Thursday, April 16, 2020
Check out Saskatchewan farms!
TOUR 1: 
Northern Lights Tour
Catch the bus and head to the historic Fort Carlton Region for your first stop, Vanzessen Dairy Inc. Here you will see a beautiful new loose housing barn boasting an exceptional herd.
Next, travel south to Hyljon Holsteins. At this stop, you will encounter a large facility with 700 milking cows and state of the art tunnel-ventilated freestall barns. Hyljon Holsteins was also rewarded a Master Breeder Award in 2017.
Hop back on the bus and enjoy the entertainment from our guides as you make the journey towards Benbie Holsteins, a recently renovated sand bedded freestall barn. Venture around the farm to see the amazing animals that carry the Benbie Prefix and take a look at their new venture Sask Snow Beef.
After Benbie, your tour will take you to Evraz Place, Regina, site of Convention Heifer Show, tag sale and supper.
TOUR 2: River’s Edge Tour
Catch the last bus out of town and head north to Sunnyside Dairy and Creamery. Here you will visit Saskatchewan’s only on-farm processor. Enjoy some milk on tap or fresh cheese curds while you look at a beautiful herd of cows.
From Sunnyside Creamery, you will travel down the road to Alley Holsteins, one of Saskatchewan’s most recent Master Breeder herds. Here you will see a recently built parallel parlour as well as a tunnel ventilated sand bedded free-stall barn.
From Alley, we will travel east to Elkrest Farms. Saskatchewan’s largest purebred dairy operation and Highest BCA Herd. Elkrest’s state of the art facility and excellent herd of cattle is guaranteed to wow. From Elkrest your tour will take you to Evraz Place, Regina, site of the Convention Heifer Show, tag sale and supper.
TOUR 3: Prairie Wind Tour
If you’re into robots, this tour is for you! First, we will head north to Nienhuis Family Farm where we will see a free stall barn equipped with two Delaval robots and an exceptional herd of cows.
Next, we will travel to Kielstra Holsteins Inc., a recently built dairy facility featuring a tunnel ventilated sand bedded free stall barn with a state of the art parallel parlour.
Continuing on, we will head south to Vandenbrink Dairy Farms, a recently built state of the art cross-ventilated sand bedded free stall barn featuring 4 Delaval robots and other automated equipment.
After Vandenbrink’s, we’re off to Evraz Place, Regina, the site of the Convention Heifer Show, tag sale and supper!
Alternate Tour: Prairie Malt Tour
Sleep in a little bit then hop on the bus and head to the Black Fox Distillery, an outstanding distillery with an amazing story. Enjoy drink tasting and a farm tour while you learn the history of the Black Fox Distillery.
Head back to Saskatoon for a quick stop at the Western Development Museum where you will take a look at Saskatchewan’s rich heritage.
Next, hop on the bus and head to Moose Jaw. Take a step back in time and enter into The Tunnels of Moose Jaw where you will take a tour of the controversial tunnels and learn about this city’s interesting past.
After the tunnels, your tour will take you to Evraz Place, Regina, site of the Convention Heifer Show, Tag sale and supper
- They milk 100 cows
- They have a free-stall barn with a new loose housing barn that was completed in 2018
- They also custom raise heifers for other farms
- They milk 800 cows in a double 12 parallel parlour
- They use recycled bedding
- They own 1500 acres that is all custom farmed
- Their current BCA is 270, 292, 270
- They are a two-time Master Breeder herd
- Owned and operated by the Crosbie family.
- Milk 150 cows three times a day.
- They use two barns. The original barn, built in 1997 and renovated 20 years later, was a straw pack barn and is now a free-stall with sand-bedding and 124 stalls. A new barn, built in 2012, is straw pack in winter, sand in the summer; it has a double-12 parallel parlour.
- Ian Crosbie had the idea to cross-breed some Holstein cows with Wagyu cattle to create "Saskatchewan Snow Beef.” They sell it at the farm gate, and it is currently available in at the Evraz Place and Local & Fresh in Regina.
- They milk 200 cows in a sand bedded free-stall barn.
- They have a Gea double 14 parallel parlour that was installed in 2019.
- They also have a Dairtech sand separation system.
- They were 2017 Master Breeder Award recipients.
- They have been living in Saskatchewan since 1997.
- The farm is owned and operated by Albert and Heather Leyenhorst along with their son Logan Leyenhorst and his wife Kaetlyn.
- Sunnyside Holsteins is owned and operated by Bas and Martha Froese-Kooijenga. They have one child, Ellen, a musician who helps out whenever she can with Sunnyside’s dairy, creamery, and the on-farm store, Farmyard Market.
- The family milks 30 cows in a free-stall barn. The cows have access to pasture during summer and an outdoor straw pack during winter.
- Sunnysides’s creamery is the first on-farm milk processing facility in the province of Saskatchewan. They started operations last April and rather than bottling, they sell pasteurized fluid milk through a coin-operated dispenser.
- Other milk products currently sold in their store include chocolate milk, cream, cottage cheese, ice cream and curds.
- Through Farmyard Market, the Kooijengas also sell grass-fed Holstein beef, whey-fed pork, pies, perogies, baking and other local products.
- They milk 725 cows.
- They are SK Highest BCA herd (2018).
- They have a free-stall barn with compost bedding.
- They have a 50-stall rotary parlour.
- The family milks between 85 and 95 cows in a four-row, 120-stall barn with two Delaval robots. It’s a family run farm with one fulltime staff member.
- Purebred herd with a good mix of SK genetics
- DEAP new entrant farm
- The farm went substantial changes, from a 20-litre 1.4 robot visit farm with high SCC to a current average of 180 SCC and a 40+-litre average with mostly the same farm genetics.
- Most people view the farm as my "hobby” as I own multiple companies and juggle in the farm work among the other work and family responsibilities.
- Milking 230 cows in a double-12 Delaval champion parallel milking parlor with ADF milk claws.
- Four-row tunnel ventilated free-stall barn with 256 beds, sand bedding, and maternity and special needs straw packs.
- Concrete silage pits and lagoon.
- 96 individual pen calf barn with four rooms, all individually ventilated.
- They promote the operation on their YouTube channel, SaskDutch Kid.
- A family-run operation, they milk 250 Holstein cows in a free-stall robotic barn.
- They just moved into new cross vent sand-bedded barn equipped with DeLaval v300s.
- They have also added a new calf barn with an automated feeder.
