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STORY BY COLE VERBURG PHOTOS BY JOHN VERBURG
MAITLAND MEADOWS ucked in the middle of Grenville County, 10 minutes southeast of Smiths Falls, Maitland Meadows offers two thousand acres of farmland, wildlife and peace and quiet. Four brothers, along with their parents, wives and five young farm kids consider this place home base. On any given day, the latter group can be found running, biking, and playing fetch with their energetic farm dog at their family’s sprawling three hundred cow free-stall operation. But even with so much going on, chaos is kept at bay and the families get along and work efficiently in a manner that would easily be the envy of multi-family farms across the province.
own areas of responsibility on the farm, split up by preference and skill level, but they all know how to run every aspect of the farm and delight in making it work as a family.
“Sometimes I think they’re like little boys who are just happy to farm together,” says Ronnie’s wife, Ashleigh. Each time they decide to make a change, she adds, they know Grandpa would be excited to see new innovations and improvements on the farm. Brian’s father purchased the farm in 1949 from his mother’s side, who had farmed the 200-acre plot for many years prior to that. Today, Brian and Barb’s boys make up the third generation at Maitland Meadows and “Communication is the most important,” says Barb Maitland, the together, they make decisions as a team and have lots of fun long family’s matriarch and Brian’s wife of 35 years. The boys and their the way! wives can often be found having coffee at “Mom’s” each morning Several changes have taken place here since that initial purchase. at 8 a.m., on days when cropping or other facets of farm life allow. In 1961, a fire destroyed the original tie-stall barn. In its place, the Though each of the four brothers will tell you that Mom is boss, family built a 92-cow tie-stall barn that they eventually outgrew. In Barb and Brian have handed over most - if not all - of the decision2009, they built a 200-cow, naturally ventilated free-stall barn with making power to their sons in recent years. Jeff and Mel, Ronnie waterbeds. Earlier this year, they built an addition to add an extra and Ashleigh, Mike and Jess and Robert and Kate each have their
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1. The Maitlands gather in front of the barn for a family photo. (l to r) Mel,
Jeff, Brooke, Jess, Mike, Kate, Robert, Brian, Barb, Parker, Kaleb, Ashleigh, Haylea, Ronnie and Olivia, 2. The double 16 parlour is clean and ready for the next milking, 3. Some of the Maitlands’ favourite cows are proudly displaying full udders. (l to r) Maitland-p Flagship Celest, Maitland Meadows Kian Emit, Maitland P Cadbury, Maitland P Flagship Chloe. 100 stalls for dry cows and pregnant heifers. The natural ventilation, thanks to the Faramor fans they added, and the decided lack of overcrowding, are just a few examples that speak to the Maitland’s respect for their animals and their commitment to cow comfort. The latter, they believe, is the foundation of any well-managed, healthy and high-producing herd. The dairy cows are fed a TMR consisting of the usual corn silage and soymeal, but as their haylage, the Maitlands use a fall rye forage. The cows are producing well on this mix, with average milk yields at around 40 litres and at least a 4.0 per cent butterfat. Calves are raised in a retro-fitted tie-stall barn down the road in the old milking barn and fed with a four-stall robotic calf feeder. Barb and her daughter-in-law, Ashleigh, look after the calves’ health and nutrition.
They took over the breeding program from Barb who used to look after the mating selection. “Dad’s passion is tractors, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know cows,” Ronnie says. Thanks to that combined knowledge and Barb’s commitment and passion, Ronnie and Ashleigh were able to build the breeding program from a great foundation of genetics that was already present in the herd. Ronnie has traveled a few times with Ashleigh’s brother, Joel Phoenix, to North Florida Dairy to help with the selection and preparation of the show string. Joel’s task at the 4,500 cow operation each year is to walk through the many barns and choose a string to take to the state fair. Through that experience working with Joel, Ronnie learned the importance of breeding for free-stall cows with excellent longevity, reproduction and are profitable for the herd, while also being able to pick them out of the free-stall to take to the show. The consistency of the breeding at North Florida Dairy was evident to Ronnie, and he now puts heavy emphasis on DPR, Pl, and components, and most importantly, chest width. All in all, it took about five years to transition breeding strategies from the old tie-stall barn to the new management style. “Grandpa had always bred for production and feet and legs,” says Ronnie. “I start at the right-hand side of the proof sheet with Herd Life, SCC and other health traits.” He then works his way to the left, eliminating bulls as he goes. “Usually about two thirds of the bulls have been crossed off the list by the time I’m out of the health traits.” All of the bulls used at Maitland Meadows come from Select Sires Genervations as the Maitlands like the consistency they get by sticking with one AI unit. They’re currently using bulls such as Kingpin, Kal, Kingboy, Loyalty and Duke, and all of the bulls chosen for heifers are sexed, genomic sires. Proven bulls are used on the milking herd, with the exception of cows at the bottom end, which are bred to beef semen. Every classification round is preceded by Ron and Ashleigh taking a walk through the herd to determine which animals to reclassify. All 2-year-olds are scored, but they always look forward to seeing older cows make their mark in the parlour and on the classification score sheet. One of their favourites is Maitland Meadows Berry Ceway EX-90-2E, who was the second-place 4-year-old at the Eastern Ontario Invitational in 2018. They are just starting to show milking cows and Ashleigh is always on the lookout for cows in their herd that should be shown. Each year, they enjoy taking a number of calves to the Merrickville Fair.
