COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JANUARY 2020
Popular dairy tour will feature lots of variety
Silage demo part of tour by DAVID SCHMIDT
AGASSIZ – The BC Dairy Expo begins the day before the Pacific Agriculture Show with the popular annual dairy farm self tour, January 29. This year, the tour offers
producers a look at five new dairy facilities. Lely’s latest robotic milker,
the Astronaut A5 will be on display at two farms. Jalyn Farms in Rosedale and Peterson Farms in Agassiz have each built new freestall barns with two Lely A5 milkers and a Lely Juno automatic feed pusher. Both barns use sand bedding. Geoff Sache of Jalyn manages his system with Jamesway sand-specific alley scrapers, a sand lane for bedding recovery and a JBS pull-type sand slinger to restock the freestalls, while Gordon Peterson is using a Valmetal/US Farm Systems flush system, Meinen Brothers manure separation system and a sand recovery lane. Peterson also has a Holme and Laue Milch taxi to pasteurize milk and dispense it to his calves. Producers will be able to
see BC’s first Milk-First barn layout at the Neels’ family’s Mountain Shadow Acres in Rosedale. This unique design features a four-row barn with Milk-First cow flow on one side and free choice with a maternity pen on the other. The new barn is equipped with a GEA Monobox “in-liner- everything” robotic milking system complete with 3D time-of-flight camera and continuous SCC sampling. Farmers who missed BC
Dairy Association president Holger Schwichtenberg’s grand opening barn party last summer will want to tour his attractive new flush barn with its three new DeLaval V300 robotic milkers, each with on-
• BEEF • VEAL • BISON • LAMB • GOAT • DEER
board somatic cell counters. Holberg Farms in Agassiz has also installed a Delpro Heat Detection system and a T100 front milk tank monitoring system with automated proAction data collection. While most new BC dairy facilities are installing robotic milkers, one that has opted for a more traditional parlour is Wenlay Farms in Greendale. During the 2020 tour, Arie, Herman and Bert Binnendyk will be proudly showing off their new GEA Mag 90i parallel double-24 parlour and new centre drive-thru barn. The new barn also includes a CowScout rumination and activity monitoring system, GEA integrated wash system and GEA automated foot bath. In addition to all the new
facilities, this year’s tour will feature a special stop focused on presenting silage face management options. Trioliet will demonstrate
four systems for silage face management at Cordine Farms in Agassiz. The systems include the Triomaster Big Bite, Trioliet block cutter, Triotrac self-propelled and AP silage bite systems. There will also be technical experts from other sponsors at Cordine to offer information on packing protocols, silage inoculants, bunk face management and how they impact silage face temperatures, dry matter losses and herd DM intakes. Holberg Farms will be open to visitors from 9 am to 4 pm, Wenlay Dairy Farm will be open from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm and Mountain Shadow Acres, Peterson Farms and Cordine Farms will all be open from 10 am to 4 pm. Complimentary lunches will be available at Peterson Farms and Wenlay Dairy Farm. Tour guides are available
from dairy equipment suppliers and the BC Ministry of Agriculture.
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Wenlay Farms in Greendale is on this year’s dairy tour, January 29. SUBMITTED PHOTO Dairy Expo continues at ag show
After seeing the silage face management options at Cordine Farms during the dairy self-tour, January 29, be sure to take in the BC Dairy Expo seminar in the BMO Room at Tradex in Abbotsford, the following day. North American silage specialist Eric Dorr
of Chr. Hansen Animal Nutrition & Health will expand on what producers have seen at Cordine with his strategies for silage success. His 45-minute presentation will cover packing protocols, silage face management, silage inoculants and bunk sizing. Before and after Dorr’s session, producers will learn about calf nutrition during two presentations by Dr. Michael Steele, the research chair in dairy cattle nutrition at the
University of Guelph. The first half will focus on the first few hours, days and weeks of a calf’s life, detailing the importance of starting with high-quality colostrum and describing how to transition from colostrum to milk feeding. In his second presentation, Steele will
focus on the next step in a calf’s life, providing his thoughts on what constitutes an optimal weaning strategy. Tickets to the BC Dairy Expo are available at the door on Thursday morning. Cost is $25 and includes the BC Dairy Producers’ luncheon following the seminar, seminar proceedings and a three-day pass to access the trade show.
MEADOW VALLEY MEATS PROVINCIALLY INSPECTED ABATTOIR BC#34
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