COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JULY 2019
41 Breakfast on the Farm has lessons for everyone
Public, farmers gather for annual event
by JACKIE PEARASE SPALLUMCHEEN—It’s not
every week a dairy farmer welcomes more than 1,000 people onto his farm over two days.
Hutley Acres Farm owners
Mike and Pauline Broersma happily hosted an educational farm day for over 250 local schoolchildren on June 7 before serving 887 people at the Kamloops Okanagan Dairy Association’s fifth annual Breakfast on the Farm on June 8. The breakfast for the public and school tours were ideal opportunities to make farming more accessible and transparent. “KODA has really felt the need to educate the young kids on agriculture. Right now, children are three generations, if not four, removed from a farm,” explains Breakfast on the Farm organizer Erika Davidson. “We feel it is just so important to raise good, knowledgeable children.” Mike Broersma, whose
father-in-law Tom Boeve hosted the first breakfast event in 2015, sees his involvement as good public relations. He says people need to know how a dairy farm operates, including the importance farmers put on good animal welfare. “A lot of people don’t know
how much care there is given to each individual cow on the farm; how much effort and work there is to do that,” he says.
The students toured
Broersma’s barn with its 85 cows (Holstein-Jersey crosses), visited the calves, learned about chickens, saw where the cows are milked and the milk stored, milked a model cow and enjoyed ice cream
Maple Ridge dairy farmers Matt Laity and daughter-in-law Aimee Laity hosted the BC Dairy Association’s mobile dairy classroom for the school education day June 7 and Breakfast on the Farm June 8 at Hutley Acres Farm in Spallumcheen. [JACKIE PEARASE PHOTOS]
from Foothills Creamery Ltd. as well as milk from Brookfield Farm in Maple Ridge. The BC Dairy Association
provided its mobile dairy classroom, operated at both events by Aimee Laity of Brookfield Farm and her father-in-law, Matt Laity. They gave milking demonstrations while educating people about dairy farming and dairy cows in general. “We educate people about
where their milk comes from and they get to see what real dairy farming looks like from a real dairy farmer,” says Aimee. The two events are made possible with a team of about 25 volunteers, including local dairy farmers. BCDA and BC Chicken
Marketing Board members ran the school tours and joined members from the BC Egg Marketing Board, AgSafe BC and the BC Cattlemen’s Association for the breakfast event. Davidson says the school
tours, now in their fourth year, are very popular. Teachers frequently call her even before she sends out invitations. Farmers are just as eager to attend the breakfast as the non-farming public. “We’ve had retired dairy farmers two years in a row say they even learned things because of the technology advances in agriculture,” Davidson notes. “Everyone’s learning, whether they’ve farmed or not.”
BEEF HORSE 4 OKANAGAN-H STOCK SHOW
ARMSTRONG FAIR GROUNDS Schedule of Events
PRIME GRAIN-FED STEER SALE SATURDAY, JULY 6, 10:00AM
P S
TUESDAY – July 2, 2019 Move in/Weigh in (Beef) 7:00 PM OPENING CEREMONIES
WEDNESDAY – July 3, 2019 9:00 Instructional Day
3:30 PM Judging
THURSDAY – July 4, 2019 8:00 AM FITTING Competitions 1:00 PM Female Classes
FRIDAY – July 5, 2019 Ice cream servers
Alyssa Myers from TD Bank and Kari Crandlemire of
Wallyann Holsteins
were part of a group of about 25 volunteers who helped make the school education day and Breakfast on the Farm a huge success.
8:00 AM SHOWMANSHIP & MARKET STEER Classes 1:00 PM OPEN STEER Classes 6:00 PM Banquet and awards 8:00 PM Dance
SATURDAY – July 6, 2019 7:00 Buyers Breakfast 9:00 Parade of Champions
8:00 10:00 BEEF SALE Photos Lindsay Bartko
Contact: Carolyn Farris 250.308.6558
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