OPINION: Record keeping is a persistent annoyance on the farm

Last year was a horrible year. We bounced from one thing to another instead of taking our time, talking things out and doing it right the first time. The fact that the Year of the Horse in Chinese astrology was looming ahead was encouraging — but I had really misunderstood what this horse really meant! More like go, go, go and bouncing from one thing to another with no rest!

We did get one thing accomplished last year. Our wills are all tied up and the farm is protected for years to come. That is a huge relief.

We started 2026 on the right foot, we thought. I got a lot done inside in January and the guys finished up the raised-calf pens in the barn. Vets and DFO (Dairy Farmers of Ontario) reps love them and all because three truck loads of pig slats went for $110 at an auction. Whoopee — dry pens plus enough to do group pens too.

Then things swung the other way. We unexpectedly helped a family member with some expenses. Then the DFO rep came to do the Grade A inspection. After some mad scrabbling, everything was fine.

Next we realized that to buy livestock fly spray, repellent cattle ear tags and rat poison, we needed a pesticide licence. Online at Kemptville seemed easy enough … but their online program got the better of us all. Still we got a card.

Next was the livestock assessment program, one that has been the bane of our existence since it started. Jerseys are, pure and simple, a dairy breed. Everything they take in goes out through their udder. Many people, even those in the industry, don’t understand. In 2019 we got one such assessor and landed up with a lot of corrective action procedures (CAPs) TO FATTEN OUR COWS. Instead of writing up the last one as to how we would make our cows fatter, I wrote out what really happened and why. It did not go down well with the proAction team but after our vet got involved it was an accepted CAP and sat on our books. It was there for seven years, since 2019 a constant reminder that sometimes the small farmer with their small brown cows can win!

So yes, the end of July brought the ProAction assessment and things have changed … and not for the better! Everything is much more stringent now. After years of getting a clear pass, we got all Majors this year. The initial fail rate (my word not theirs) is 50 to 60 % now. Just what everyone didn’t want — more work!

1. We didn’t have the vets’ drugs and meat/milk withdrawal times listed under medicines used on our cows.

2. We now have the vet do our dehorning but hadn’t deleted that fact from our standard operating procedures.

3. Now that there is a market for Jersey bull calves we no longer euthanize them. We hadn’t changed it.

4. My reporting the birth and tagging of bull calves, registering heifers and burial of any dead animals on the farm had not been reported to DairyTrace regularly within 45 days of birth or before the animal leaves the farm. Oops! Another Major! Just to prove it isn’t only me, DairyTrace did not delete 29 head (bulls, calves and culls) over two years. They were sold at the sale barn but new owners never advised DairyTrace. I have to locate the records and delete them.

And last but not least, my 2019 synopsis of the dispute with the assessor regarding the condition of our skinny Jerseys was to be removed. This was listed twice so we received two Majors despite the fact that we had already received them in 2019. I call that double dipping which is not covered in the handbook.

One more inspection to go at some point this year. A new one for the province’s grass fed milk producers. We pasture our cattle, weather permitting, feed haylage not corn silage, don’t feed strange additives or lots of grain corn and specific ratios in our cows’ milk must be below 3. This will be the first time it is done this year. It should be very interesting.

There are about five months left in this bouncy Year of the Horse. Everything is wide open. Just second cut and hopefully seeding a newly cleared field. Anything can go wrong. Will it? Or will it all go good?

Angela Dorie is an agricultural writer and a Jersey farmer near Cornwall.