MANAGEMENT

“Early retirement,” Bas Froese-Kooijenga says with a laugh when asked what he hopes the Sunnyside Creamery he owns with his wife, Martha, will accomplish.

Spring is a busy time of year for agriculture operations. One of the first things we do is prepare our fields for the new growing season. In many cases, this involves pumping manure to evacuate the pits and fertilize the soil.

A distraught, middle-aged farmwoman recently asked me for advice on buying her daughter a farmhouse just down the road. This is a loaded question. When farm founders are considering how long they want to live on the farm, there can be a lot of conflict and frustration.

There are so many events planned at the eighth annual Canadian Dairy XPO (CDX), there won’t be any time for fooling around. The two-day event kicks off on April 1 at the Stratford Rotary Complex in Stratford, Ontario, and runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

Even though you may not be busy heading out to a show this time of year, there is still important work to be done so, when show season kicks in, your heifer is ready.

Hogendoorn Dairy looks very different today compared to what it was 25 years ago when the Hogendoorn family emigrated from Holland.