Much has changed since those days from pasteurized milk, which started coming in the 1940s, to the size and number of farms in operation.
“I remember when there was 45 dairy farms in the county,” says William, “Now I think there’s nine.”
For all the farms that have closed, somehow the Ferguson’s have managed to keep the love of farming alive, heading into the sixth generation. This week they’re putting a major investment in the future with a modernized pre-engineered barn that was shipped from Germany. It is being built on land the family has farmed since the 1800s.
“A lot of it’s going to be new to us,” William said of the new barn. “We’re use to cows tied up and in stanchions. This is a loose housing facility. A lot of things are going to be different. We have to change too.”
The barn will house their current herd of 80 milking cows with room to expand upwards of 100 if they needed to.
With the barn the family is installing the latest in technology when it comes to farming, with robots that will milk the cows and a design that allows for greater light in the barn and more room for the cows to move around.
“The cows all have a computer chip on their collar,” said Blake Ferguson, William’s son. “It records how much milk they have and when they were milked last and all that stuff.”
While all the modernization comes at a cost upfront, it will help them to operate more efficiently and with less manual labour.
Blake says he couldn’t imagine doing anything besides farming.
“I grew up with it and I enjoy it. It’s nice to not sit in an office all day.”
The downside of course is that unlike some jobs where you can walk away at the end of the day and leave your problems behind with farming you have to be willing to be available 24/7, 365 days a year.
Both William and Blake believe it’s something that’s in your blood.
This new barn is expected to last 100 years.
“That’s plenty long for me,” says William.
It may be long enough for his children as well.
About the new barn
The barn being built on the Ferguson’s Farm is 76 feet wide and 265 feet long. The company doing the work is Thermo Energy Structures, which imports the product from Germany.
Andrea Reyers, who owns the company, said people often refer to their style of construction as a “barn in a box,” because all the beams and panels are pre-engineered and built so they’re ready to go up quickly.
While the product costs more for materials, Reyers said they save on labour bringing it on par with traditional construction methods.
For example there are insulated panels that go on the roof.
“You just put it up and you’re finished. You don’t have to use insulation, you don’t have to use vapour barrier. You don’t have to do all that work.”
Aside from the speed of building a barn like this, she said, there are other appealing aspects.
One is an air and light ridge along the top of the structure that functions something like a sunroof.
“You can control your ventilation. The side ventilation works very well with the top ridge.”
The wood also gives it a warm feeling, she said.
“When you walk in you barely need lights.”
