OSGOODE — Jeff Robinson grew up a Thunder Bay boy who couldn’t tell straw from hay. He was studying agricultural business at the University of Guelph when he met Eleanor McNaughton. He didn’t realize then he would become a farmer. "I just knew I wanted to work for myself," he said.

Eleanor grew up on an eastern Ontario dairy farm, just east of Osgoode, where the Scottish heritage in Bill and Norma McNaughton ensured an Ayrshire herd would be milked. Eleanor studied animal nutrition, met Jeff on campus and they later married.

His first job was as a manager for a mushroom farm and later at Burnbrae Farms, the north of Brockville egg producing giant. She worked as a research technician at the Ontario Veterinary College and later as a nutritionist for New Life Mills and Agtrek Nutrition.

As children began arriving – they now have three: Jordan, 8, Angela, 6, and Justin, 2 – their priorities shifted. He no longer wanted to leave home when the kids were still in bed and rush home to dinner. He wanted to dump the pager. They both wanted more family time.

In 2001, when the opportunity surfaced to take over her parents’ farm, they jumped at it. They never thought they would need to milk more than 45 cows in the tie-stall barn. But they’ve since increased it to 65-head. And now, following the expansion of their life, they expect to be milking 105 cows by 2010.

Eleanor handles the breeding, nutrition, health and culling. Jeff is in charge of the financial picture, setting budgets and forecasts. They share the milking, feeding and cleaning. Eleanor’s father continues cropping and handling machinery maintenance. "We always make any big decisions together as a group," Eleanor said.

They added a milking parlour and free-stall barn to their existing tie-stall in December. Between 400 and 500 people visited their open house Jan. 19. "The general consensus was that this was a great place to visit to give them ideas that are realistic for a small expansion," Eleanor said.

Here are some features of their expansion:

� They replaced the portable milking units with a swing parlour: a double eight DeLaval herringbone.

‚ They plan to increase the number of head milking to 105 from 65 using their own herd. In February, 11 cows will be calving; 12 are calving in March.

ƒ Attached to the old barn, the new barn (75 ft. by 99 ft.) can be later expanded to twice its size so they can eventually milk 250 cows. That’s the five- to 10-year plan. By attaching the new barn to the existing facility, they can also continue to use the tie stalls. They’ve also added a holding area and milking parlour (95 ft. x 30 ft.)

„ The new barn has five rows of freestalls: three rows for 41 cows in total on one side of the feed alley and two rows for the 24 highest producers on the other side. This means less competition for feed among the high producers.

…For ventilation, they opted for 10-ft. high, floor to ceiling, ventilation curtains.

†They figure they saved another $20,000 by not moving the milk tank, vacuum pump and refrigeration unit next to the milking parlour. Instead, they opted to pump the milk to the milk house.

‡ For more cost savings, they didn’t build a utility room. The electrical panel is boxed on the outside of the barn. "Why build a utility room just to flick a breaker," Jeff said.

ˆLiquid manure is pumped underground to the existing manure pit.  Alley scrapers push the manure into a 30-inch wide by 3-ft deep trench at the end of the barn.