Good hay makes better milk | Quebec cheese producers not worried about cheese imports
COMPTON, Que. — No milk is sold from the 80 Holstein cows that are milked every day at the organic Boulduc farm.
Instead, the milk is made into organic cheese at the farm’s La Station Fromagerie.
What started as a small cheese-making idea 10 years ago has turned into an award-winning cheese business in Quebec’s eastern townships.
In 2004, Carole Routhier started making cheese with 200 litres of milk a week from the family’s farm. Now the cheese shop uses 2,000 litres of milk a day for hard cheeses sold at the farm’s shop and stores throughout Quebec.
Read Also
Anti-separatist movement targets rural Alberta
Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s anti-separatism Alberta Forever Canada petition campaign expects to run full steam ahead into the province’s farming regions
Routhier, her husband, Pierre Boulduc, and their family must now decide if they want to expand their cheese-making business.
Three cheese-aging halls are stacked with cheese, and there is no more room to store it without building another hall.
The family must also weigh the impact of the Canada Europe Trade Agreement, which will allow European imports.
Through a translator, Routhier said she doesn’t think the agreement will affect their business because most of their cheese is sold within Quebec to customers who like to buy local product.
The cattle are fed hay and grass throughout the year because the milk is turned into cheese.
They are turned onto the pasture at night during summer to ensure the heat doesn’t affect their appetite. It is also a way to reduce mastitis in the herd.
The cattle are fed freshly cut hay when they are brought in for milking. They go outside twice a week during winter.
The best hay is kept for the cattle during winter as a way to maintain the best milk quality.
Hay is cut in the evening and put through a macerator the next morning to speed the drying process. Bales are placed on pallets in a hay-drying shed, where air is forced through the pallets and up through the bales to also aid drying.
The family has 400 acres under cultivation and 200 acres of bush, including a sugar maple grove.
The family also works with an agronomist from a local environmental club.
The Quebec government implemented a phosphorus neutral policy in 1998 after manure was dumped into a local river, and all farms must now be phosphorus neutral.
Farmers must account for the amount of phosphorus produced by their animals and brought onto the farm to ensure there is no excess phosphorus.
Members of local environmental clubs offer agronomic advice on phosphorus levels, no-till adoption and how to deal with waterways that flow through farmland.
