9 minute read
Embracing change
from December 2021
by MilkProducer
DEDICATED TO FARMING
and producing high-quality milk
By Jeff Tribe CONTRIBUTOR
Robert, Noreen, David, Stephanie and Denise Walsh and their hard-working staff continue to advance Glenview Farm’s 160-year-plus dairy history through determination and the will to survive, despite being caught between ‘the rock’ and an increasingly urban place.
Robert Walsh describes an exchange with a disgruntled neighbour, who was complaining about agricultural-related odour and informing him that in the rest of Canada, farms were “out in the country.”
“I explained to her that not too long ago, this was the country,” Walsh recalls.
Between 1830 and 1850, Robert’s greatgrandfather, John Walsh, began mixed dairy and vegetable farming near Kilbride, Nfld., on St. John’s outskirts. Glenview’s four-generation evolution began with hand-milking cows and delivering door-to-door via horse and cart in the summer and with a slide (sled) in the winter. Today, the Walsh family has 200 robotically milked Holstein cows plus heifers and calves, supported by more than 500 acres of land, 300 of which are located 15 kilometres from the homestead.
Walsh is used to questions from the public about Newfoundland agriculture due to reduced farming comprehension and skepticism about climate and soil management, given less than one per cent of land is arable. For centuries, the Kilbride and Goulds areas offered pockets of reasonable climate and good soil and today are near a majority of the province’s population and two processing facilities. Most of Glenview’s land is cleared and features limited, stony, rock-crusher-enhanced soil requiring heavy discing and chisel ploughing. Growing seasons typically feature 1,900 heat units, but can drop to 1,400 or 1,500 and up to three forage cuts.
“We did grow corn silage for 20 years, but due to limited good, tillable soil (150 acres) and low crop yields, we focus on growing as much legume forage as possible,” Walsh says.
Glenview and the rest of Newfoundland’s 23 dairy producers face grain and feed freight charges in the $200 per tonne range and double for single-pallet orders. Isolation from agricultural service personnel and equipment requires preparation, Walsh says, adding he had to make sure his farm was prepared when installing their four robotic milkers in 2020.
“We had to stock pretty much one of everything associated with (maintaining) the robots,” he says, adding the farm’s biggest challenges remain labour and, more importantly, land shortages compounded by Kilbride’s amalgamation with St. John’s.
Inclusion within North America’s oldest city has underlined demand for and shortage of available land, as well as high municipal development prices pressuring area agriculture, including a $100-million dairy industry representing Newfoundland’s highest-value commodity.
Walsh credits dairy producers and provincial and federal partners for supporting development in technology and management practices specific to land and climactic challenges.
“Until recently, our province was successful in acquiring St. John’s area land held by non-agricultural interests and leasing it back to farmers,” he adds, linking future dairy viability to agricultural land and boundary protection. “We can build industrial parks and residences anywhere, but there are only small parcels of land suitable for farming.”
Amalgamation brought stricter regulations, for example, equating barn and department store building codes, along with urban encroachment and potentially problematic interaction, although Walsh says the majority of the community supports agriculture.
“We believe it is important to try and develop a healthy relationship,” he says. “We need to coexist, we need each other.”
To build an even better relationship with the community in which his farm resides, Walsh avoids spreading manure during holiday weekends or in warmer weather and provides some neighbourhood snow clearance. Generally, he says, the public supports the province’s small dairy industry and welcomes high turnouts for farm tours. Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland & Labrador has also had an overwhelmingly positive response to its ‘No Bull’ marketing campaign, which promotes local farm products and producers. Walsh emphasizes the importance of shared provincial and farm community education initiatives and communicating agriculture’s status as a self-sustaining, renewable resource that provides broad economic value.
“We need to farm but we also need to work together with our neighbours who are also our customers to ensure food security for the province,” he says.
COVID has had a “huge impact” Walsh says, including staff safety concerns, erratic demand for milk and technical support isolation. Dairy farmers had to pivot by adopting public health guidelines, deal with quota adjustments, increase food bank donations and improvise where necessary, he adds.
“Newfoundlanders are resilient, but it has been challenging farming in a different way,” he says, adding the industry has had to show resiliency in many areas, such as dealing with food revolutions and challenges concerning science, evolving consumer relationships, trends and choices around food production, the importance of public agricultural education, the right to farm and provincial agricultural development areas, dealing with climate change and its effects, and keeping up with technology.
Throughout the years, the Walsh family has grown Glenview Farms from 40 to 200 milking cows and received milk quality awards for their hard work, all while maintaining focus as a family farming operation.
It’s not an easy life, but worth it Robert concludes. “We value farming and have a passion for it,” he says. “We want to continue producing the best quality milk we can for our customers.”
