MARCH 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Organic dairies embracing automation
Robotic milkers and grazing systems power these herds by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – People who still equate organic dairying with cows lolling in green fields next to a red hip- roof barn and upright silo wouldn’t recognize the two organic dairies on the 2017 BC Dairy Farm Self-Tour. Golden Gate Dairy in west
Abbotsford and Cedar Valley Farms in east Abbotsford are marvels of modern technology, as visitors discovered on January 25. Run by Martin and Sarah
Yoder, Golden Gate Dairy milks about 90 cows in a bright new barn equipped with two Lely robotic milkers. At Cedar Valley Farms, the Vanderwal family, which also operates Cedarwal Farms, a non-organic dairy, milks 298 cows in a new 32-stall Blom- deck DeLaval rotary parlour. The Yoders built their new barn about a year ago “so we could have [all the milking cows, dry cows and heifers] in one facility.” They chose robotic milkers to minimize labour, noting that with robots, “you pay for your labour up front.” However, herd production
has also increased 15% since the robots arrived. The herd, which is predominantly Brown Swiss, now averages 31 kilograms per cow daily. Sarah believes a mature
Brown Swiss cow has similar production but better components than a Holstein.
Robotic feeding
Robots are only the start of automation at Golden Gate. Lely’s Vector robotic feeding system is also in place. The system prepares six to seven different rations, distributing them as needed to milk cows, dry cows, heifers and calves housed in two adjacent barns. Robotic feeders minimize wastage, as Vector pushes up and monitors feed levels every two hours, adding feed when necessary. The Yoders also installed a sophisticated sensor-based Lely Grazeway system to manage access to pasture, a requirement of organic production systems. Their property has been divided into 26 paddocks between one and 1.5 acres. Grazeway rotates cows through the pastures. “Paddocks are sized so
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BC Dairy Expo keynote speakers Dr. Tom Oelberg of Diamond V in Iowa, left, and animal science professor Dr. Matt Lucy of the University of Missouri, far right, came a day early to visit some of the farms on the BC Dairy Farm Self-Tour, January 25. At Golden Gate Farms in Abbotsford, they met owners Sarah and Martin Yoder and their daughter Mikaela. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO
cows eat the grass within eight hours,” Martin says, adding dry cows follow the milking herd into a pasture to clean up the paddock. To ensure cows don’t stay in the paddock and miss being milked, Grazeway prohibits them from going to
pasture within two hours of their suggested milking time. There is also no water in any of the pastures, meaning cows must return to the barn area for water. The system is effective, the
Yoders say. “Our cows average 3.3 visits
to the robot during the winter and 3.4 to 3.5 in the summer,” Martin notes.
Although the cows can access pasture day or night, hot summer days find most of them in the barn.
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