Morris and Sandra Thalen share not only a great relationship and partnership, but also a deep and abiding commitment to family and faith.
A look inside their Morsan Farms history book takes you through the development of their farm.
After marrying in 1980, Morris and Sandra started farming with a 200-sow-farrow to finish-operation in Chilliwack. B.C. Morris, 48, a positive man with a keen business sense, was born in Edmonton, Alberta. His family moved to Woodstock, Ontario, when Morris was a year old. There, the Thalens operated a mixed dairy, hog and beef operation until 1971, when the farm was sold, and Morris’ father (who had immigrated to Canada in 1951 from Holland) went into a clothing business.
When Morris was 12, the family moved to Chilliwack, where his father owned a restaurant, ran a real estate business and also raised some hogs. Morris finished school when he was 15 and went to work for his father until he was 19 years old.
In 1981, Morris began buying and selling commercial Holstein cattle. Eventually, this led to Morris and Sandra milking cows by 1987. They started with 17 cows ina tie-stall barn and by the mid-1990’s were milking 150 commercial cows in a partnership. All this time, still in Chilliwack, their commercial cattle business had been growing rapidly, but by 1995, they found that 70 percent of their customer base was in fact in Alberta. Spurred by that thriving business, and cheaper milk quota values in Alberta, the Thalens bought out the existing partnership and purchased a farm in Ponoka, Alberta.
The farm property was nothing but bare land when they bought it, so they set about building a new fee-stall/parlour facility. In 1996, the Thalens started milking 200 commercial grade cows at this new location. Two years later they added 200 more cows. Numbers continued to rise, and today, Morsan farms Ltd milks between 900-1000 cows( 30 of which are Brown Swiss), and owns approximately 250 dry cows, a well as 2200 head of young stock. An extremely attractive and well-managed operation, it is one of Western Canada’s largest dairy herds.
The Thalens purchased their first “purebred” Holsteins in 1998. One of those initial purchases, Whatcom Flolude, became their first Excellent cow in June 1999. A “Prelude” backed by five Very Good dams, she went on to score Excellent-4E and make 84, 621 kg milk lifetime. In 1999, Morsan Farms enrolled on milk recording. They were one of the first Alberta dairies to go on the Dairy Comp 305 Program.
They also started raising their own heifers in 1999 (prior to that time the Thalens had always sold all their calves and bought milking replacements as needed).
Every animal in the Morsan herd is identified, with approximately 75 percent of the herd being made up of purebred Holsteins. The Holstein line-up currently includes 22 Excellent and 145 Very Good cows.
The Current herd production 12, 646 at 3.8% fat and 3.2% protein. The main dairy herd is milked three times day at 2 a.m, 10 a.m, and 6 p.m, in a double 16-parlour, with two people per shift handling the 6.5 hour milking duties. Cows are fed a TMR comprised of barley grain, ground corn, corn gluten meal, Megalac, sodium bicarbonate, corn distillers, beet pulp, cottonseed, soybean meal, alfalfa hay, alfalfa silage, barley silage, minerals and Fermenten. The 2500-acre farm, which grows 1150 acres of barley, 1100 acres of fall rye, and 250 acres of alfalfa, supplies much of the feedstuffs. Calves are raised in one of three climate-controlled barns with security entrances. Each barn, which is divided into two rooms, can hold 72 calves in individual pens. At 2 months of age the calves move to a larger heifer rearing facility down the road, returning to the main dairy when they are ready to calve at about 23 months of age.
While very large, Morsan Farms is still very much a “family farm”. Morris Thalen, who oversees the dairy in its entirety, even now spends a lot of his time on the road buying and selling cattle.
Morris and Sandra’s oldest daughter Valerie and her husband Scott Ingwersen, who are parents of daughters Kayla, age 5, Ava, age 3, and Elly 1, started milking cattle on their own nearby farm. Oldest son Henry manages the commercial side of the business on a day to day basis, in addition to this he looks after the cropping and nutrition. Henry and Andrea have two boys, Damien 3, Kaleb 2, and number 3 expected this August. Greg, works full time on the farm, looking after the hospital/maternity barns, as well as the reproductive side of things. Youngest son Joe is still at school, but also helps look after the machinery and equiptment. Vanessa Wright is the youngest daughter, works full time on the farm looking after paperwork on the commerical side, but mainly works in the marketing department as a secretary. Vanessa and husband Scott are expecting their first child the end of October. “It’s been a great privilege to work with our children and see their interests develop,” Morris and Sandra say.
Morsan Farms also employes 18 full time people and a few part time people. The on-farm management team is led by 2 talented men. Henry, manages the commercial side of the business and Chris Parry manages the purebred and marketing side of the business. Working with Chris is Erik Klugkist who is in charge of the shows and ET program.
Buying and selling commercial fresh cows to dairymen remains a vital part of the Thalen’s business and one Morris enjoys immensely. Last year Morsan Farms sold about 1100 fresh heifers from the farm and merchandised another 1000 head in whole herd transactions. “Ninety percent of the commercial cattle we sell are sold over the phone with the buyer never seeing the cattle,” Morris says. “Since we started in the cattle business we have always guaranteed our product. That has kept the onus on us to make sure when cattle leave here they are a good product.”
