Siva Swaminathan, chef, food educator, and owner of Chezsiva, captures a curious dairy cow on video while touring the Elora Dairy Research facility through a Farm and Food Care program that brings food influencers, chefs, and health practitioners to a farm level to improve their understanding of the food value chain.

Bringing food influencers and producers together has benefits

Improving urban understanding of agriculture industry underscores Food and Farm Care tour

Poonam Dattani, a Markham-area registered dietician, now feels better equipped to provide her clients with dairy and beef production facts. She was part of Farm and Food Care Ontario’s September tour of the University of Guelph Elora Dairy and Beef Research facilities and Soil Health Interpretive Centre, which provided registered dieticians, chefs and food influencers […] Read more

DeLaval North American business development manager Sjenk Van Soelen shows the newly developed ear tags that are central to the company's new DeLaval Plus Behavior Analysis tool that monitors in-barn cow behaviour and herd health at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show.

System delivers suite of dairy data every 2.2 seconds

Connecting data to the cloud, not on-site computers helps to increase speed of data interpretation

A new technology from dairy equipment company DeLaval helps monitor in-barn cow behaviour, with updates every 2.2 seconds. The company used the 2023 Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show for the official North American launch of its DeLaval Plus Behavior Analysis tool for monitoring in-barn cow behaviour and herd health. Why it matters: Advancements in artificial intelligence […] Read more

EastGen asked attendees to look over these heifers, assess their characteristics, and decide which two to keep in the milking herd and which two to sell. After choosing, attendees were shown genomic evaluations for comparison.

Dairy farmers challenged to make tough genomics choices

Heifers at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show displayed competing genomic priorities

At Rose Vega Farm near Cambridge, Luke and Kelly Donkers agree that emotion sometimes creeps its way into dairy breeding decisions. But at the recent Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (COFS), Luke also agreed that when it comes to overall dairy farm profitability, genomics is a valuable tool. “There are probably more grey-haired cows on our […] Read more

Dairy cattle, Ontario

Dairy farmer eager to see results of low-methane breeding decisions

Lynden-area farmer's herd one of the first to use trait

Reuters — When dairy farmer Ben Loewith’s calves are born next spring, they will be among the first in the world to be bred with a specific environmental goal: burping less methane. Loewith, a third-generation farmer in Lynden, started artificially inseminating 107 cows and heifers in June with the first-to-market bull semen with a low-methane […] Read more

Back in 1987, Understanding polled genetics was a great science lesson for me as a young man. – John Greig.

Comment: Polled Holsteins finally get their day

On June 3, 1987, an average heifer was born on my family’s dairy farm and named Melamar Astro Jet Wendy. She wasn’t remarkable. Many Astro Jet daughters were being born in southern Ontario at that time. The United Breeders Inc. bull was popular and known for daughters with great udders, decent butterfat per cent, and […] Read more


Jeff Stanton stands in one of the Stanton family’s dairy barns near Ilderton.

New players find way into dairy genetics markets

Some Canadian farms are now selling bull semen

New service providers and technology allow some large dairy farmers to sell genetics from their own bulls. Stanton Farms, one of Ontario’s largest dairy farms, now sells its bull semen directly to farmers. The Stanton family has a tradition of marketing cattle to other farmers. It has purchased some of the top-performing cows in the […] Read more

The Dairy Innovation Centre as it looked in 2022.

New dairy experience comes to Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show

Dairy Innovation Centre revamped for 2023 show

Visitors to Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show may have noticed significant changes over the years to the iconic Dairy Innovation Centre. Gone are the robotic milking systems, replaced by many new companies that showcase the latest in dairy technology and management. The building has undergone significant renovation and will feature new penning and livestock handling areas. […] Read more

A new enzyme-based feed additive shows promise for increasing feed efficiency.

New additive touted for feed efficiency, solids-not-fat control

Strong results seen in Mexico trial for biocatalyst

Calgary-based feed additive innovator CBS Bio Platforms is trumpeting the feed efficiency benefits of its newly released Optimax E enzyme-based bio-catalyst, as it appeals to dairy farmers’ goals of achieving carbon-neutral status. Given recent implementation by the Dairy Farmers of Ontario of a revised formula to pay for solids-not-fat (SNF), producers may also be interested […] Read more


Dry cows are especially susceptible to mycotoxin load, and will often calve prematurely if exposed to damaging levels of mycotoxins.

Managing mycotoxins reduces livestock risk

Dairy cattle usually are affected by multiple mycotoxins when levels reach a damaging threshold in feed

Mycotoxins create havoc on livestock farms, and the concern mostly comes from Gibberella ear rot in corn and corresponding levels of deoxynivalenol (DON). However, there’s a whole realm of mycotoxins out there in crops that can affect livestock. In dairy cows, too much mycotoxin exposure means serious impacts on feeding and gestation. In poultry and […] Read more

Stray current can have many impacts on cows, including reluctance to eat, drink, or be milked, and lower fertility rates.

Uncontrolled ground current remains a silent killer for livestock

Progress on mitigating the issue issue has stalled after 2022 report

As a five-year-old, Larry Davis remembers an intense tingling that shot up his arm when he cleaned the dairy barn water bowls. “I just said, ‘I can’t do it, I can’t put my hand in there, it stings my whole arm’,” recalls the Ontario Federation of Agriculture director and co-chair of OFA’s Uncontrolled Electricity Working […] Read more