The common dairy practice is to separate a dairy calf from its dam at birth and place it in individual housing. This helps to protect the calf from pathogens and makes it easy for the calf raiser to monitor, but it limits social contact for the animal.

According to Margit Bak Jensen of Aarhus University in Denmark, early social contact to the dam or social contact to other calves during the milk feeding period has beneficial effects on behaviour and welfare; social contact to other calves also stimulates earlier and larger intakes of solid food.

Back in 2009 when the U.S. was struggling with low milk prices, a camera crew from a local news station stopped by my family’s farm to talk to a dairy producer to see if times were really as tough as everyone said it was.

When the interview was over my dad walked the camera crew around the farm. He showed them the freestall barn and milking parlour. They went to see the baby calves and the heifer barn, and finally he took them past the dry cow barn.

We all know the welfare of animals is a growing concern for the general public and certainly an interest to producers. I recently heard an interesting philosophy which helped me gain a better understanding of the origin of varying viewpoints of welfare and how today’s farmers might be able to address them.

As harvest progresses, the visual evidence of this summer’s drought throughout eastern Canada will soon be left only to memory.

However, the effects of 2012’s hot, dry weather will likely be felt for a few years and by more than those who witnessed the withering plants first-hand.

Like those of you in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, I spent most of the summer praying for rain. I had watched as one shower that occurred shortly after planting made my soybeans sprout out of the ground, only to then see them sit there almost stagnant for weeks on end as the sun rose and set with not a rain cloud in sight.

Like most of the world, I spent most of last month with my eyes on the Olympic games in London. I made a point to watch the sports I love and even spent some time watching those I rarely see or perhaps hadn’t seen before.

What struck me the most were the sports like gymnastic vaulting, diving or short distance track and field events where the athlete has about 30 seconds or less to give it their all.

One of my daughter’s favourite cartoons is “Dora the Explorer.” At the end of the show, Dora and her monkey pal, Boots, sing a song.

Proud to have finished their task of the day and traveling to their three locations, the duo repeatedly sing the words: “We did it.”

That portion of the show is really resonating with me at the moment because I have a couple of reasons to stand up and shout, “We did it!”

It has become a nightly game in my farmhouse to “get the bugs.” My 2-year-old serves as the bug spotter while myself or my husband is the bug squasher. In the game, my daughter points and exclaims, “Bug! Bug!” until we see the fly and go after it. She then usually lets us know whether or not we were successful – even though she’s not always accurate in her proclamation.