Course:LFS250/Week 07
Overview
Field trip!! Have you been to a dairy farm before? The majority of Canadians consume dairy products on a daily basis yet have never been to a dairy farm. In this session, we will be splitting the class in two and visiting a conventional and an organic dairy operation. You will be assigned to one of the farms and must attend your assigned farm. Your group will be split up and it is essential that information is collected from both farms for your group to write report. Transportation on school buses is provided to and from UBC campus, leaving at 12:30pm (sharp) and returning before 5pm. The buses will be waiting for you in front of the FNH building on East Mall.
Objectives
After completing this session, you should be able to:
- Identify key components and processes of a dairy farm
- Produce a simple systems diagram of the farm you visited
- Articulate the multifunctionality of a dairy farming system
Required Readings and Resources
- VIDEO: Dairy Farmers of Canada - Canadian Milk: From Farm to Table
Dairy farms are the production sub-system within the BC Dairy System. Dairy production is an important part of BC’s agricultural system with the majority of production concentrated in the Lower Mainland, lower Vancouver Island and the Okanagan-Shuswap regions. In 2011 there were 517 dairy farms in BC producing about 666 million litres of milk and generating $522 million farm sales. Our class has the opportunity to visit two of these dairy farms both located in the South Surrey area of Metro Vancouver - Donia Farms and Nicomekl Farm.
Donia Farms was established in 1955. They offer grass-fed milk, kefir, meat products for sale under the Donia Farms brand. Both their land base and heard size has significantly grown as you will learn on the farm tour. The farm is currently managed by a third generation of the Van Keulen family. Important changes have occurred on the farm (and dairy farms across BC) over time to enable the growth of the farm and increased production levels. As you tour the farm take note of the ways in which production has changed - consider farm management and business model, crop and feed production, milking technology, heard size, milk productions levels/cow, cattle breeding, cow and calf housing systems, and manure and fertility management. There have also been important changes to the surrounding area which has transitioned over time from a farming region to an increasingly urban area with less farms. The Donia Farm sits on the lowland floodplain of the Nicomeckl river basin. On your tour you will learn about the soils, climate and landscape which are important production factors. You will also learn about the surrounding ecology and wildlife habitat and the regulations and management practices in place for environmental protection.
The Nicomeckl farm began in the 1930s and was purchased by the Janssen family in the 1950s, at which time it was a 190 acre, 60 cow operation. The farm is currently managed by a second generation of the Janssen family. Like Donia Farms, Nicomeckl has significantly grown in land size, heard size, labour requirements and production levels as you will learn on the tour. As you tour the farm take note of changes both on the farm and to the surrounding area and your group can compare and contrast changes over time and the current production systems of the two farms. The Nicomeckl Farm is also located along the Nicomeckl river which is an important salmon run and wildlife habitat and needs to be protected through appropriate farm management practices. The following Vancouver Sun article from 2015, featuring David Janssens, the owner of Nicomekl Farm, is a good resource for your field trip and final report: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Weekend+Extra+price+stability/11205760/story.html. The article also features Dr Rick Barichello, who will be visiting our class to discuss economics of the BC Dairy System, and refers to the Conference Board of Canada report that is a required reading in the course...everything is connected!
A key difference between the two farms is that Nicomeckl is certified organic and Donia Farms is conventional. Organic certification is governed by the federal legislation and is administered at the provincial level by accredited certifying bodies. In BC we have the Certified Organic Associations of BC (COABC) which is a provincial organization and several regional certifying bodies such as the Fraser Valley Organic Producers Association (FVOPA). Organic farms must meet a set of production standards and be certified by an accredited certifying body in order to market their product as organic in Canada. There are standards specific to dairy farming that must be met for organic certification both respect to on farm crop management, feed sourcing (if feed is imported), and heard management. For example, the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is not permitted in organic production and hence the feed crops grown at Nicomeckl cannot include GMO corn whereas Donia Farms, as a conventional farm, can grow GMO corn for feed. Organic certification for dairy farms also requires that cows have a certain amount of access to pasture whereas in conventional dairies there is no requirement that cows have access to pasture. Farmers become certified for a variety of reasons, one of them being economic, and as you will learn at Nicomeckl farm there is a price premium for organic milk. A recent CBC article articulates some of the differences between conventional and organic milk: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/milk-antibiotics-1.3803799. Reading this article with a systems perspective, where does the analysis fall short? Is there more to this story? The analytical skills you are developing in LFS 250 should help you develop the ability to provide a more in-depth and nuanced understanding of the similarities and differences between conventional and organic milk (e.g. beyond considerations of price, consumer choice, and human health...).
While the farm tours focus on the production system, you also have an opportunity to learn how milk is sold - the distribution and marketing systems at the two farms. Dairy production and marketing is governed by a supply management (quota) system in Canada and your farm tours will provide an introduction to what the quota system from the perspective of farmers. Then in next weeks lecture we will have a guest lecture focused on dairy policy, the quota system and marketing in BC and Canada.
Farm Tour Logistics
- You will be picked up and dropped off from UBC campus
- Half of your group goes to Donia Farms and half to Nicomekl - you will be assigned a farm, please make sure you get on correct bus!
- At the farm everyone will receive an introduction to the farm as a large group
- You will then be divided into smaller groups and you will rotate between a series of stations covering different topics at the farm
- It is up to you to take notes and ask needed question in order to collect data required to complete your dairy unity assignment
Individual Dairy Farm Systems Diagram
- Each individual needs to complete a systems diagram of the farm s/he/they visited to be submitted to Canvas before the following week's tutorial session
- Key components of the systems model that must be represented in your diagram include:
- Goal(s) of the system: the purpose or functions of the system (e.g. What, How + Why)
- System Boundaries: where the system starts and stops, illustrates what components are within the system (ex. the land) and components external to the system but that influence/interact with the system
- Components: the elements located within and that make up the system, components can be physical things (e.g.the land) and people/organizations
- Interactions: the relationships between the components of the system and the inputs and outputs that enter and leave the dairy farm that constitute the functioning of the system. Inputs refer to that which is brought into the system from outside its boundaries and outputs is that which is produced within and exit the system’s boundaries. For example, some dairy farms input cow feed from other provinces or the United States, and raw milk is an output of the dairy farm system.
Additional Material
- Information on organic dairy farming in Canada and the organic standards from the Certified Organic Associations of BC.
http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/rcbtoa/training/dairy-farming.html
- Organic Dairy Industry in Canada - 2012 Fact Sheet from Agriculture and Agrifood Canada: