Sixth Generation Farmer Looks to the Future

While the Freetown dairy farm of Steven Reeves traces its roots back six generations, it runs on cutting edge technology.

His free-stall dairy barn has a double-six parallel milking parlour. Computer programs help determine feed requirements for each cow, measure milk production and quality, and enable him to keep close track of the performance of every animal in his herd.

He is steadily building up herd genetic quality with purebred stock. When he began, he and his father, Farrell, were milking more than 70 cows to fill their quota. Now they are milking 55 to 60 cows, production keeps rising and their protein feed costs have dropped by eight percent.

“One of my goals is to always keep improving the value of the operation,” he said. “In this business, you can never get complacent and you have to constantly keep re-evaluating what you are doing. When opportunity presents, you have to be prepared to move in a hurry.”

The farm is very much a family business. They farm 240 acres in a three-year rotation of potatoes or corn, followed by grain and hay. Land is traded with other farmers in the area. Along with his father Farrell, his mother Kate and wife Jessica share in the milking and other chores. Even the seventh generation, Steve’s five year old son Luke, is starting to help with the chores.

Steve says managing the debt-load is one of the most challenging tasks in the operation. The farm was essentially debt-free when Steve returned, and the needed investments were closely analyzed to determine if they made financial sense.

Although Steve clearly enjoys the lifestyle and the satisfaction that comes from farming, his hard-nosed approach to the bottom line is what drives the business. He also recognizes the importance of having a life beyond the farm. He is an avid sportsman, and makes time to be with family and friends.

Bactoscan is Coming to the PEI Dairy Industry

There is a new technology coming into widespread use in the dairy industry. Automated bacteria counting (commonly referred to as Bactoscan, which is the name of one of the most commonly used bacteria counting machines) has gained widespread acceptance in the dairy industry. This method of measuring the bacteria in milk is now the regulatory standard for most of the Canadian dairy industry. Ontario, Quebec and several other provinces have already converted to using Bactoscan for their milk quality standard.

Bactoscan is a different test than the Standard Plate Count (SPC) method used in PEI today. To do an SPC (or TAC – Total Aerobic Count) milk samples are placed in a medium and incubated at a certain temperature for a certain period of time and then the number of bacteria colonies that form under those conditions are counted. Current regulations specify that milk is not meeting standards if the count is 50,000 or more colony forming units (cfu) of bacteria per ml. Only certain types of bacteria flourish in the conditions created by the incubation process.

Bactoscan is designed to work on milk that has not been exposed to a medium or incubated. It takes a fresh milk sample and counts the total number of all bacteria present in the milk. Since it is not counting colonies and counts a wider spectrum of species of bacteria, Bactoscan uses a different measurement known as Individual Bacteria Count (IBC). The Canadian standard permits a maximum IBC of 121,000 per ml of milk. Milk with an IBC of 122,000 or greater is considered to have failed quality standards and in violation of regulations.

A Bactoscan machine has been installed and validated. While it is available to test milk, there will be a transition process that will allow producers to learn about the new standards and how they will be affected. It is possible that some producers who have met the SPC standard may not meet the Bactoscan standard.

The transition period will give any producers who have problems with the new standard an opportunity to address any underlying problems. It will be several months before the province is ready to adopt Bactoscan as its bacteria testing methodology. The transition process must be completed and PEI’s bacteria regulations for milk must be revised.

In the meantime, Dr. Greg Keefe is assisting DFPEI with a process to ease the transition to this new testing methodology. When Bactoscan becomes the regulatory test, PEI producers will not be held to any higher or different standard than producers in other provinces. The Maritimes will be the last area in the country to adopt Bactoscan, and in this case we are playing catch up to a technology that is already adopted in most
of Canada.