Stop two: Dairy Barn

The friendly dairy herd

Tuesday I went to visit the dairy barn. I arrived between morning and noon milkings. Like many modern dairies, U of S dairy milks 3 times per day, yielding 10-15% more milk and decreasing the risk of mastitis. Lots of the research they do with the dairy herd is about milk volume and nutritional content related to cow feed. How does glycerol, canola supplement, or massive quantities effect milk?

This is the milking parlour - in-line, only 4 cows at a time! The morning and evening milkings take close to 3 hours for 65 cows.

The dairy barn was commissioned in 1972, and if all goes well they will be in a new building this time next year. The building is a bit outdated, a lot has been learned about animal behaviour, chute and parlour design, and animal handling safety over the last 40 years.

This is a research and teaching herd, and every grade 2 class in the city takes a field trip here. Some cows are fitted with cannulae, so you can see them digesting their food! It looks a bit like there is food leaking out of this one, but it is just straw from the cow rolling around on the floor.
This cow was just getting ready to calf. Also: snotsicles!


  1. ‘cannulae’, eh? And here I have been calling that a ‘stomach windown’ all these years! I used to love walking up the Guelph campus ‘cow path’ (the actual name) and finding such a cow — so cool!

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