For longtime residents of Louisburg, Mo., in northern Dallas County, there are a few staples in the tiny community, such as the Louisburg Baptist Church and Williams Brothers Store.
Just west of town there is also Hamlet Dairy, which has been milking cows twice a day, everyday since 1957.
Rex Hamlet and his late wife, Margret, started dairy farming once Rex left the U.S. Army after a two-year stint. Today, 84-year-old Rex is joined in the family business by his son, Brent.
Rex started milking with his father in 1944 and the time he spent in the military was the only time he didn’t milk.
“Margaret and I started milking for ourselves in 1954 at a rented place, then we bought this place and have milked cows ever since,” Rex recalled.
The Hamlet Dairy was one of the first dairies in Dallas County to have a bulk tank, which was 400 gallons. The tank was installed in 1957.
“We used milk cans up to that time and a truck would come and pick up the cans,” Rex recalled. The first dipstick for the tank now hangs in the “new” milk barn, which was built in 1989. The newer barn boasts a 1,000-gallon tank, as well as automatic feeders and automatic take offs on the milking machines.
“Things sure have changed,” Rex said.
Brent remembers going to town to get loads of feed in a pick up, a couple of tons at a time, then hauling it home and loading it into the grinder mixer.
“Today, 10, 12 ton is just a call away and they will bring it to you,” he said. “I don’t want to go back to shoveling feed… Going back to the old days now would be like going back to a rotary phone after having a cell phone. Not that they were bad times, we just did with what we had.”
The Hamlet family patriarch said being a dairyman was the only thing he has ever wanted to do.
“It’s a calling,” Rex said. “I guess it’s like when a preacher gets called. I have just spent my whole life doing this and I think the Lord called me to do this. Back in the time we are talking about, kids went into the occupation of their parents. If their parents were farmers, they farmed; if the parents taught school, they taught school. When you get to the grandkids now, they aren’t going to be too interested in it; they aren’t called to be a farmer. They want to do something to make them more money. You can stick money in your pocket if you are at a job, but on a farm, you have to stick money into the farm.”
The family is currently milking about 100 head on the original 440-acre farm bought by Rex and Margaret.
Rex said they raise all of their own replacement heifers, and hold back their Holstein steers until they are about 600 pounds.
Brent worked away from the farm for a few years, but was never far from the milk. His off-farm career was spent at Mid-Am Dairy (now Dairy Farmers of America) in Springfield and Lebanon. After the plant in Lebanon closed, Brent returned to the farm full-time.
“He asked me how many vacation days he was going to get,” Rex recalled with a laugh.
“I had five weeks (of time off) at the time,” Brent said. “When I came here, I gave up 52 weekends, so that’s 104 days, nine holidays and vacation. It’s like 139 days a year and you figure that over a 15-year period, that is a lot of time I haven’t had off.”
While Brent jokes about not having any vacation time, he said the time on the farm is worth it.
“When I worked at Mid-Am, I worked just as many hours there as I do here,” he said. “You never work 40 hours anywhere, plus I have always had my kids out here with me. Brock and Chase both rode the arm seat. We’d get up at 5 a.m. and they would be asleep with their heads on my shoulder … I’m like dad, dairy farming has to be in your blood.”
Today, Brent’s 16-year-old Brock, and Brent’s “adopted son” Trenton Houston, 16, are part of the family business. The boys do most of the field work and all of the haying, putting up about 1,000 big bales of hay for the farm, as well as about another 500 for a nearby family member. Chase, 28, is an insurance broker in Springfield, but comes to help on the farm when he’s needed, including last winter when Brent was out of commission for about a week after a fall.
“They can all do what needs to be done around there,” Brent said.
When asked if the Hamlet family ever considered a different path, Rex was quick to answer.
“Not for me,” he said. “This is my calling. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and if there is one thing that I don’t care about in all of this, that’s getting older.”
While the Hamlets are optimistic about the future of their family operation, Rex said costs and unstable milk prices make it hard for dairymen.
“Milking cows, you’ve never had a system where the prices are guaranteed from month to month,” he said. “We need to have something in place where our dairy farmers can get $22 a hundred (weight) each month for his milk. Until we can do that, it’s hard to make it. Last summer, we were getting $27 a hundred for the milk, today we are getting $14, $16. We need to get about $22 (per hundred weight) to make any money and to be able to put money back into the farm. What we need in dairy farming is a guaranteed price.”
Brent agreed.
“The market is so volatile,” he said. “Last year, farmers were able to pay some bills, but now the prices are down and a lot of guys are just getting by.”
By having a fixed price each month, Rex speculated that the dairy industry could stablize.
“You can’t make a living on what you are getting paid today, let alone buy a farm, buy cattle and pay the loan,” Rex said. Brent added that it would take many years for new farmers just to pay for a new bulk tank.
“That’s not including the farm, the cattle or of the cows,” he said. “It’s insane how much it takes just to milk. You just about have to grow into farming.”
