OPEN HOUSE
Fri. Oct. 25,
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
7761 Perth Rd. 147
Listowel, Ont.
By Tom Collins
LISTOWEL — Brothers Doug and Dave Johnston aren’t afraid to talk about the big things in life and in death.
The two dairy and grain farmers milk 70 cows and grow 1,500 acres at Listowel in Perth County. They have seven kids between them, and quite often, talk turns to the future of the farm.
They have contingency plans if either of them were to die. On a drive to Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in September, they discussed what would happen to the farm if the brothers died in an accident on the way to the show. That ability to discuss hard-to-talk-about subjects were instilled in them by their late parents, Sam and Marcie, who were never afraid to discuss their own deaths.
“We’re always talking about what happens if one of us was killed today,” said Doug. “It’s not the nicest stuff to talk about but we’ve always talked about it.”
To have morbid conversations, you need to have a good relationship. Doug and Dave don’t always agree but they are constantly communicating with one another. They once spoke on the phone 32 times in one day. They consult each other on decisions, which comes in handy when trying to get away from a high-pressured sales pitch. It also comes in handy when dealing with the children.
“Sometimes they don’t listen to dad, but they’ll listen to their uncle,” said Doug.
Succession planning is very important for the Johnstons. They meet with their lawyer and accountant at least once every three years to update their succession plan. They are starting a new company called Sammar Heritage, that they compare to a real estate company, that will own the farmland and give Maplevue the rights to use the farm. Right now, the brothers own the only two shares in the company, but eventually all the kids — even the ones that won’t be back on the farm — could each own one share.
That succession plan is one of the reasons the brothers went ahead with a new freestall robotic barn with all the bells and whistles. All of the kids — ranging from 14 to 20 years old — have expressed an interest in agriculture, with several of them wanting to take over the farm.
At the same time, health was becoming an issue. After 30 years in a tie-stall, Dave, 51, needs hip replacement surgery and was having trouble with his shoulders. Doug, 53, had knee problems. Switching to a robot barn allows the fifth-generation farmers the chance to continue running the milking operation for the next 10 to 15 years while the kids figure out what they want to do with their lives.
The decision to go with two Lely A5 robots was an easy decision, said Doug. They believe robots are the future and they weren’t scared off by horror stories of alarms going off in the middle of the night.
“There’s five days of the year where you’re going to hate a robot and we’ve had two of them,” he said. But there will be 360 days where the robot is the best option. In 2017, the farm switched to three times a day milking for the summer, and production flourished, jumping from about 40 litres to just under 50 litres.
Production originally dipped after the December, 2018 move-in, but bounced back to normal after a couple of days and they were over quota within a week. It helped that the cows were housed and milked in a neighbour’s freestall barn while the new 115-ft.-by-250-ft. barn was constructed. The cows are now approaching 40 litres per day per cow, with a goal of 50 litres within two years.
Here are some features of the new barn:
Bedding
The original plan was to go with a deep-bedding system that used gravel as a base, layered with six inches of sand and then straw. However, it was tough to keep the straw in stalls. After only 10 days into the new barn, Doug was already fed up. As the farm had a manure management plan with Cogent Canada, they were already receiving manure from the company, composting it themselves and spreading it on the fields. So, Doug took three buckets of composted bull manure with wood shavings added to it and spread it over 12 stalls. He immediately saw a difference.
“The next morning, the cows were fighting over those 12 stalls,” he said, adding it was then an easy decision to switch all the bedding. “Literally, they’re laying on bullshit. They actually nest in it. It’s like going to bed.”
New compost is added every three weeks, and lime is added once-to-twice a week.
Manure vacuums
Doug’s favourite feature are the two automatic Lely manure vacuums — called the Discovery Collector — designed to replace alley scrapers.
The collectors, still new to the Ontario dairy market, look like mini Zambonis and act like carpet cleaners. A collector sprays a thin stream of water in front of it as it moves down an alley sucking up the manure as it goes. The collector then drives to a dumping point — usually a small hole in the floor — where it drops the collected manure.
The vacuums can also suck up manure from the grooves and since cows don’t need to step over alley scrapers and into piles of manure, the animals have fewer problems with hoof diseases.
Electrical monitoring system
The Johnstons were one of the first Ontario barns to install new technology that monitors the barn’s electrical system to prevent fires.
It was an easy decision, Doug said, one that was made over coffee with the family.
Quebec company PrevTech installed a sensor at the main electrical panel that monitors the heat of the electrical system. If PrevTech’s tech senses the heat is too high or a problem with an electrical component, it sends a text and email to the Johnstons, their licensed electrician and Prev-Tech. The system has already sent texts and emails when the power went off.
The PrevTech system, which takes about two hours to install, costs $1,675 per unit, plus a yearly monitoring fee of $995. In Quebec, PrevTech has worked with insurance companies so farmers who install the system can receive rebates on their insurance. There is no rebate in Ontario, but PrevTech is meeting with insurance companies to try and get the same kind of deal here.
Preventing fires is important for Doug, who went through a house fire four years ago. “It still bothers us today,” he said. “Did we do anything wrong in the farm house? We lost a lot of treasures that money can’t buy.”
Ventilation: 14 48-inch box fans that hang from the side of posts. The wall have translucent automatic curtains.
Feeding: They had the TMR mixer and simply switched from silos to bunkers.
Ventilation: 14 48-inch box fans that hang from the side of posts. The wall have translucent automatic curtains.
Feeding: They had the TMR mixer and simply switched from silos to bunkers.
