PEOPLE

In July 2015, Poly-C Farms put the first group of calves in their new calf barn. Since then, their calves have been less stressed, healthier and have grown better than they did in the hutches.

When Cor and Cathy Haagsma, owners of Poly-C Farms in Ponoka, Alberta, built their calf barn in 2015, they strongly considered installing automated feeders. However, they and their employees decided they would miss out on visual contact and inspection too much during feeding calves to make the switch from buckets to auto-feeders.

When Anton Borst’s parents first moved to Halarda Farms in 1984, they had 100 cows, 400 acres and five children. Today, Anton and his wife, Cheryl, own and run the 800-cow, 4,500-acre and 80-head angus/angus-cross operation in Elm Creek, Manitoba, with their nine children.

Last year, I found myself in a frustrating situation at my off-farm job as a structural engineer. I had multiple projects with overlapping schedules and similar scopes, and I could barely keep them straight.

It was a sunny morning, and I was already running behind. I pushed back a bit of frustration as I hastily put on my boots to head to the dairy. It was one of those days winter doesn’t spoil you with too often – sunny and 10ºC – making it destined to be a great day, no matter what, in my book.

He’ll soon be 87, but Bruce Witmer hasn’t taken to a rocking chair yet and shows no signs of doing so in the foreseeable future.