Canada – day 3a | arletelouise

After breakfast with Jeanette and Steve (from Red Deer Alberta), we all droveto Balgonie to Joy and Brian’s dairy farm, Broyhill Holsteins. We started out at the house with drinks and dessert. Delicious dessert! Homemade apple pie, Saskatoonberry pie, and cheese strudel. And ice cream.

Early days of a future milk cow:

In a different barn, the next stage in the progression to becoming a milk cow. As these cows reach forward to eat their specialized mix of food, some of the food is pushed forward and out of reach. Periodically, this robotic machine leaves its charging station to slowly follow a magnetic path to the end of the building then turns back and begins spinning, pushing the feed closer to the cows.

The main attraction was the big barn, all robotic.

This room is the control central for all operations in the barn.

Sand, the best bedding material. Bacteria can’t grow in sand.

Three to four times a day, a cow may freely choose to be milked. A cow may enter the milking station when the gate is open. At the other end, a gate with a feed bucket closes. Note the white brushes cleaning the udder.

Each cow is easily recognized, her udder has already been mapped. The white brushes have swung away and milking tubes find the teats one at a time and attach. Then the machine quiets and the milk begins to flow.

With the technological improvements, quality has improved and, Joy said, “a woman can manage a herd of 130 milk cows in 4 hours/day. Previously, it took two men 8 hours/day to manage 40 cows.”

Joy and Brian have three sons. The oldest, Josh, is a food-producing large animal veterinarian. Lucas and Adam run the dairy. Lucas and daughter Mecaella:

Lucas’ son Gabriel with Sandra (from Carrot River):

Julie came over with her granddaughters, Riley and Ella. Jeanette and Steve to the left, Joy to the right. Jeanette and Sandra are daughters of my mom’s older brother Fernie. Julie and Joy are daughters of my mom’s younger sister Eleanor.