A Canadian dairy farm delivers free milk to schools
Canadian winters are very cold, and while that rules out many activities, it is perfect for others like skiing and skating – and delivering milk to schools. Brothers Dave and Doug Johnston of Maplevue Farms in Ontario are leading the country in public education and engagement.
For several years, Dave and Doug have been delivering free cartons of milk or cheese to every school in their county. “Not every child has milk at lunchtime at school or even at home these days,” notes Dave, who together with Doug took over running their family’s historic dairy farm from their parents Sam and Marcie about 4 decades ago.
Indeed, they are the fifth generation to own and operate Maplevue Farms in Listowel, Ontario, since the farm was established in 1893. “We decided 5 years ago to make sure all school kids within the county have free milk once a year,” says Dave. Since then, they and their families have also held community celebrations for World Milk Day every June.
It all started with the launch of a new local radio station in their community, called The Ranch. “The manager is open to all kinds of ideas,” said Dave, “and we’d met a few times. We wanted to do something big for World Milk Day, so we asked him if they could broadcast from our barn and he said yes. We thought it would be all this equipment, but it was so easy.”
That day, Dave and Doug also donated a calf to raise money for a crazy idea they’d had to somehow serve milk at schools in their area. Contenders for the prize had to call in to the radio station and do their best ‘moo’ on air. “The first year, a kid in grade 5 won the calf. He and his family gave it back and it was sold again and again. In the end, we raised $3500 (€2,326),” said Doug.
Every year since then, Dave and Doug have delivered milk (from the nearby Gaylea processing plant) to every school in the county for both students and staff. Sometimes, they’ve also handed out Ivanhoe cheese. They deliver the milk and cheese on a simple trailer which also keeps the milk chilled in winter. A few years ago – during an ice storm – Dave and Doug delivered milk to 16 schools in just 1 day.
Robotic barn
For many years, the original Maplevue farm had a tie-stall barn. But in 2018, Doug and Dave tore it down and constructed a free-stall robotic barn, where they now milk 75 cows. They designed it for manure removal using the small, automated vacuums made by Lely. “Everyone told us that using scrapers isn’t easy in a free-stall robot barn, so we went for the vacuums,” says Doug. “They weren’t much more expensive, and we think they’re worth it. They run every half hour and work really well to keep the floor dry. They don’t suck up our bedding, and we think we have fewer foot and hoof issues.”
When their barn was brand new, Doug and Dave started making their own bedding, composting manure from the bull barn down the road, the ST Genetics Canadian headquarters. It’s been a great success – it’s cheap and easy to handle, a little goes a long way, and it provides good cow comfort.
The Maplevue herd is all Holstein, with the best cows producing 17,000 to 18,000 kg a year with 4.5 to 5.5% butterfat. “We try to limit our semen to 3-4 bulls,” says Dave. “We look for excellence in feet/legs, high milk production and high fat. We also do a little embryo implantation. We had a beautiful retired show cow that we’d purchased, Taxi, and we’ve just had a heifer calf born from her in mid-January. Our kids, and others, have shown her calves in shows. One of her daughters became Reserve All Canadian Champion. Yes, showing cattle costs money, but it was really fun for the kids. It was an important way to get them interested in farming.” Indeed, one of Dave’s sons now specialises in prepping cows for shows all over the world.
Succession
Dave and Doug’s 7 children are interested in farming. Dave and his wife Christine’s eldest, Sam, works full-time running the second nearby dairy farm that Dave and Doug bought in 2020. It has a newer tie-stall barn where they milk 55 cows and manage heifers and calves together for both farms. Seth does show cow preparation all over North America and beyond and works for Doug and Dave when he’s at home. Kaleb does snow removal, manure hauling and also works on the farm part-time, and Hannah is studying for a degree in dairy science. Doug and his wife Laura’s 3 children are Brooklyn, who works for Laura’s hardware business, Lexi, who works in banking and also on the farm part-time, and Devon, who is also studying agriculture.
“Both Christine and Laura always worked off-farm, and we always had the kids helping in the barn and fields after school and on weekends,” says Dave. “They know how to work hard. We also have 2,000 acres of grain production.”
Succession planning is a constant topic of discussion and will be firmed up after all the kids have finished school. Doug explains, “Dad gave us the reins over 40 years ago and we admire him for that. We see too many old farmers who want to stay in control and there’s no planning, which makes it difficult for the family. We want to maintain good relationships with our children, without that tension.”
Education and public engagement
Meanwhile, the Johnstons are planning another year of public engagement, building on past success. The second year they held World Milk Day celebrations at Maplevue, Doug and one of The Ranch announcers broadcast from the top of the silo. A calf born that day was named Ranch and has become a community mascot. Local businesses and a community club have also donated to the good cause.
Over 4 years, they’ve raised $14,000 (around €9,300). “This year, World Milk Day is on a Sunday, and that’s a bit of a challenge because the radio audience is much higher on weekdays,” said Dave. “But we’ll probably hold an open house here, provided bird flu isn’t an issue.”
As they did years ago, both Doug and Dave still strongly believe that the public needs to understand dairy farming. “Listowel is one of the fastest-growing towns in Ontario, with a lot of different cultures, and we want to keep dairy farming in the public eye,” said Doug. “There’s one school here where 14 languages are spoken. Some kids in our area may not have even tried milk before, so a free sample is a great start for them to get to know what happens at a dairy farm.”
