The Rural Voice, 1980-07, Page 8Tom Reinhart
is a young Bruce farmer
in the dairy business
Tom Reinhart is a young farmer who has
just recently taken the plunge into the
dairy business. He is also taking another
plunge at the end of June and acquiring a
wife. He has been getting her conditioned
to chores by having Kendra help him on
weekends.
Tom farms near Mildmay and is milking
21 Holstein cows. He also doesn't have the
land to graze and cuts fresh feed every
morning in the spring and summer and
feeds hay and silage in the winter. Tom's
land just supports the number of cows he is
milking and he tries to grow everything he
needs. He also grows grain for extra
protein supplement to the milking herd.
Tom likes the reliable income of the
milking herd and eventually plans to
modernize his milking equipment. At
present he milks in a tie stall system with
bucket milkers. Kendra is being initiated
into a job as chief milk carrier and calf
feeder. Both these young people enjoy
dairy farming and have no plans for a
greater increase in herd numbers. Tom
only wants what his labour and land will
support.
His machinery is shared by his father
and brother and between the families they
are able to work the farms without Tom
having to make great investments in
machinery just yet. At the price of present
machinery this will be a great help to a
starting farmer.
Tom exemplifies the calibre of young
farmers starting today. He's willing to
work and realistic about expectations.
TOM REINHART
Gerald Diemert has
a well established operation outside Mildmay
GERALD DIEMERT
PG. 6 THE RURAL VOICE/JULY 1980
Gerald and Dolores Diemert have a well
established and smoothly run dairy
enterprise outside Mildmay. They have
tailored their herd to suit the land they
operate . They grow all u.eir own feed.
The Diemert farm spreads liquid manure
with a Targe liquid spreader. They milk in a
double six parlour with pipeline. Gerald
feeds mainly high moisture corn and
haylage. The cows are fed a mineral ration
in the parlour.
Gerald, with the help of a son, has his
layout well planned. One barn is used for
young stock and replacements. The
Diemerts also finish their own steers in
another barn which they rent.
Gerald's carefully planned system is
working well because he has a terrific
breeding interval of 13.1 months. He
claims that this is due to the fact that his
son looks after the artifical insemination.
They store semen at the farm and in this
way are able to catch a cow in heat at the
critical time and able to rebreed several
times if necessary. Gerald feels that this is
an important part of his operation and he
makes careful choices in the sires he uses.
the sires he uses.
HELPS WITH CHORES
Dolores helps with all chores and runs
the 2670 Case when cultivating and
drawing forage wagons. She is definitely
an equal partner because she is able to
supply all information Gerald needs
promptly and is very interested as to what
goes on in the dairy business. They hire
help every summer, usually in the form of a
Junior Agriculturalist and are well satisfied
with the results.
They don't plan any expansion, as
milking 90 cows takes long enough, but
feel that they might eventually gear down a
fraction in the steer feeding area.
They also find that dairying is a seven
day a week job and it is difficult to get away
when you have 90 cows to milk. Ex-
perienced help is not always available and
it definitely takes two to run them through
the parlour.
Gerald and Dolores are satisfied with
their operation and justly so. A lot of work
and planning has gone into running an
operation of this size, and to do it so
successfully is a tremendous feat.