Their goal was clear, just as it is on many farms across Canada. With growing families, brothers Jim and Phillip Callaghan needed to expand their Peterborough, Ont. home farm to generate additional income.
In this case, the Callaghans are dairy farmers, so it made most sense to them to double their milk herd to 300 cows.
The question was: How?
The Callaghans started with a core belief, that their farm could benefit from a systematic approach to growth as long as that plan incorporates three key elements: smart budget management and production know-how, human resource considerations, and options for future expansion.
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Two years ago, the Callaghans implemented their plan, doubling their dairy herd by converting an existing steel shed into a 300-stall free stall barn with a new double-16 milking parlour.
Here’s what they learned in the process.
Farmstead planning instigates other business changes
In 2000, when Phillip and Jim first began to think about expansion, those talks became a catalyst for building a farm succession plan.
“We were advised to not expand or do anything with the farm until we got the farm generation transfer done,” says Jim. His mother wisely thought the majority owners should make expansion decisions, yet she also wanted to balance this with her desire to be fair to the other seven siblings.
Jim and Phillip were committed to going ahead with the expansion. That vision of the future helped them get through the sometimes arduous paper work and discussion required to succeed the farm business.
Importantly, the work of transferring the farm also reminded them during their farmstead planning to not forget about future expansions and the next generation.
The most cost-effective expansions maximize current assets
In 1992, the Callaghans moved a 90 x 200-foot steel warehouse to their farmstead. Their banker at the time commented that it might make a nice dairy barn, and 14 years later that seed of an idea grew into a full farmstead plan for expansion. The banker was right: The renovated warehouse works well for the six-row free-stall layout with a main center feed alley.
“I had an engineer tell me to tear down the steel shed,” says Jim. Instead of putting up a new barn, they worked with a local construction company and a milk equipment dealer to use the buildings on-site to their maximum efficiency.
The renewed barn is a flat roof building with 22-foot sides and 16-to 18-feet of open space. For ventilation, they used side-ventilation turkey curtains and a six-foot opening skylight. Even on the coldest days last winter, the pipes didn’t freeze and air quality was good, Jim says.
