Schmidt has some heifers for sale

[Guest guest]

This involves the following story:

The farm Schmidt purchased in Durham, Ontario in 1983 was a conventional

Holstein farm. came to realize the methods he had used in Germany with

low production Brown Swiss would take forever to work with this Holstein herd.

As a result, first he purchased a Tarantaise bull for the herd and later

purchased 12 pregnant Canadienne cows from rural Quebec. One of the Canadienne

male calves from these females later became the bull for the herd.

The genetics of the herd went from Holstein to Holstein/Tarantaise and then to

Holstein/Tarantaise/Canadienne. Over time, the Canadienne genetics became the

dominant genetics in the herd.

After his court case in the mid '90s, was forced to sell off two thirds

of the farm and all but one bull and 5 cows from the herd. (There were 50

producing cows at the time.) No outside genetics have been brought into the herd

since.

As the average production of the herd went down from 6900 litres to 4200 litres,

the health of the herd was improving. Normal dairy diseases no longer occur in

the herd. There is no calf mortality. There are no pathogens for which milk is

pasteurized in the cow feces. I recently ask him what the herd average

production is at and he answered 3800 litres. In his breeding program, which is

ongoing, the cows have been getting smaller.

Of course there is a pasture program, also ongoing, for improving the soil

fertility.

The Canadienne breed was developed as a dual purpose breed and the cattle in

's herd remain dual purpose. Any animal culled is sold as meat. As he was

breeding the herd to its current point, had no spare heifers to sell. As

new heifers went into production, he often culled some of the older cows to

continue to move the genetics of the herd in the direction he wanted to go.

In my opinion, this current herd may represent the best dairy cattle for a

farmer who wants to produce milk like the milk and butter that Weston Price

would have used in the experiment with the 27 mission children and in other

experiments. Regardless of the breed of dairy cattle a farmer producing raw milk

has, I think the genetics of the herd could be improved by introducing the

genetics from the Schmidt herd. If you buy a pregnant heifer and it has a bull

calf, you could make it the bull for the herd or part of the herd if you want to

test the results for yourself.

is holding a raw milk school for farmers this spring for farmers who

want to learn more about how has accomplished what he has with his herd.