For many dairy farmers, the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement posed a serious threat to their livelihood.
For Don and Yvonne Feitsma, it presented a golden opportunity to re-enter the dairy business after a brief hiatus and milk even more cows than before.
Don grew up on a grain farm in Calmar, Alta. In 2001, his father decided to become a dairy farmer near Leduc, Alta.
That is where Don met Yvonne at church. They married in 2001 and by 2007, the couple was itching to start their own dairy. The search took them to Saskatchewan.
“We saw a great opportunity to dairy here,” said Don.
“The land and the quota was cheaper. It was a great place to start for a young family.”
The couple bought two quarters of land near Hague, Sask., built a 160-cow barn and bought 80 cows.
They thought that if they could double the operation and fill the barn during their lifetime, that would be a success story.
They astonished themselves by accomplishing that goal within two years.
By 2005, they were milking 250 cows and building new barns almost every year. They bought out Don’s parents in 2007 to become the sole owners of the business.
The couple was running the operation almost completely by themselves and Don began to feel overworked. But adding employees put a strain on the finances.
“You’re kind of at the stage where you can’t do it all yourself but you don’t necessarily have enough work to keep a lot of employees,” said Yvonne.
The answer was to double the size of the operation again in 2010 to 500 cows and hire a herdsman, feeding specialists and other people to help out. That came with its own set of challenges.
“When you’re so used to doing everything yourself and you start bringing other people into the picture to help you carry out what you want to do and accomplish, it’s a little hard,” said Yvonne.
Don said it took a few years but they eventually figured out how to become better bosses and he now credits his employees for helping them achieve their goals sooner than expected.
In the summer of 2014, the couple sold the Hague farm and temporarily left the dairy business.
Don prides himself on efficiency and he felt constrained by the hodgepodge of barns that had been built up overtime. He explored other opportunities that would re-quire moving the family but none of those panned out.
Yvonne saw that a 250-cow dairy farm was for sale in nearby Warman and pushed hard to buy the operation so they could keep their four girls, who range in age from 11 to 17, in their church and schools.
It was a run-down site but it came with 880 acres of cropland, 650 of which are irrigated.
The couple purchased the property and within nine months they had built a 100,000 sq. foot state-of-the-art barn that Don designed.
They also built a large house designed by Yvonne in five short months.
“We really didn’t have a life last year,” said Yvonne.
The four-row free stall barn can house 800 cows. It is tunnel ventilated and can replace the air inside the barn every 45 seconds on a hot day.
There is an LED lighting program to stimulate milk production, a basement parlour to keep dairy equipment clean and dry, surround sound stereo for employees, all-in-all-out calf nurseries to create a sterile environment for baby calves and a calf milk pasteurizer.
The couple and their 10 part-time and full-time employees are milking 600 Holstein cows.
Each cow produces 35 litres of milk per day. It is sold to Saputo Inc., the only milk processor in the province.
They grow corn on their irrigated land because it produces 15 tonnes of feed per acre compared to eight tonnes for barley. Corn can handle more manure than barley.
“We would love to buy more manure,” said Don.
“You don’t hear that everyday,” added Yvonne.
Dairy farmers were concerned the TPP would bring an end to supply management.
“There was a lot of talk the whole time we were building and I think that’s one of the reasons we were able to get quota as easy as we did because there is a lot of guys bailing,” he said.
Don said the entire dairy industry was on pause.
“And we were like, let’s go,” said Yvonne.
They don’t intend to stop growing anytime soon. This summer, they are considering expanding their operation to its 800-cow capacity, which means buying more quota.
Don travels regularly to the U.S. to tour dairies that are at least two times as large as their Warman barn so he can see what the future holds.
Source – Western Producer