Thursday Jun 13 Sunny & hot Creston, BC
This morning we are off to Kootenay Meadows Farm - a dairy farm and cheese company. A few weeks ago we saw a news segment on how dairy farms are being automated. Here's a short video from Bloomberg.
Kootenay Meadows uses Lely's automated milker but not the automated feeder.
Here are some pictures I took during our 1½ hour visit today. Our visit was thoroughly fascinating.
Hope you like cows!
My new slogan!
One of the two automated milking machines (red). The other one is at the right of the picture.
The device on the floor is one of the automated "muckers" that moves very slowly and cleans the floor. The second one is just under the cow at the front of the picture.
One cow is being milked while others wait, but not in the line into the milking station.
Brown cows, black cows, "bandit" cows, they're all beautiful!
Looks like this little guy (above) is just a few days old. But I'm no expert.
This guy got in the way but on the far wall (right, lower), you can see the feeding stations-on the right one, the feeding teat is the white device.
By feeding the calves this way, they are acclimatized to entering into the milking station when they eventually get to that stage.
Cows can come and go as they please, even plop down for a rest while they chew their cud.
Here's some information on the various breeds Kootenay Meadows has.
The food is always better if you have to work for it!
And afterwards, a well deserved nap.
The end result of all this automation and a herd of happy cows?
Our visit was thoroughly fascinating but Jen was feeling the effects of walking/standing for over an hour.
We headed to the cheese shop to sample 3 of Kootenay Meadows cheeses. We bought 2 cheeses for later.
On the way out of the shop, heading back to Alfie, I noticed 5 horses.
The scenery sure is pretty in these here parts!
After lunch back at Ali, I headed to the museum. I wanted to see if I could get a contact name for the model railroad club. As it turned out 3 of the club members were there. Ian left as I was being directed to the club room. I chatted with Ken and Ed for about 30 minutes. The three of them are essentially the club. As it was the end of their Thursday working session, they invited me back next Thursday.
That's it for today. We'll see you tomorrow.