Ashleigh and Ronnie are looking to the future of the Holstein breed and anticipate an increasing need for polled genetics. To this end, they have also started their own prefix: Maitland P, where they are breeding and flushing cows with all of the aforementioned emphases on health traits and chest width, as well as polled animals. This young couple has purchased cows with Joel and Jim in the past and currently own Maitland Meadows Sanchez Dezzy with them. Dezzy was the winner of the 2-year-old class in LeedsGrenville’s 2018 Breeders’ Cup. Another favourite is MS Chassity Earn 2239. Ashleigh and Ronnie purchased her through a sale in A PASSION FOR THE BREED 2014, where she was consigned by Joel. This cow, they explain, was Ronnie and Ashleigh handle most of the breeding and genetic their original inspiration for starting their own prefix they now have advancements on the farm, although as Ron explains, “our breeding three generations milking from this cow family, multiple production philosophy pretty much takes care of the breeding decisions for us.” awards and are beginning to flush more extensively. “We love this hard working cow family and are excited to see where they take us!” W W W. O N TA R I O. H O L ST E I N . C A
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2 1 1. All five grandkids are playing fetch with the dog while waiting to have
MAKING IT WORK AS A FAMILY The Maitland family aims to maintain a good work-life balance and everyone enjoys keeping busy off the farm, too. Barb and Ashleigh run the local Cloverbuds 4-H group and Ashleigh’s oldest son, Parker (9), who is an avid hockey player, will be starting 4-H this year. Between Ron and Ashleigh’s three other children, Olivia (2), Kaleb (4) and Haylea (7), and Mike and Jess’s two-year old daughter, Brooke, there’s never a dull moment on the farm. During the winter months, the four brothers play in a broomball league together once a week. “It’s kind of the farm team,” chuckles Ronnie, “I think we have 1,500 or 1,600 kilograms of quota on our team.” The 2,000 acres of crops farmed here are more than enough to keep everyone out of trouble, and both Jeff and Robert consider this their area of expertise. Brian is in charge of making mixes and feeding cows, his daily task on the farm, while Ronnie and Mike can be found doing the chores and milking. As long as it isn’t raining, Jeff and Robert will be in one of the fields, planting and harvesting corn, soybean and fall rye, which they use as their main forage for the cows. In the slower seasons, you’ll find them in two high hoes clearing land. “We try to clear between 50 and 100 acres a year.” Whether it’s swamp or brush, Robert and Jeff will dedicate weeks and months to turning it into workable farm land. And, if they aren’t clearing land, they’re buying it. The Maitlands are always looking for opportunities to expand. “We grow the herd with the growth of our quota,” says Ronnie, and the land is an area that they can move along at a more exponential rate. If land comes up for sale in the area potential buyers can expect to be bidding against the Maitlands.
their family photo taken. From l to r, Haylea, Parker, Olivia, Brooke and Kaleb, 2. The farm sign sits proudly in front of the free-stall, 3. Cows are very comfortable in the new wing of the free-stall barn.
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he says, when discussing the many different aspects of Maitland Meadows and how such a large family, with so many moving parts can live and work together to achieve such unity. Growth, expansion and modernization are the norm for this evergrowing farm family, and making room for their own kids to farm has always seemed to made sense for Brian and Barb. Advancement, one could say, is a common theme here. With the words of grandpa ringing true in her mind, Barb relays some meaningful words that are as important now as they were then: “If you’re standing still, you’re moving backwards.”
In addition to the 2,000 acres they run and 175 cows they milk, the family has other irons on the fire. At Mike and Jess’s place, there is a flock of 150 ewes. Jess is the shepherd of the family and manages the sheep, which act as another small source of income for this growing family who loves working together. The Maitlands are committed to being proactive in their way of thinking and communicating in order to preserve good relationships with each other. “You see all these families that can’t seem to make it work,” says Ronnie, sympathetically. But communication really is key, he adds. “Group [text] messages are sometimes a lifesaver,”
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