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Kooyman Family Farm Our first stop was at a farm operated by a young and energetic couple with great enthusiasm for dairy farming. Ken and Ineke Kooyman had both grown up on dairy farms and were happy to be continuing the tradition. Both loved the family farm lifestyle, working with animals and watching things grow. At the time of my visit, Ken and Ineke had been farming at their current location for two years. They were milking about 80 cows with future plans to grow in cow numbers and percent of feed homegrown. That future vision was just starting to seem a step closer as the first animals bred on the farm were beginning to calve. With Ken mating for healthy, efficient and long-lasting cows, those replacements should have a lasting impact and help the family achieve their dreams for the future. The use of sexed
J Ken and Ineke Kooyman value the farming lifestyle and look forward to raising their son Jacob on the farm.
semen for a portion of the matings adds to the number replacements they will have available for their growing herd. To fulfill his image of profitable cows, Ken chooses sires based on Lifetime Net Merit, Productive Life and Daughter
Pregnancy Rate. These are traits represented by bulls in their breeding program like 1HO08784 FREDDIE %-I, 1HO09192 HILL, 1HO10218 DENIM %-I and 1HO03093 ELVYS ISY.
Elmido Farms Ltd. After a brief visit with the Kooymans, Nick and I headed to Elmido Farms, a dairy which has been owned and operated by John and Debbie Aarts since 1980. The husband and wife team have worked together to not only build a productive herd, but actively promote the dairy industry.
J Nick (right) with John Aarts, owner of Elmido Farms, Sardis, British Columbia.
From 1973 to 2002, the farm grew gradually. In 2002, the Aarts were milking about 120 cows. As John and Debbie’s children came back to the farm, they expanded the operation purchasing additional quota as it became available. In November 2012, at the time of my visit, they were milking 320 cows and had recently purchased another nearby facility. That new facility was being restored and renovated to house the farm’s nearly dry and dry cows. As mentioned, several of the Aarts children are now involved in the operation. Today, their daughter, Jacqueline, assists with the farm bookwork. Her husband, ©2013 CRI
Richard Boer, serves as the herd manager. Also involved are their sons Jonathan, Jesse and Jacob. As the farm has changed over the years, so has John’s ideal cow. “Twenty years ago I bred for show cows,” noted John. “Now we breed for medium-sized cows with strength and good udders and feet and legs.” He stated several reasons for the change in mindset. One was an increase in feed costs in Canada over the last few years. A second was fact the lower weight of smaller cows is easier on their feet and legs. To develop those ideal animals, all cows on the dairy have been A.I. bred since 1973. The Aarts generally choose four or five A.I. sires per year. Genex sires, such as 1HO02531 HEFTY, 1HO10458 DAY, 1HO08778 SUPER, 1HO07235 TOYSTORY and FREDDIE have made the mating program in recent years. As John explained, there are three areas the dairy really excels in. Those areas are herd management, cow comfort and feed production. “One of the main reasons we excel in herd management
is because we have one individual dedicated solely to this task. For cow comfort, we utilize sand bedding which provides a low incidence of mastitis and a cell count of 100,000 to 120,000.” The Aarts also produce all their own feed. In addition to fields near their main dairy, they farm about 400 acres near their heifer ranch (located to the east over the mountains and into the next valley). “Each year we get about five to six cuttings of grass here. Then we’ll get about three cuttings over there too.” Involvement in the community and the dairy industry is also engrained in the Aarts family. Several times each year they welcome students from the local high school agriculture class dairy program. Additionally, Debbie has served on the BC Dairy Foundation, the BC Milk Marketing Board, and has been a dairy representative for the Investment Agriculture Foundation. H O R I Z O N S
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