PEOPLE

When R&D Garfat Farms decided to try something new on the farm, they went with something really new. The farm was the first in North America to install a GEA Monobox automatic milking system.

Knowing where your food comes from is one thing, but being able to track it all the way back to the farm is another. A new brand of ice cream recently hit the Canadian market with a special feature added: 100 percent traceability.

Breezy Holsteins’ new freestall barn allowed Roger and Karen Haag to bring two herds together under one roof and use the vacated tiestall barn for newborns and weaned calves. They also constructed a small barn with automatic feeders for pre-weaned calves.

In taking over the farm his parents started when they moved from Switzerland in 1990, Roger Haag and his wife, Karen, consolidated two separate farms and looked to automation to reduce labour needs.

Martin and Sarah Yoder met at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, back in 2008. Martin was a hoof trimmer from Ohio; Sarah was farming with her parents near Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Gert Schrijver and his wife, Sonja, started Mars Dairy near Stettler, Alberta, in 1996 after immigrating from the Netherlands. At the time, they were milking 50 cows. Today, they have 230 cows (370 kilograms of quota), 260 heifers and 850 acres. They also recently achieved the highest milk production in Alberta at more than 14,000 litres of milk per cow in 305 days.