like the feeling that Canada’s high-tech, high-science agriculture has got […] Read more
Pooling resources
Three farms each faced its own reasons preventing it from making major investments for the future. Then they had a new idea
Reading Time: 5 minutes There can be points in a farming career where you’ve established a solid business but you hesitate to make any further major investments unless there is either a clear successor or a plan to transition out. That’s the point at which John Schenkels of Schenkels Farms Inc. in Miramichi, N.B., had found himself. Since taking […] Read more
DeLaval rolls out new barn robot to help with feed rations
OptiDuo Robotic Feed Refresher uses a smart navigation system
Reading Time: 2 minutes It has been a year of breakthroughs by companies introducing automation in a number of industries. Outside of agriculture, at least two airports have announced they are experimenting with automated snow clearing of runways. Golf course grass-cutting robots have also made an appearance, and the list goes on. There are already several prototype field robots […] Read more
Early days
How young is too young to make major farm decisions? Meet Owen Fijala, and get ready to rethink your assumptions
Reading Time: 11 minutes Just like any farm kid, Owen Fijala grew up helping out on the family grain farm near Manitou in south-central Manitoba. Things got a bit different, though, when he got a part-time job helping out a neighbouring beef farmer and he began to get interested in livestock production as well. He’d kept his eyes open, […] Read more
After milk quotas
French dairy farmers look for a way ahead after Brussels gives up the European supply management system
Reading Time: < 1 minute French dairy farms are in turmoil. France is the second-largest dairy producer in the European Union, and for the past 30 years, governments there had used quota to tie milk production to assigned farm regions. But then Brussels pulled the plug on the EU quota system in 2015, and now decisions about where and how […] Read more
Setting their own quota
Milk After Quotas: Milk producers find more success with cheese
Reading Time: 3 minutes Jean-Marie Guinchard looks across his ancestral farm located at la Sommette, a hamlet near the Swiss border. “We are cheese producers before being milk producers,” he tells me. “That’s saved us because we get a much higher return than conventional milk.” With his herd of 160 milking cows of the Montbéliarde breed, the 58 year […] Read more
The ‘insight’ bonus
More brothers and sisters: Knowing each other’s characters so well means this family is ready for almost any challenge
Reading Time: 5 minutes Brothers and sisters are working together on more farms all the time. More and more too, there are multiple siblings on these farms, not just one of each. To outsiders, it can seem like so many more chances for family to get in the way, and so many chances for old rivalries to flare up. […] Read more
Deciding about technology
Why do some farms leap ahead in technology while others wait? The reasons aren’t what you think
Reading Time: 5 minutes Four robots at New Galma Dairy near Ingersoll, Ont., milk the cows while a second automated system finds its way around the barn feeding cows and heifers by itself and a third machine beds the cows without human intervention. Calves can decide when they want milk from a machine that identifies them and gives them […] Read more
Dairy services organizations create partnership
Reading Time: 3 minutes Three major service providers in Canadian dairy farming have formed a partnership that will result in one company supplying herd management and genetic services to Canadian dairy farmers. The partnership, including CanWest DHI, Valacta and the Canadian Dairy Network (CDN), still has to be approved by farmer-members of the organizations. CanWest DHI provides on-farm testing […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
