Respected veteran farmer and industry advocate, Hector Williams honoured by his peers
By Mark Squibb | Vol. 12 No. 22 (October 31, 2019)
Long time Goulds farmer Hector Williams was inducted into the Atlantic Agriculture Hall of Fame this October.
Born in 1945, Williams is a staple of the province’s farming community.
He helped establish the Milk Marketing Board, now know as the Dairy Farmers of Newfoundland and Labrador, which was essential in securing supply management for farmers across the province, amongst other accomplishments. He served as director of that board from 1999 to 2016, as well as a representative on the Federation of Agriculture and Agri Adapt Council.
Goulds dairy farmer, Hector Williams.
“It feels really good. It’s humbling to even get the call that your peers wanted to nominate me,” said Williams. “I’ve been at farming all my life, and sometimes you do things and you don’t really think anybody is looking. But when you get a call like that, you think ‘I must have been an influence on somebody.’ It makes it all that much better.”
In 1970 Hector and his brother Eric inherited the family vegetable and dairy farm from their father Ernest. The brothers expanded the operation in the 70’s, but moved to strictly dairy production, managing it together until Eric passed away in the early 2000’s.
H & E Williams Dairy Farm, easily identified while driving down the main road by its stacks of large round bales of hay (popularised by the Williams; before, farmers stuck mostly to the square bales) is now mostly run by Hector’s son Terry.
The farm has been passed down from father to son as long as anyone can remember; Hector can trace the family’s farming lineage back to the late 1800’s.
Hector has been in the business all his life, and he’s seen plenty of changes over the years.
“When we went into dairy, we were still milking cows by hand. We didn’t have the machines,” he said. “But then we invested, and we got the machines. We were still mucking out our barns by hand, but then we invested and got the new barn. It’s just continuously all the time. Even today it’s still changing. It’s a job to keep up with all the changes. But that’s progress.”
Farming is hard work, he admits; because of the economy, several dairy farmers are choosing to go to secondary processing such as cheesemaking. That’s one of the jokes common to farmers, he adds; that more people are eating milk— in cheeses and yogurts— rather then drinking it. Like other farmers, he’s concerned about the newly released Canada’s Food Guide, which puts little emphasis on dairy products in favour of high protein, low saturated fat foods such as nuts and seeds; and, not to mention, dairy cows are high maintenance and need to be milked at least twice a day, but at the end of the day, farming is what he loves.
“You’ve just got to get over those hurdles and move on,” he said.
“I joke with people that I retired when I left school, because I went at something I wanted to be at. There was never a morning I hesitated getting out of bed because I was a dairy farmer, or any kind of farmer, because that’s what I wanted to be … Everyday was a challenge, and everyday was something different. It must be awfully stressful working at a job if you don’t want to be at it.”
Williams also noted that it’s important for young people to get involved in the industry.
“We’ve got to get young people to take over our farms. There are a number of farms that may not have somebody in the family to take over. We don’t want to see those farms closed down,” he said. “Most farms are passed down through families, but young farmers who are starting up, like any business, need to break into the market. We have a tremendous young farmers program going through the Federation of Agriculture. Matthew Carlson is the head of that, and he’s doing a marvellous job.”
Williams has served on the Newfoundland and Labrador Dairymen’s Association from 1967 to 1983, holding various positions; served on the Eastern Farmers Co-Op from 1968 to 2002, serving as President for 12 years; served on the Farm Debt Review Board from 1985 to 1995.
Memories from his time spent on the Farm Debt Review Board are among some of his finest.
“I spent 10 years on the Farm Debt Review Board for this province, and I always go back to that,” he said. “Those were some of the most rewarding years I put in because I was working with all commodifies, and people who had financial problems… We sat down with them and worked everything out for them, or tried to put a program in place.”
Williams was inducted Thursday, Oct. 17, at the 2019 Induction Ceremony in Truro, NS.
