MILLET, Alta. – Alvin and Heather Kemp may not have the biggest dairy farm in the area, but it makes them a good living.
“I’m quite happy with where I’m at, I’m happy with less,” said Alvin sitting at the kitchen table piled with farming magazines.
Six years ago the couple took over the dairy farm from Alvin’s father. It’s only now the central Alberta couple are beginning to see the end of the debt from buying the farm. More debt is not something the young couple wants to acquire.
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Expanding their herd would mean building a new barn, buying new milking equipment, buying more cows and quota.
“My milking system is simple, parts are readily available and I can fix most of it myself. I like to keep things simple.”
By staying the same size, Heather and Alvin can handle the work in the milking barn and they can grow all the feed needed on three quarters of land they own.
When Alvin was growing up he had “grand ideas” of farming large tracts of land. At one point, he and Heather tried renting another quarter, but dropped it to concentrate on dairy production and not grain.
“I think the big downfall of many operations is they get caught in a huge mountain of debt and labor costs and it gets overwhelming. You just decide to draw the line and that’s it,” he said.
For the Kemps, that line is sticking with their three quarters of land and continuing to milk 25 to 30 cows year round until their sons decide if they want to farm.
It will be a while before their eight-year-old twin sons and the younger four-year-old decide if they want to farm, but if they do, the Kemps would likely decide to expand.
Until then the couple is optimistic the dairy industry will remain strong and they can make a good living.
