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“You have to be willing to change. Willing to look forward. And you have to communicate.” - DOUG JOHNSTON
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“And you have to have ‘fun’ doing it and need to give back.” - DAVE JOHNSTON
MAPLEVUE Proud of Their Past,
STORY BY BONNIE COOPER
Looking to the Future
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beautiful, solid wood boardroom table sits in the office at Maplevue Farms Inc., Listowel, ON, where large windows look on to the new free-stall and robot barn. Made from a beam in the farm’s old tie-stall barn, it is a cherished piece of brothers Doug and Dave Johnston’s history. While proud of their past, it is the Johnstons’ willingness to embrace change and look ahead that is driving the success of this family farm today.
University of Guelph in 1987 and 1989, respectively. “About the time we came home from university,” recalls Doug, “our Dad said ‘Either you boys are going to run the farm, or we are getting out’.” Doug and Dave formed a partnership with their parents. In order for them to buy into the farm, their parents’ herd was dispersed in April 1988. “We starting buying cows and rebuilding the herd,” says Doug. In 1989, the brothers renovated the tie-stall barn. “Dad always changed cows. He had 32 stalls and milked 40,” recalls Dave. “Doug and I hated changing cows. When we put the piece on the barn and went to 57 stalls we never milked 58 cows. If one calved today, then somebody went dry. Or if it was Thursday, one went to OLEX (Ontario Livestock Exchange).”
Personable and outgoing, Doug, 54, and Dave, 52, are the fifth generation to operate this family farm that started in 1893. Their parents, Sam and Marcie Johnston, established the purebred Holstein herd and Maplevue prefix in 1957. “It was engrained in us at an early age that life is too short to milk ugly cows,” says Doug. “That is why we have always had good typed cows.” In 1996, the farm transitioned into a corporation. Dave and Doug each got married in 1997. On Valentine’s Day 1998, their father Sam The youngest of five children, Doug and Dave, graduated from the died, followed two years later by their mother.
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SUMMER/FALL 2020
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