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Don and Joanne Russell always wanted to be dairy farmers. They had no family farm to take over so they made a decision to finance their farming dream with full-time jobs in the city. As it turns out the Russell's path into farming was truly unique and exhausting.

Don, Joanne

"Before farming we were basically living in the suburbs near Burlington and Joanne and had her job near Hamilton . I had a job near Cambridge . So we both commuted in opposite directions. Living the suburb life, double car garage, weekends off everything like that. We met at the University of Guelph , I worked for social services in Hamilton and Don was working for a feed company. They were Monday to Friday jobs and we had our weekends free. Pretty simple life but we were not really content with that. So we wanted to move on to something different and that's where farming came into play."

Don, Joanne

"I think Don when he started working for the feed company came home and said I really like the life these farmers have, these dairy farmers, I'd like to try that. During high school I got to work on a dairy farm in the summer. That's basically where I fell in love with dairy cows and the whole dairy farming community. Of course at that time that being young you don't realize how much money you do need to start. So I enrolled in the animal science degree at the University of Guelph . As Joe and mentioned working with the dairy farmers in all Oxford and Perth county's it really opened my eyes. There where really good farmers showing me their management, what I could do and couldn't do that's basically where we discovered we could do this… As long as someone gave us the money."

There is only one word to describe what Don and Joanne Russell went through to find financing to start a farm…painful. They soon realized the only way to finance their farming dream was with full-time "city" jobs …it was a process that saw them start with nothing..no cows, no quota, no land, no equipment or barns..no family farm to take over.

Don, Joanne

"That was a long process. We were trying to go to a lot of lending institutions. We went to six major lending institutions over and over again. Many different cash flows. They kept telling us know. After two years or so we finally got our chance with farm credit Canada .

Don, Joanne

" it's a good thing because you have nothing to lose. At that time we were 26, no kids, two jobs, two really good paying jobs… So when you start with nothing you really can't go further down. All you can go is up. With our two incomes if something did go wrong we could just start a game and keep going."

In 1998, their patience finally paid off. They found an owner willing to hold a mortgage for them …This allowed them to purchase a 150 acre farm in Renfrew country North west of Ottawa and Do Jo Holsteins became a reality.

Don, Joanne

"The previous owners took mortgage and they gave us a really good rate and the banks could not touch that rate and that was one way to be able to afford this farm. Without their help we probably wouldn't have been able to buy this farm. So they took on the mortgage for 10 years"

Don, Joanne

"actually the first seven years we were losing money and that's why it took the two incomes to keep us going. Yes there are a lot of businesses that do go out than and that's why I because you have a negative cash flow for a long time. With two good jobs we we're basically living off of half of Joann's, so all of my income and half of her income went to support the dairy farm. In that eight year we went from losing money to making money. It's been good ever since."

Don, Joanne

"things were tough for a while but no we never thought we were doing the wrong thing. This is something we always wanted to do we knew we could do it. The only hard thing really was the finances. Once we got that going yes we were losing money but we had those two jobs. It never crossed our minds to give up and quit doing what we're doing and wanted to achieve. We tell young farmers today that call us, they've been farming for two or three years and are finding it very difficult we basically tell 'em it will be difficult for another few years but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I think we were all of the mindset that this was what we wanted to do. We're really wanted to get out of the city never thought they were raise our children in our rural environment. We thought there was an opportune if you there to teach them a lot.

Because the kids do learn a lot on the farm there in the barn all the time. You learn about life with a calf being born, animals dying it's a full cycle thing. They learn about farm safety which is one of our major things here because we have four kids."


Making money by year eight involved a fairly simple but disciplined management approach…since milk is where the money is made…do only things that make milk. With that target in mind, other capital intensive purchases were not part of the plan.

Don, Joanne

"we get a custom operator to do all of our fieldwork because first of all I just don't like equipment, equipment doesn't like me. I try to stay away from it as much as possible. Economically it doesn't make sense to me to have 0.5 million to ¾ million worth of equipment to do work for a week for a year. It goes back to economics what I can hire them to do it four is a lot cheaper than what I could do with payments on equipment and to do it myself, I'm all by myself here it only makes sense to get somebody else to come in and do it.

Today Do Jo Holsteins consists of 26 cows and 30 kilograms of quota which begs the question is an operation this small, a hobby farm or a business?

Don, Joanne

"It's definitely a business. When you consider we have over 30 kg of quota and most farms have a father and son or two couples living off of them, and the average on dairy farm has 52 cows so when you break it down were actually larger than the average household. Even the larger herds milking 100 or 150 cows there will be four or five guys living off of that so it's definitely an income and we're making a very good living off it.

- Today Don and Joanne have two remarkable titles to their name, first generation dairy farmers and Canada 's outstanding young farmers in 2006.


Don, Joanne

"the outstanding young farmers of Ontario , when we one that it was really nice. It was a surprise to us it was great. Then we went to the national competition when we won the outstanding young farmer of Canada award that was great to receive an award from your peers on a national level it's humbling. You get to learn a lot from the other farmers all across the province is all across Canada it has opened a RI is also to see the variation in just the ideas from other different types of farmers. The award has been very interesting and it's been really nice and it's nice to get recognition from everyone."

Don, Joanne

"because we are a first generation farm we're realized that we can't have everything at once. So we couldn't be milking a large herd in a brand new barn and have children and weekends off sole we couldn't have all that all it wants. We took it as steppingstones to get towards what we wanted. That is true you have to realize when you're starting with nothing in the first generation is do what you can first, sacrificed a lot at the beginning. There are no vacations for a long time and you're not spending money on anything that you don't have to. That's what young farmers have to realize. You put in your time just like anybody else or any other business if you want to start any other business, if you're starting a restaurant or anything like that you're going to have to put your hours in and sacrificed for a few years before you get to go play golf or do anything like that. Look at your economics for any young couple looking to get in to farming, dairy farming or any other business know what your costs are, know what your returns are and maximize those returns and don't waste your money on something that doesn't make you money. And do a tool of doing."

Don, Joanne

"starting off with 20 kg that was probably wait too small a lot of people thought with… Again doing it the right way it penciled through and it got us going. Renting a barn, there are lots of barns empty out there and there's always more empty barns and farmers are wanting to rent them out to you. Also they will sell their forages to you. And economics it only makes sense to do it that way. Yes it is totally against the grain but it makes economic sense. Then once your established go ahead and buy a farm. Equipment wise getting someone to do the custom work, it goes back to time and economics. A lot of people say you can't farm without your own equipment but it's been going very well for us. It's been 10 years now and we've never had a problem getting work done."

The Russells believe it should not have been so difficult to get started in farming. Don says there needs to be an entry program for young people. Right now getting into farming is easy as long as you can find someone to co-sign a loan, something the Russells did not have and many of the new generation of young people will not have either.

Don, Joanne

"that is the one thing like I always said if we had had someone lend us money, earlier or DFO's is looking into an entry program for young farmers. They're going to give them maybe something like 10 or 12 kg to start off for the first 10 years like in Quebec or some other provinces are doing, Ontario is not doing it, that would if save this 10 years off of my life if we had had that to begin with. 10 of my younger years too! So there are definitely some things we can do to help young farmers and we do need young farmers to get going here."

Kevin: Don says the reason they bought the farm they did was, aside from the fact that the previous owner agreed to carry the mortgage, they were amazed that the farm didn't have any stones, and as a kid he remembers picking a lot of stones. As a kid growing up on the farm I remember picking a lot of stones and I can assure you it wasn't a highlight for me either.

Finally today let's take a quick look back at the key management factors that contributed to the Russells success in starting a dairy farm, from scratch no less.

First, play hard ball with the numbers - know your costs, know your returns and don't waste your money on something that doesn't make you money

Secondly be persistent and patience. Remember good things come to those that hustle while they wait. If you love what you do these sacrifices are a lot easier.