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A good ration is one that puts the health of the cow above all else. That is the philosophy that has guided Dave Crossan through the past decade of nutrition work.
“If you think about cow health first, everything else follows,” Crossan says.
Dairy farmers are committed to animal care. It is a fact that healthy, comfortable cows produce more milk – and of higher quality – and that a stressed cow will not meet her genetic potential.
History of your dairy, in a nutshell: I was raised on a dairy farm in the Drummondville area in the province of Québec.
In 1984, after high school, I started to work full-time on the family farm with my father, Fernand. At that time, we were milking almost only Canadienne cows.
Higher grain prices in recent years have encouraged dairy producers to consider increasing the amount of forage and byproduct ingredients in rations for lactating dairy cows.
Because this differs from past traditional diets, a feeding study led by Dr. Kenneth Kalscheur at South Dakota State University was conducted to evaluate milk production with diets with elevated levels of forage and byproducts.
Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) recently launched a new website dedicated to the commitment of dairy farmers and the quality of Canadian milk. The site provides information about 100 percent Canadian milk and includes six videos about healthy cows, safety standards, accountability, strict regulations, consistent quality and innovation – all of upmost importance to Canadian dairy farmers.
In order to further stimulate milk production, an adjustment of quota issuance of 1.5 percent, effective April 1, is required to address longer term needs. This increase includes the 0.5 percent quota issuance increase announced last month. Therefore, the total increase will be 1.5 percent.
Pierre Lemieux, parliamentary secretary to Canada’s Minister of Agriculture, and Gord Brown, member of Parliament for Leeds – Grenville, have announced support of nearly $945,000 under the AgriMarketing Program for the dairy sector to develop and implement a national traceability program and implement an assurance program for dairy production.
Dairy Cluster 2 has approved funding of a National Dairy Study of Canadian dairy herds to begin in 2015. This study will be similar in scope to the National Animal Health Management Systems (NAHMS) dairy studies that have been undertaken in the U.S. by the USDA.
With support from producers and others in the industry, the Canadian Dairy XPO (CDX) has become the largest dairy stage in Canada. This year’s attendance reached 13,900, up from 11,600 in 2013.
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