» 2021 Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Farm Family Awards Dairy farm shifting to its third generation
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/04/2021 (1832 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Neale Hockley knew at a young age he wanted to take over his family’s farm.
“I was just one of those little boys who played with tractors,” he said, adding that between time on the farm and with 4-H, he “really got hooked on the cows and spending time with the cows.”
The Hockley family farm — named Donovan Holsteins after founder Don Hockley — has been named one of this year’s six 2021 Royal Manitoba Winter Fair Farm Family award recipients.
“Flattered” to receive the recognition, Neale said it has been a group effort, and one that dates back three generations to his grandparents Don and Helen Hockley.
The couple founded the farm in 1942, with Don arriving from a farm a half-mile away and Helen hailing from Minnedosa.
The farm started off mixed, with hogs, chickens, horses and dairy cattle, and in 1958 became a part of Holstein Canada.
Their son, Garth, was later handed the farm. Alongside wife Elaine, he raised three children on the farm and helped keep it up.
Of these three kids — Heather, Travis and Neale — only Neale wanted to keep the farm up as its third generation.
Neale joined his family — wife Dayna and kids Cameron, Morgan and Landon — by moving into his grandparents’ old house on site.
Garth and Elaine also reside on the property and remain active on the farm, which is now primarily a dairy farm, with some grain.
The farm has been upgraded as time progressed, with the most recent renewal taking place in 2010, when a new free-stall barn with a milking robot was constructed.
Cattle are trained to corral themselves to the robot, which pulls data from their collar and uses lasers to guide suction tubes into place.
Similar automation is found elsewhere in their operations, though hands-on work is still required.
Neale said it’ll likely be up to the next generation of the family to undertake the farm’s next big technological renewal — that is, if one of his three children is keen on serving as the farm’s fourth generation.
Although he owns the farm in partnership with his parents, he said his feelings of ownership aren’t so cut and dried.
“I feel like a landlord passing it on to the next generation, and hopefully they keep it going,” he said.
“I feel pressure to make sure someone’s going to take it over, but to me, my job is to run the farm until the next generation wants to farm it.”
The farm is part of the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba quality program, Pro-Action, which strives to ensure safe animal husbandry and quality of milk production.
See next week’s edition of Westman This Week for a story about the final of six farm families recognized by the 2021 Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.
» tclarke@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB