Ontario Agriculture

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Making Hay the Swiss

I was lucky enough to spend a week in Switzerland mid September and visit a number of farms. Here we had the chance to make "hay" the Swiss way. Farmer get different rebates from the government depending on how they manage their land.

 

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Permalink Reply by John Schwartzentruber on October 6, 2011 at 10:14am
That is fascinating! Thanks for posting the video. Can't see some of our operators rushing to try that technology though!
Permalink Reply by Roadrunner on November 6, 2011 at 5:57am

Nice video Mackenna,

The Swiss must subsidize the milk producers alot if they can use lawn mowers to cut hay.

There practices are not likely cost competitive with the mass production dairy farms in California etc.

How large was the dairy you visited?

 

Permalink Reply by Mackenna Roth on November 8, 2011 at 5:36am

Hi Roadrunner,
This farmer here had about 50 head milking. It was a learning great learning experience and I really enjoyed seeing the differences in the North American vs European way of farming.

I also visited a few farms that were very modern as well as two apple farms. The Swiss had an amazing year for Apples, the trees were so full. Never had seem something like that before. As well as a mini - kiwi farm.
Mac

Roadrunner said:

Nice video Mackenna,

The Swiss must subsidize the milk producers alot if they can use lawn mowers to cut hay.

There practices are not likely cost competitive with the mass production dairy farms in California etc.

How large was the dairy you visited?

 

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