Ontario's top cows are Nooyen cows

NAVAN — If you like one-stop shopping and you want to see the 10 highest milk producing cows in Ontario, drop in on John and Chris Nooyen at Navan, east of Ottawa. Their Brabantdale Farm performed the remarkable feat of having six of the 10 highest producing Holstein cows on the Dairy Herd Improvement report for 2009 in Ontario.

What’s more, their four-year-old Brabantdale Linjet Image produced more milk than any other cow in Ontario – 23,997 kilograms – and had the highest BCA (Breed Class Average).

Brabantdale Farms has the top producing yearling, the second-best 2-year-old, the top producing three-year-old, the top two producing four-year-olds and the top five-year-old in the province.

They are most often recognized for overall herd production but last year production was down because "a lot of cows dried off before 305 days due to calving," Chris Nooyen, 27, said. "I didn’t expect to be at the top for individuals. There’s strong competition out there."

Brabandtdale Farms is owned by John and Denise Nooyen. Their four grown kids also work on the farm, as do their parents Harry and Christine.

"How do you do it?" is the question they get asked most often by other farmers, John Nooyen said.

The answer to high production is in four equally key factors to managing the 60-cow Holstein milking herd on 750 acres: feeding, cow comfort, milking three times a day and genetics. "We watch our feeding," John Nooyen said. We watch cow comfort. We milk three times a day, so we’re in the barn quite a bit.

"When you’re milking two times a day you’re in the barn four or five hours. We’re in the barn six or seven hours. We’re scraping the feed in more and feeding more frequently, four or five times a day. We see if they’re in heat a little more. Some cows only show that they’re in heat for one hour. If you’re not there you might miss it."

Milking three times a day helps to keep production levels high but it is also a cow comfort issue, he said. The cows also "need to lie down. They need room to lie down. Twelve years ago we raised the head rail and it has to be done again."

He said the cows have increased in height by about three or four inches and they are wider. The stalls are 4 ft. wide and 60 inches long.

For bedding they use pasture mats and add chopped straw over the mats three times a day when they are milking. They also added last year a brighter, natural looking lighting system so that cows think it’s day light 18 hours each day. It puts everyone in a good mood.

"We really stress genetics," Nooyen added. "Eighty per cent of our cows are carrying embryos now. A lot of our offspring are from our own elite cows. We use the best bulls. Chris likes Bolton, Shottle and Goldwyn."

Chris, who is also an ABS sales manager, said the farm exports embryos to Europe and South America, most often to Brazil and Argentina.

They have been using a Total Mixed Ration since 1990. It’s a mix of haylage, corn silage, high moisture corn, high protein supplement and raw soybeans. "We add straw to increase fibre and by consequence to increase fat," Chris said. "We also feed dry hay. We top dress a few kilos per day per cow."

He noted that not everyone can line up the human resources to milk three times a day. They have a hired hand to manage the third milking on week days.