Innovation in Parlours — A Call for Dairy Farmer Participation

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I ventured out to the University of Saskatchewan for a nice change of pace this week, meeting up with Eric Micheels, assistant professor, and Eduardo Pina, graduate student. Pina had just returned from a trip to Mexico, where he was interviewing dairy farmers for his masters project (and made it back to Canada just in time for another winter storm).

Pina’s project is looking at innovation and how dairy farmers have increased production and quality of milk. But what’s really interesting, is that Pina has chosen to do the surveys in both Canada and Mexico, where two very different dairy production systems exist.

Photo Courtesy of Eduardo Pina
Photo Courtesy of Eduardo Pina

The interviews are pretty easy, with Micheels and Pina traveling to dairies to discuss questions around:

  1. How the farmer became aware of a particular innovation.
  2. What the operation went through to get the technology.
  3. How the innovation is working now.
  4. Discovering how to maximize the technology’s offering.

Having completed the surveys in Mexico, Micheels and Pina are now looking for dairy farmers in Canada, with preference going to those in Alberta and Saskatchewan. If you’re interested in taking part in this survey or you have further questions, you can contact:

Eric Micheels – [email protected]
and
Eduardo Pina – [email protected]

This project has been approved by the University of Saskatchewan Research Ethics Board (BEH #13-342) and individual responses will be kept confidential, with potentially identifiable information left unpublished. The data will be aggregated, providing information to dairy farmers on what others are doing to improve production practices and where others are finding valuable information. The results are expected to be published in the next three months.

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