The Rural Voice, 1986-10, Page 20Mark is shown with the Diemerts' ten -abreast herringbone milking
parlour, with its automatic cluster removers, was the first of its kind in
Canada when it was installed in 1971.
the past two years," Roy notes.
Milking in the ten -abreast her-
ringbone milking parlour takes
about 2'h hours. With its
automatic cluster removers, the
parlour was the first of its kind in
Canada when it was installed in
1971. The 200 cows use a milk
quota of more than 3,000 litres
each day. Recently the Diemerts
installed a computer feeding
system, programming each cow to
the correct feed allotment for in-
creased milk production. It is a
system that the Diemerts are sure
will quickly justify itself.
The Diemerts have not redupli-
cated all of their machinery line.
This year they employed a custom
operator to haul their manure,
thereby avoiding the need for an
extra tractor. Of all the
machinery sold after the fire, Roy
Diemert misses the combine most.
"We practically had to give it
away. It was brand new the year
before the fire." Gradually, the
Diemerts are working to build up
their machinery inventory.
Some of the cutbacks required
to make ends meet are still in
18 THE RURAL VOICE
torce now. "Up until the fire, we
had three hired hands employed
full-time. It laid them off pretty
quick," Agnes says. "Now we
have no one, so we've certainly
cut costs there. The children have
gotten bigger and help out a lot."
Farming is a family affair for
Roy and Agnes and their eight
children. One son, Pat, is entirely
responsible for the herd's Al
breeding program, and all of the
children are involved in the 4-H
program.
Agnes herself is a 4-H safety
leader. She is also the first
woman on the Grey County milk
board, and has served four years.
She is former president of the
Normanby Township Federation
of Agriculture and a counsellor
for the FIT program, which lends
support to farm families going
through stressful periods. Roy
has been a member of the Grey
County milk board for seven
years, and was chairman of the
building committee of the Nor-
manby Community Centre.
It took the Diemerts 23 years
to turn a 200 -acre farm with 12
milk cows into a farming opera-
tion with 1,000 acres and 170
cows. The fire in the winter of
1981 brought down much of that
work, but the Diemerts are well
on the road to recovery.
Now, five years after the fire,
they are in a position where they
can make up son* of their lost
equity. They recently purchased a
landlocked 100 -acre estate proper-
ty abutting their own land. "We
hadn't planned on it," Agnes
says, "but we were approached
about it and it'll mean that we
won't have to buy as much
hay... We are buying again
because we have income from the
milk cheque and from selling
steers."
The fire was a hard lesson on
how to cut expenses and function
as economically as possible.
"Even though times were tough,
we survived the fire and high in-
terest rates and what the bank did
to us," Agnes says. "The en-
couragement from our neighbours
and friends played a big part in
our survival and made us more
determined." ❑