They're milking it

Posted By MICHAEL-ALLAN MARIO

The Stuart family is proof that you don't have to be the biggest dairy operation in the county to survive and thrive.

"It's not how big you are, it's how you look after what you've got and whether you're a smart manager," said Paul Stuart.

Stuart made those comments next to his wife, Ann, in the living room of his parents, Elwood and Enid Stuart, who started Stuartmere Farms 60 years ago, and now sit at the head of four generations who help milk 60 cows and tend crops.

"I believe the key to longevity is whether you enjoy what you're doing. I do," chimed in Paul's son, Brad.

Also sitting on the couch were Keith, another of Elwood and Enid sons, and his wife, Alana. Unable to be at the gathering were a third son, John, and his wife, Arlene.

As they chatted about the running of Stuartmere Farms, the family demonstrated why they have been named the Brant County Federation of Agriculture's Farm Family of the Year.

The Stuarts were nominated by the Brant-Six Nations Plowmen's Association.

"Since 1950, when Elwood and Enid Stuart purchased the farm from Elwood's father, they have strived for good management, judgment and knowledge to do things well and strive to do it even better," Donna Telfer, the association's secretary-treasurer, wrote in the nomination form.

"This is how they have approached their farm management and taken it to the organizations they have been in while raising three sons on their farm."

The Stuarts are one of the original pioneering families in the former Burford township, who at one time or another ran farms on the concession roads between Burford and Princeton.

Elwood, 89, recalls that his parents, Ellis and Hazel, moved from Mount Vernon in 1940 to a general farm on Maple Avenue North, just off Highway 2.