INTERVIEW WITH BRUCE THOMSON BY JENNA HEDDEN
HOLSTEIN BREEDERS AND ENTHUSIASTS ARE ACHIEVING GREAT THINGS ALL ACROSS OUR COUNTRY!
PHOTOS 1. Gleann Barras Blush, 2. Line-up of cows awaiting the Classifier at Gleann, 3. The Thomson family (l-r): Craig Thomson, Janine Wilson, Betty Thomson, Bruce Thomson and Jack Thomson. PHOTOS SUBMITTED.
We are pleased to showcase the best and brightest here in our Cross-Canada Connections feature. Our goal is to bring you relevant coverage from across the country. We hope you find these connections interesting and encourage you to submit any of your own to the magazine for our next issue! GLEANN HOLSTEINS BRUCE THOMSON
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HERD SIZE: MILKING 48 OPERATION TYPE: TIE-STALL LOCATION: ANTIGONISH, NS 1. What is your family’s history with Holsteins?
Bruce Thomson (BT) My family has been farming at this location, just outside of town, since 1813. My father grew up on the farm and my mother moved to Canada from Holland in 1951. I purchased the farm in 1990 and am the sixth generation farming, but only the second with Holsteins. My parents, Frank and Betty, bought the first Holstein in the mid 1960’s. My Dad and I shared a Master Breeder Shield in 2005. Gleann cows have always been shown locally and to some degree, around the Maritimes. My father was an excellent cowman and entirely self-taught. My sister, Janine, and her family own Wilsonburg Holsteins and my brother, Jack, owns West River Holsteins. All of our kids were - and some still are - heavily involved in showing 4-H calves.
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was very little corn grown here but just the opposite is true now. There are very few farms that don’t feed corn silage and high-moisture corn in a TMR now. Most are in free-stalls. Most new barns have robots. My farm is none of the above. No vet in my area uses ultrasound and the best ET vets are in PEI. Almost everything here costs more, except land. Compared to Ontario it is cheap, unless bordering the ocean. A lot of land has been in families for several generations and is difficult to buy regardless of whether it is seriously farmed or not. I have good land all around me that I can’t buy or lease.
One of the biggest challenges is our ever-changing weather. My youngest brother travels the world as an airline pilot and says that this is one of the toughest places to predict weather. We have it all. It’s manageable, but most farms near water have a very hard time making dry hay. The ocean 2. What makes dairy farming in your province so unique? What are has a major influence on our weather, both good and bad. some of the challenges?
BT I’d have to say that Nova Scotian farms are almost all being run the same as they are in Ontario. I think we used to be different, with many more herds involved in shows and marketing. In my opinion Nova Scotia could have had the same reputation for type that PEI does, but many herds chose a different direction. There are still a number of us still at it, but far less than in the past. In the past, there
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The other challenge we have is distance from major markets, especially over the past few months. There are practically no cows being sold, in part because of this. Bull calves and beef cross calves always sell for far less than in Ontario and Quebec. Professional cow pictures are tough to have done when you really need them at times because very few of us even bother to have them taken anymore. W W W. O N TA R I O. H O L ST E I N . C A
