Borealis Dairy Farm
155 Mooney Road P0P 1P0 Massey, ON, Canada

A few morning views...

Tonight's sky painted for the promise of more great weather!

Pulling the all nighter to make a smooth feed manger in the main alley.

Go! Go! Go! More coloured panels, carpentry layouts, feed alley cement work - our biggest concrete pour yet, final manure storage prep work and wiring in an electrical panel to be ready for safety inspection next week. Whew - a busy day that is moving towards putting a wrap on our biggest week of this project! This is the day that doesn't end though, power trowelling the cement work is likely to continue into the wee hours of Saturday morning...

Losing track of how many silage loads as I get lost in the incredible autumn scenery. We pulled a cover on one full corn silage bunk this evening, too late for a daylight picture. Corn silage bunk 2 starts first thing tomorrow!

Here's the news we have all been waiting for: barn structure has been arriving over the past week and putting the pieces together started today! The shiny packs of roofing panels were pulled out of transport containers while wood laminate beams were unloaded and prepped for assembly today.

Another great long day for cow chow, autumn colours still holding into the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Another beauty day for barn building! Hoping all my friends at DeLaval will like the looks of how things are shaping up colour-wise...

Today, corn silage at Pinecrest Farm, so I made my lunch stop to Grandma Beth's kitchen: 1) best homemade bread this side of anywhere, 2) shameless milk promotion, gotta love the classic glassware in the cupboard, 3) checking to see if the older generation is checking their Facebook!

It was another beauty day for putting up some corn silage. Last week I had a visiting farm advisor tell me we had the best farm site she had been on. I agreed and blathered on about the planning we had put into where things are built and how we are lucky to have gravel for fill and clay for manure storage and so on... She stopped me to say that it was the best sight she had seen on all her farm travels. I could never disagree - though I may take it for granted some days, I never get tired of the beautiful view.

Losing track of how many silage loads as I get lost in the incredible autumn scenery. We pulled a cover on one full corn silage bunk this evening, too late for a daylight picture. Corn silage bunk 2 starts first thing tomorrow!

Corn harvest here usually follows soon after the first frosts. With a whole lot more corn to harvest than in the past and recent wet weather we have been delayed. Cool, dry weather got us moving today and crop moisture and quality looks great! Better still the forecast looks promising for another full day again tomorrow.

It was another beauty day for putting up some corn silage. Last week I had a visiting farm advisor tell me we had the best farm site she had been on. I agreed and blathered on about the planning we had put into where things are built and how we are lucky to have gravel for fill and clay for manure storage and so on... She stopped me to say that it was the best sight she had seen on all her farm travels. I could never disagree - though I may take it for granted some days, I never get tired of the beautiful view.

Last week we had a visit from Environment Canada and the Stevenson stand was moved to the back lane behind our barn site. We have shared the twice daily weather recording here as volunteer weather observers at Massey for almost 40 years, and this is the fourth different location used. The stand itself is a vented box for measuring air temperature with high and low thermometers and we also record all types of precipitation. (Looks like we had 4.6 mm in the rain gauge today.) ... Our weather recordings for Massey, along with thousands of others from across the whole country can be found online: climate.weather.gc.ca under Historic Data.

Tonight Borealis welcomed our newest hire, who will also be a member of the family! This is Lord Stanley's Pup aka The Stanley Pup. So thankful for Sarah MacDonald and Darren sending Stanley our way. He was an important part of their family but he also needed more space to roam and burn off his immense energy. We here at Borealis know he is already feeling at home after checking out the new digs (and making some new digs too!)

Crop update: Corn kernels have just started to dent, harvest is still a few weeks away. Bear damage is evident in some fields and weed pressure was obvious with this great growing year too.

With August so lush and green and the rivers and lakes quite high, I did some checking and August 2020 shows up as our third wettest on record with 169 mm of rain. August 2014 saw a whopping 201 mm while 1995 was the driest at 28 mm. While late summer moisture is valuable for corn to finish and provide hay crops and pastures with regenerative growth, Massey area farms will be needing some drier weather to finish harvesting and fieldwork over the next couple months. Did you know you can access weather data from all over Canada? Go to ec.gc.ca then click on "Weather". For weather records look for "Past weather conditions". You can find our Massey weather station data, or any other place that keeps records under "Historical Data".

Filling a new silo with grassy second cut. Pea/oat silage for heifers goes in tomorrow (if the rain holds off!)

This view never gets old!

Peas and oats are a high protein forage crop - looking very pretty too as it moves towards harvest.

Crop report: corn's as high as my eye; forages flowering say second cut hay is due.

Our resident deer is very brave. This morning he was so close that the full shade made for a very dark picture. This was my opportunity to check out the hundreds of filters on this camera. Hope you find one you like.