Day in the Life

Dutch Retreat

The Van Diemen farming family discovers the beauty

of mixing it up on their pretty property in Southern Alberta

Story By Julie Van Rosendaal 

Thirteen years ago, Martin Van Diemen and his wife Willy were dairy farmers in the province of Groningen, in northeastern Holland. In a country with limited real estate, there was little opportunity to expand the operation, something Van Diemen knew was necessary if his four sons were to continue on with the farm. So the family moved to Canada – a country with seemingly limitless space – and settled into a small, picturesque dairy farm about eight kilometres east of Picture Butte, Alberta.

Today, the Van Diemen family has expanded its Alberta operation to include a second dairy farm and, in 2000, they branched into another commodity: chicken. They were looking for opportunities for their second son, Rob.

“He was an electrician and heavy duty mechanic back in the Netherlands,” but he wanted to farm in Canada, Van Diemen explains. “He didn’t really like milking cows. So we bought a chicken farm.”

It turned out to be a good move; the union of dairy and chicken farming, the former being more labour-intensive and the latter less so, allows for the three youngest Van Diemen sons – Martin Jr., 28, Peter, 31, and Rob, 34 – to work alongside their father to run all three farms, which are spread out over eight quarters. (The eldest son, Rwd works in the mobile home industry in nearby Coaldale, Alberta.) About 90 per cent of the milk they produce goes to Sunnyrose Cheese in Diamond City, Alberta, and the majority of chickens are specially grown to supply KFC.

“We split it up so that all the kids are involved in at least one farm, allowing them to take sick days and holidays when they need them,” says Van Diemen, describing what sounds like a perfectly orchestrated arrangement that keeps the men moving back and forth to help with seeding, harvesting, irrigation and field work whenever something needs to be done. The senior Van Diemen has his job title clearly defined: “I call myself the vacuum cleaner,” he says with a laugh. “If anyone else drops anything, I’m there to pick it up.”

During the months when the ground isn’t frozen, irrigation takes up a big chunk of Van Diemen’s time; it’s not uncommon for workdays to begin at 5 a.m. and end at 9 or 10 p.m., seven days a week. The water table was high in the Netherlands, in stark contrast to dry Picture Butte. But this and other environmental challenges don’t bother the family, who love farming in Alberta. “I don’t see it as a challenge because we knew ahead of time what to expect,” Van Diemen says. “And it all balances out; during the winter months, we get a break.”

“In the Netherlands, we were already environmentally oppressed,” he says, referring to the size of available farmland. “Alberta is a good place to live, so long as you keep everything practical. Some people try to duplicate farming methods that work elsewhere, but you can’t do that. You can learn from it, but we need to develop our own standards.”

Beyond irrigation duties, the rest of his day is typically spent feeding calves, overseeing operations and acting as the farm vacuum cleaner. Van Diemen doesn’t milk cows anymore, but spends much of his time at committee meetings. He is a member of the Alberta Chicken Producers and director of the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District.

“I make my decisions on the farm and in the committees based on what will be sustainable for the future,” Van Diemen says, “I always think long term.”

This forward-thinking attitude is evident in the family’s participation in the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP), a voluntary process to help Alberta farmers identify and address environmental risks and opportunities. With an eye to sustainability, he continues, “I think it’s important that we do the best for the environment that we can.”

Van Diemen is also passionate about educating younger generations, whom he thinks have become disconnected with the source of their food. “A lot of people think milk comes from Costco,” he laments. “They have no idea how milk is produced.”

Consequently, some of his time is spent educating consumers by speaking in classrooms and doing demonstrations at the Calgary Stampede and Aggie Days, a celebration of farms and agriculture aimed at school kids. He finds a hands-on experience to be enlightening for people, many of whom may have never interacted with a farmer, much less a cow. “People still think I’m hurting the cow by pulling at its teat,” he says. “I have to tell them that’s the only way to get the milk!”

Closer to home, Martin and Willy Van Diemen are both still bent on educating the next generation. They recently welcomed their ninth grandchild into the family. They are, of course, hoping that this newest generation will follow in its parents’ and grandparents’ footsteps. “It’s up to the parents [and grandparents],” Van Diemen says, “to make farming appealing and sustainable for the younger kids.” 

By the numbers

Farming in Alberta is changing at a lightning fast pace. Milk production is up, while the number of producers is half what it was when the Van Diemen family arrived in Canada 13 years ago. Here are some stats:

1,300 - The number of Alberta milk producers in 1995

645 - The number of Alberta milk producers in 2008

50 - Cows per dairy producer, on average, in 1995

90 - Cows per dairy producer, on average, in 2008

30.3 - Kilograms of chicken an average Albertan consumes in a year

3 - Decades the use of hormones in poultry has been illegal in Canada

285 - Chicken producers in Alberta