Ferme De La Plaine

As years go by, they tend to bring more and more crowning successes to the owners of the Ferme De La Plaine Farm. Several ribbons at exhibitions, many victories within their Ayrshire Club, winners of Milk Quality in their region, these are just some of the honours that they have earned over the last few years. Since January, however, they can also be proud of their first Master Breeder Award. Their history started in the 1930s when Oscar Neault cleared a piece of land in Ste-Françoise de Lotbinière, Québec to build his farm. He handed the farm down to his son Roger in 1953 who, in 1965, took a big step: he registered his first Ayrshire, under the name De La Plaine. 16 years later, Dominique and his wife Aline bought the business which they would operate together, before partnering with their daughter Carine and her husband Jonathan Lemay in 2007. The latter now both work on the farm fulltime, in addition to Aline and Dominique. For them, team work is important. Given the size of the farm and each and everyone’s tasks, the 4 managers are able to perform all the required work, in the fields as well as in the barn. As such, it is much easier to cover when someone is gone. Carine and Jonathan have four children and it is nice for them to be able to enjoy some family vacations from time to time. The current herd consists of 130 animals total, including 60 milking cows. The average milk production is 8,634 kg with BCA’s of 240-223-255. Classification is as follow: 12 Multiple EX, 2 EX, 35 VG, and 12 GP. Among the Excellent cows are De La Plaine Grange Nemo EX 5E 1*, who produced 65,394 kg of milk with components of 3.5% fat and 3.4% protein, De La Plaine Rhythm Romi EX 3E 2*, who was Grand Champion on several occasions in various shows, as well as De La Plaine Perval Pixel EX 2E 1*. Having now accomplished one of their breeders’ dreams with this Award, their next wish is to win a Grand Champion rosette at the Royal and at the World Dairy Expo. They have performed well at these two shows on several occasions, especially in 2008 at the Royal when De La Plaine Rhythm Romi EX won Intermediate Champion and in 2011 in Madison when Forever Schoon Ping EX 94 won Intermediate Champion. The latter was a major acquisition for the farm, as she gave them the chance to sell embryos worldwide and allowed them to submit sires to insemination centres. Short- and medium- term goals are to increase the herd’s milk average as well as to modify the building to offer a more comfortable environment to the animals. The animals are housed in 2 neighbouring sites, the dairy barn and a barn for replacement heifers. Aline and Dominique are very proud to see that they have been able to pass on their agricultural lifestyle to their children and grand-children. Indeed, even though Carine and Jonathan’s children are still young, they attend Rural Youth events and spend their free time in the barn. The entire family is also proud to see that people know them and that they are making an impact on the breed with their animals, as much through selling their sires to centres as consigning quality animals at various Canadian and American sales. That people from Sweden and Finland request to visit their Herd during their journey to Québec also makes them very proud of all the work that they accomplish with passion daily. Being involved can be very time-consuming, but they know that it is worth it. Jonathan does not hesitate to be an ambassador for the breed; his dedication actually earned him the Award of Merit in 2011. For him to be involved, however, is only made possible by the fact that there also are dedicated people back home. The De La Plaine Herd is a well-balanced herd in terms of production and conformation, and it will remain as such for a long time. This is how higher heights will be reached. Ayrshire Canada is very proud to offer this first Master Breeder Award to the Ferme De La Plaine Farm.