Sheena Bolton photo

Alberta Bound 

Dairy farmer quits due to politics, water laws, long hours in the barn

By Patrick Meagher

PAKENHAM — Jeff Duncan wants a future for his kids so he's looking west. 

The Lanark County dairy farmer sold his quota and his cows in April and the family is heading to Alberta this summer to scout a new life in the foothills of the Rockies. Duncan build his own house a few years ago and is considering a future in carpentry. 

Daughter Jennifer, 14 and son, Christopher, 13, don't want to farm and the "dairy industry is so unstable right now. I haven't felt good about agriculture since BSE." 

The dairy industry, often viewed as the richest and safest sector in farming, is facing new problems. While other countries are plotting to undermine supply  management, quota has recently been reduced by four per cent. 

For an average herd of 50 cows, each per cent reduction is a loss of about $14,000 in gross income, Duncan said. But Duncan worries more about family. "I was sick of living in the barn and there was no time for the kids."

Duncan, 47, has the added problem of having rivers and streams next to every piece of property he owns. The Clean Water Act, which has already passed second reading in Ontario, would create buffer zones on land next to waterways. "It's very, very scary," he says. "If they go ahead with buffer zones I wouldn't be able to use the land period.

"I won't be here in five years," Duncan says, matter-of-factly.

"I'm not staying in this leftist province. I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it for my kids. It's for their future."

Duncan, who is now breathing easier, suffered a few years under heavy stress. "BSE took the stuffing out of me" and last year "I agonized over it (selling the quota) for six months." 

He sold 10 kilos of quota in 2004 to pay off his debt and sold the remainder at just more than $29,000 per kilogram earlier this year, along with 48 milking Holsteins.

For now, he's bought some beef animals and is growing crops but can't understand why some farmers grow crops and don't factor their own wages into the costs. "when I work out costs I include my wages. Would you work for GM (General Motors) for nothing?"

Duncan calls himself a decision maker. When the BSE crisis hit in 2003, he sold the cull cows when they were ready for market and didn't wait for a price jump to give him an extra penny a pound. "It costs three dollars a day to feed a cow," he said. "It was worth more to me to sell hay than to hand onto it and feed it to me cows."

He said he got sound advice early on. "I heard something a long time ago. Run our farm to suit yourself, not your children. They might not want to farm"