Breakfast on the Farm was a special event on June 22/24. Tickets ($5/ea) were available for 2,500 people. Sponsored by various agriculture and farming groups, it included a visit to a modern dairy farm, other farms animals and farm machinery equipment displays.
It was held at the Ruiter's Blackrapids Farm on Prince of Wales Dr. This is the farm that had a disastrous fire in September, 2017, losing 80 head of dairy cows. A new barn etc was built and they were back in operation in November 2018.
We were amongst the first to attend and enjoyed our breakfast sandwich, fresh strawberries and chocolate (or white) milk before it became crowded.
The dairy barn was an eye opener: cows fed and milked by robots, cows free to roam within sectioned off areas. The sectioning off kept the milkers in one area, special needs cows in their own area, young cows had a separate area etc.
The farm has about 100 head, 50 milkers, and another 50, some young, some heifers (non-milking at the time) etc. Virtually all were holsteins, but there was a swiss brown and a guernsey that they are housing for the Experimental Farm.
The feeding is all done by robot
The milking is done by robot as well. The cows can go in to be milked 2-3 times per day if they want. The robot uses lasers to guide itself when washing the udder and then milking. It can detect when a cow is not due to be milked and move it on. (Cows get a treat when in the milking robot, so sometimes they come looking for a treat.) Cows line up to take turns.
The manure is cleaned up constantly by a large "squeegee"
New born calves are kept separate to ensure they don't p[ickup diseases from the other cows and to ensure they are drinking well. After a few days they are brought into an area with other new borns where they get their milk from a machine.
Outside were other farm animals from local farms
As well as displays
There were free samples of maple syrup, various grains, mushrooms and ice cream
Farm machinery was on display
