Udder health gets priority for top two farms in Lactanet’s 2025 ranking
A pair of dairy farms recognized this year as among the best managed in Canada appreciate the confirmation that they’re doing things well, but the award just highlights good management practices they do every day.
Why it matters: The annual Best Managed Herds rankings help dairy producers gauge where they stand compared to other successful operations across the country.
“I feel kind of like I went to the Olympics as a spectator and came home with a gold medal,” said tie-stall operator Edgar Kaelin of Clarence Creek, Ontario’s Sunrise Holsteins — the top-ranked 2025 herd based on national dairy data and milk recording organization Lactanet’s annual Best Managed Herds assessment.
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He said sets his family’s farm apart is a focus on udder health and herd health, including a longstanding status as a closed herd that has prevented the arrival of potentially damaging infections like strawberry footrot.
Meanwhile Sarah Sache, who manages the business affairs of Rosedale, B.C.’s West River Farm — the second-ranked robot Best Managed Herd and top overall in Western Canada — said Lactanet’s six factors address a range of goals.
The Saches are most proud of their ability to grow when there has been opportunity for growth, and what they hope is their farm’s contribution to helping B.C.’s dairy industry grow as a whole.
“We’ve always managed for efficiency,” she said, adding that this has typically meant feed efficiency and butterfat per cow, but is now shifting to a focus on protein production as the consumer marketplace evolves. “And profitability has always been a key metric for us.”
Based on numbers compiled from farms using Lactanet’s DairyComp herd management software and milk testing programs, the Best Managed Herds rankings combine the scores for Milk Value, Udder Health (based on somatic cell count testing), Age at First Calving, Herd Efficiency (average percentage of cows that are not dry on milk test days), Longevity (average percentage of all cows in the herd in their third lactation or higher), and Calving Interval. Altogether, they yield a Herd Performance Index (HPI) total — with Sunrise Holsteins’ top-ranking 2025 HPI coming in at 978.
When the Kaelins started at the Clarence Creek location in 2003, they used milk testing, breed registration and classification for their Holstein herd.
They have since stopped registering and classifying, however, because they believe advancements in genomics have given the industry sufficient potential to accurately assess genetics without farmers needing to pay for those services. They continue to use milk testing and data collection through Lactanet, though, because they like being able to compare where they are now to where they were in the past, and to compare to other farms across the country.
“We need Lactanet so it can give us back information about udder health,” Kaelin said. He’s proud about his farm’s achievements in that area, but added “we’re not looking to get any public recognition.”
“We want to have cows with healthy udders.” He believes they accomplish this by keeping things clean in the barn and sticking to a daily routine that sees the cows up and active mostly while people are working in the barn, and lying down in their stalls when the people aren’t in the barn.
The Sunrise team doesn’t feed in the middle of the day or the middle of the night. And there’s no pushing up of feed. “It works with a tie-stall,” Kaelin said.
Like Sunrise Holsteins, Alexerin Dairy of Manotick — the 2025 top-ranked parlour operation in Canada and second overall among all types of dairy farms — prides itself on maintaining excellent herd health through keeping a long-time closed herd. They also put a strong focus on udder health.
“We’re really proud of our team” — including Ron, Judy, Todd and Erin Nixon as well as four non-family employees — “for maintaining consistency to achieve reproductive success, maintain good production, and we’ve made good progress on improving our udder health this year,” said Todd Nixon in a video released during the recent Lactanet announcement.
He added that the farm uses DairyComp for everyday management, “and then our vet and nutritionist use it to dig deeper into whatever issue or opportunities we take.”
In other provinces, the New Rockport Colony in New Dayton was the top-ranked parlour dairy in western Canada and the top-ranked farm overall in Alberta.in Western Canada. Sierra Colony Farms in Shaunavon achieved the highest HPI among Saskatchewan dairies, and Isaac Dairy in Kleefeld was the number-one tie-stall in Western Canada and tops overall in Manitoba.
The number-one robot herd nationally was Lansi Holsteins in Saint-Albert, which was also tops among all Quebec dairies. Willie A. Leblanc and Sons in Memramcook ranked highest in New Brunswick, Sunny Point Farms in Densmore Mills topped the Nova Scotia rankings, Tenslotte Dairy in Stanchel was the Best Managed PEI herd in 2025, and Brophy’s Dairy in Daniel’s Harbour ranked highest in Newfoundland.
Source: Farmtario.com