(This publish was written for Dairy Maqui berry farmers of Canada’s Maqui berry farmers Voice blog. Think it is here .)
Christmastime really is easily the most wonderful season. For the farm family, the Christmas season marks the culmination of the lengthy year spent milking and feeding cows, taking care of our creatures, growing and harvesting crops, and general farm maintenance. It’s additionally a time for you to think about stuff that went well previously year as well as on possibilities to enhance in 2012. This season more than ever before we'll remember a remarkably busy summer time and fall, where we built a brand new barn to accommodate our youthful stock in one place. This project permitted us to destroy several dilapidated structures which were formerly accustomed to house our calves and heifers and, outfitted with automatic scrapers, this barn will eliminate hrs of manure removal every week. In 2015, we finally completed our three year transition to organic dairy farming. We certainly appreciated the need for effort and determination whenever we viewed that first truckload of organic milk mind off and away to the processor at the outset of November! Which Christmas is created much more special by adding our newest farm kid: baby Connor is 4 several weeks old and will also be celebrating his first Christmas around this season. Thinking back on 2015 certainly fills us with thankfulness for farm and family benefits.
Like the majority of farm families that we understand, Christmas is another time for you to interact with buddies and (extended) family. For all of us, which means that we attend and host various Christmas dinners and occasions. It’s always wonderful to have the bonds of family and friendship strengthened by these gatherings. And, for me personally, it’s an chance to challenge myself to determine the number of dairy ingredients I'm able to use in each dish offered or introduced to potluck dinners. Whether it’s generous dollops of sour cream in mashed taters, scads of butter slathered on the poultry, or thick layers of cheese oozing delectably from vegetable casseroles, I allow it to be my own pursuit to bolster the Canadian dairy industry with my Christmas cooking! I challenge you, my readers, to locate intriguing and unpredicted methods to include dairy inside your Christmas cooking. I promise you, things are better with cheese…or butter…or cream…
But because any player will explain, farm work doesn’t magically disappear at Christmastime! You may still find cows to become milked, watered, given. Calves need their bottles and heifers still like to munch on hay. Farm midwifery doesn’t slow lower whatsoever either – there’s still a high probability to be known as up out of bed for any night time calving during christmas. However I wager that for maqui berry farmers, myself incorporated, this doesn't cause discontentment. For all of us, farming is really a work of affection. And also at Christmas, much like during all of those other year, we love being with individuals we like and doing what we should love best. We like our cows so we love farming, just how could any one of this cause displeasure? Rather, I've found that at Christmas these jobs are even more enjoyable, particularly with additional time to savor the straightforward pleasures of farm existence: using the additional time to pet that affectionate cow, marveling in the miracle of the new bovine arrival, or watching that scrumptious warm milk streaming from rounded udders is much more poignant and gratifying at the moment of the year. I really think that farm existence is the greatest existence, regardless of season.
Searching ahead to 2012 we all know that, like every other year, 2016 won't be without challenges. This is also true for the industry, once we be prepared to learn simply how much the brand new trade agreement will impact all of us individually. However I am fully certain that our Canadian dairy maqui berry farmers and our dairy industry will invest in rising above these challenges. Maqui berry farmers are resilient, as has been shown with the millennia tough occasions aren't anything a new comer to maqui berry farmers. Farm existence is really a challenging existence, determined by weather and crop success and good herd health insurance and milk production. These new obstacles produced by trade contracts won't make the downfall in our industry. Much like we also have, we'll continue battle to keep our industry competitive and our consumers pleased with and supportive in our farms and our top-quality milk products.
Maqui berry farmers and farm buddies, you want a dairy merry Christmas along with a happy “moo” year!