Second prix d’excellence this year for a farm in Dundee

The quality of the milk produced at the Soesbergen Farm in Sainte-Agnès-de-Dundee was recognized once again at the end of January when the enterprise was inducted into Agropur's Club of Excellence. The dairy farm, owned by John, Christopher and Nickolas Soesbergen, was chosen for the quality of its milk at the 29th Gala du Club de l’Excellence Agropur which took place January 26th in Quebec City. It is one of the 17 farms to have received this title out of 3 271 Agropur members from Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. The farm, located on the Ridge Road, has 230 Holstein cows, 90 of which are lactating. This provides an average output of 10 500 kg per cow per year. Last spring, the dairy enterprise won Silver at the the Montérégie-Ouest Lait’Xcellent competition. These awards are not unrelated to their new barn which was built in 2014 and outfitted with a double 10 milking parlour. In an article published last June in the Bulletin des agriculteurs, John Soesbergen mentioned that the choice of milking parlour was logical for them. "We only wanted to make the investment once," recounted John. "With robots, you have to add a robot every time you expand." The producers also prefer the physical contact with their cows during milking. "After more than two years in operation, family members are unanimous: they made the right choice. Next year, they will expand the barn to accommodate 80 more cows," according to the Bulletin des agriculteurs. Translated by Cathleen Johnston