GLENVIEW’S FOUR-GENERATION evolution began in 1830, when John Walsh began mixed dairy and vegetable farming near Kilbride, Nfld.Throughout the years, Walsh family members have developed their operation and now have 200 robotically milked Holstein cows plus heifers and calves, supported by more than 500 acres of land.
ELL’S DAIRY FARM
Passion for dairy farming shines through
Embracing change, cont’d from page 19
Gord Ell says he’s only missed three milkings in his dairy-farming tenure. “They were pretty good reasons,” he explained about attending his wedding in his wife Tiffany’s hometown of Leduc, Alta., and subsequently for their daughter Jamie’s and son Travis’ nuptials.
These three occasions are the only ones since 1991 when an immediate Ell family member has not been present for milking, Gord says. Habit over policy, “something we always do,” he says, which provides indication of the family’s dedication to their craft.
“Definitely a passion,” he says, adding this commitment is shared by a lot of dairy farmers. “Cows are part of your life, basically.”
His great-grandfather Adam Ell’s decision to settle and begin farming near Kronau, Sask., in 1898 followed his emigration from Germany, with a failed land acquisition detour through Russia.
“There was nothing here,” Gord says, awed by his extended family’s tenacity. “It was just open prairie.”
Today, Ell’s Dairy Farm Inc. has 200 milking cows and 1,000 acres dedicated to feed production. Corn is grown on 150 irrigated acres and another 4,000 cash-cropped. A separate 2,600-acre block is pastured and rented out along with attendant herd management to a beef producer and contracted back for custom silage services. Travis and his younger brother, Ryan, work full-time on the farm, while Jamie, who is on maternity leave, assists Tiffany with accounting.
Ell’s Dairy Farm has a history of progressive farming, it was the first Saskatchewan dairy farm to have a milking parlour installed in the 1950s and was one of the first in Western Canada. Ten years later, the farm became the province’s first 100-cow farm, and late in that decade and into the next, had Saskatchewan’s highest-producing herd and top-producing cow. Gord later showed, shipped and sold cattle throughout Canada and the United States, as well as judged cattle globally.
In 2000, the Ell family consolidated smaller barns into one computerized facility in conjunction with increasing its milking herd size to 200. “It’s not robotic,” Gord says “but still in pretty good shape.” It’s a manageable size right now for what we have in terms of employees and family.”
There is room to grow if, for example, Jamie’s husband, a heavy-duty mechanic at the dealership the family purchases equipment from, wants to enter the business.
“We could jump up bigger,” Gord says, adding an aging farmer population creates additional cash cropping rental potential. “We could take on more land.”
The family’s journey has come with challenges along the way, such as farming through minus 40-degree Celsius weather, hard work contributing to a short lifespan of about 60 years as indicated on family gravestones, and an extended decade-long drought and high interest rates following Gord, his brother and two cousins’ purchase of the operation from their parents in 1983.
“That was extremely tough,” Gord recalls of battling stress, weather and grasshoppers to produce forage. “A lot of years we sort of went backward.”
The last five years have been particularly demanding with timely rains providing “just enough to get by,” Gord says. “Hopefully we get past that; it puts a lot of stress on everyone.”
Thankfully, COVID has had a minor impact on the farm, partly due to the family and its employees living and working in the same bubble and thus managing to escape major outbreaks. Ongoing concerns on the farm include static or reduced gross milk returns compared with rising production costs, Gord says.
Gord Ell’s great-grandfather Adam Ell’s decided to settle and begin farming near Kronau, Sask., in 1898 following his emigration from Germany.
“We’ve streamlined as much as we can, but it’s still tight,” he adds. “For the amount of work we do, the profit at the end of the year is pretty slim.”
Another issue Gord says needs addressing is the ongoing shortage of processing capability, first discussed in 2008. “They’re (the industry) still talking about that,” Gord says. “It would be nice to get with the times.”
The Ell family all get along well, Gord says, even though they are individually housed on the same farm. Looking ahead, the 63-year-old and his wife hope to be able to spend some time at their property in Florida while planning for the next generation to take over the farm.
“We want to make the transition as easy as possible,” Gord says. “Let the kids take on the day-to-day stuff and see where they want to go with it in the future.”
The Ell sons have taken on more responsibilities over the past decade, such as crop and soil management with upgraded computerized machinery.
“I’m allowed in the tractor, but I’m not allowed to touch anything,” Gord laughs, adding more seriously “you have to move with the times or you just sort of get eaten up.”
The Ell family is still going strong by growing scale and embracing technological advances while maintaining foundational respect for truly hands-on family dairy farming.
“I don’t want to ever see that change as long as we’re in the business,” Gord says.
ELL’S DAIRY Farm has a history of progressive farming, it was the first Saskatchewan dairy farm to have a milking parlour installed in the 1950s and was one of the first in Western Canada. Ten years later, the farm became the province’s first 100-cow farm.
