Farming’s been in Ellis Dix’s blood since day one.
“I was born on my dad’s dairy farm ...in Starlight, up in the northern part of the County. He rented my great-grandfather’s farm,” Ellis said of his dad, David. His great granddad’s name was Sylvester Dix. Ellis is a seventh generation farmer.
He and his wife, Daisy, own Ellday Farm in Pleasant Mount, where they’ve been milking cows and tending the land for some 49 years now.
They started the farm out with $150. “We were poor people just like everybody else when we started. Our first milk check was $90,” Ellis said, after they’d paid the farm’s mortgage. These days, the mortgage is paid off, so they can breathe a little easier.
Their hearts go out to farmers with big mortgages. “And some without it are probably in trouble, too. If you have any bad luck at all, things don’t go right, it don’t take long to get behind the eight ball. Things go wrong, you have breakdowns with equipment. Sick cows ...vet bills get high. And then, we’ve got the weather to deal with, too. The crops have been a hassle this year, too,” Ellis said.
They’re conservation farmers. “We try to keep the farm in grassland,” Ellis said. “I haven’t done any plowing or (planted any) corn ...We’ve done rotational grazing for the cattle, putting cows in the pasture and moving them to a different place everyday to eat.”
Their son Roger, who drives milk truck for John Diehl Trucking in Tyler Hill, stops by every night to help his parents milk 44 of their 98 head herd. Roger’s daughter Ashley also pitches in. She’s studying to be a veterinarian.
What does he love about farming? “It’s all I’ve ever known, I guess, except for the time I was in the military serving,” Ellis says. It’s a love of the land and animals that keeps him going.
Daisy says, “You have to like it or you couldn’t do it.”
Holstein and Brown Swiss
Mixed in with their registered Holstein herd are beautiful Brown Swiss. “The Brown Swiss are the grandchildren’s show cows,” Daisy says. Originating in the Alps, the breed is said to be docile. “They’re stubborn. They’ve got minds of their own,” Ellis says, with a chuckle. “There’s not many of them in Wayne County ... My son got his wife one as a calf. And that’s where we started, from the one calf.”
“He bought his wife a calf for a birthday present,” Daisy shares.
“They all have personalities,” Daisy says. They’re much more than an eartag and number. “They’re named. They’re all registered animals,” Ellis says, with recorded blood lines.
Without missing a beat, the Dix’s are able to look out over their field and name the nearest cows. There’s the gentle Boots, their grandson Adam’s favorite cow, who rises obediently to her feet at Ellis’ light touch.
Asked about their favorites, Daisy says they like the older cows that have been with them awhile. “The oldest one is 14 now ...which is old,” he says of Lilly, a faithful Holstein. “The oldest one we’ve ever had was 21. That was Terry,” Ellis said. He admits most cows don’t live that long, generally getting “culled” out for beef for one reason or another. “The average age of the average cow is in single figures,” he said, four or five years-old.
Ellis cautions, “You don’t fall in love with them, because at some time or another, they all have to go.”
The soft-hearted Daisy admits, “I can’t watch them go. I raised them all. You always have your favorites. And you know when they leave, they’re not coming back.”
If someone said: they’re just dumb animals? “No, they’re not. They’re not really dumb animals. They learn. They’re all individuals,” Ellis says.
A lot of changes
They’ve seen a lot of changes in farming over the decades. “A lot of the farmers have gone out,” Daisy said.
When they first started out, there were 11 operating dairy farms on the dirt road loop that connects North and Dix roads, Ellis said. “Now there’s only one. I’m it.”
Is he proud to farm, if someone asks what he does for a living? “Yeah,” is his instant reply. Where does that pride come from? “I guess from being able to withstand it all these years, through the good times and the bad. We’ve had bad years before and good years, as probably most farmers have,” Ellis said.
Do they see themselves farming years down the road? “If my social security keeps coming, I’ll still be farming. That’s not how it’s supposed to work though ... But, if it wasn’t, I would probably be getting behind like everybody else,” Ellis says.
Daisy adds, “I just had my knees done. And his knees are bad now. I don’t know how much longer we can keep going. It’s hard.”
When it comes to the hard time farmers are having, Ellis offers words of encouragement: “Hope for a better day tomorrow.”
