Dear Friends of Sunnivue Farm,
On June 7, at the annual meeting of the ROSE Land Care Association at Sunnivue, we were treated to an enlightening and lively talk by Jenny Butcher, Programme and Services Manager at Organic Meadow, the coop to which Sunnivue belongs. Jenny’s work is as a liaison officer between the farmers and the coop, and she told us that she is passionate about linking the consumer and the farmer. Farming, she said, is the basis of our lives, and in addition connects us to our history. It was heartening to listen to sentiments so much in harmony with the philosophy that drives our work in ROSE and at Sunnivue, and we were very grateful to learn so much from Jenny about cows and the production of milk.
Jenny took us into the barn and told us straight off that we were looking at some of the best-cared-for cows in the country, and that these high standards have been achieved within a very modest budget. Both the genetics of the herd - managed by Ellinor through her breeding programme - and the care of the animals contribute to the fine results. A thorough understanding of cows is also evident in the consideration with which they are treated and in the way they remain healthy more by prevention than by treatment. Their diet is as close as possible to a natural diet, heavy on grass and hay, and the calves too are raised in a way that mimics nature, with lots of activity and lots of mother’s milk.
Jenny then took us through some of the 24 qualities that the official classifiers use to decide whether a cow is excellent, very good, good plus, good, or fair. We heard about rump angle, foot angle, heel depth, bone quality, udder depth and texture, and median suspensory, and we learned to distinguish between blood veins and milk veins. We learned why these and the other characteristics on the classifiers’ list are important in contributing to the ability of a cow to carry her own weight without injury, to give birth with minimum risk, and to live a long and productive life. Two excellent cows, Hazel and Lealu, cooperated in demonstrating these characteristics at their best. But given the high level of the cows in the barn, Jenny was hard put to show us less desirable examples.
We took a moment to moment to mourn the absence of Lucia, the cow profiled by Gail Nielsen in the latest ROSE newsletter, who recently died quietly one night at the advanced age of 15. Most of the cows we saw in the barn are her children, grandchildren, great- or great-great-grandchildren. She lived long enough to receive a special award from Holstein Canada, and will be missed.
Many thanks to Jenny for giving us a better idea of all that goes into creating and maintaining a herd like the one Ellinor has built up at Sunnivue.
With best wishes,
Sally (for Sunnivue Farm)