The Rural Voice, 2019-07, Page 34Martin VandenHoven says he
loves cows and variety and
believes, 150 farms later, he
has landed the ideal career.
VandenHoven is celebrating his
150th farm as owner of Relief
Herdsmen Services near Mitchell, a
business that fills the gap when dairy
farmers are looking for temporary
help, often when they go on vacation.
It used to be a one-man show with
VandenHoven being that man.
However, seeing opportunity to
expand his reach outside of Perth
County, VandenHoven has been
recruiting former dairy farmers and
other employees who “know how to
milk a cow”.
It’s an ambitious goal and is
taking the idea of relief milking to a
new level as dairy farmers are
discovering the “neighbour boy” isn’t
so easy to find anymore.
“It’s very hard to find reliable
help and the good ones are few and
far between,” says Peter Luyten, a
dairy farmer who depends on his
sons for help. However, when there
is a family event, he looks to
VandenHoven to milk his Holstein
herd. “A relief milker has to be
committed to their job and like what
he does … it’s not a career for
everybody,” says Luyten adding he
prefers to create his own routine
rather that be called here or there.
However, VandenHoven says he
may be just the opposite. “Doing the
same thing everyday? That’s not for
me,” says the lanky father of two,
who took over his family’s 50-cow
dairy farm and ran it for five years
until the barn burned down in 2005.
He opted not to rebuild and tried
going back to school and working for
a chicken farmer. Neither appealed to
him and when he started to miss the
30 The Rural Voice
Building a relief milking empire
Martin VandenHoven has list of 25 employees as he
expands his relief milking business to over 150 farms
Martin VandenHoven is owner of Relief Herdsmen Services near Mitchell
which used to be a one-man-show until VandenHoven decided he would
expand his reach by hiring men and women with “that basic farming
instinct” to meet the needs of Ontario dairy farmers.
•By Lisa B. Pot •
Business