The town of Holland in southeastern Manitoba is small.

Like, less-than-400-residents small.

Like, zoom-in-10-times-on-Google-Maps small.

Despite its size, however, Holland has all the community amenities anyone could ask for: a school, public library, volunteer fire department, supermarket, convenience store, hardware, post office, medical clinic, and a substantial farm machinery dealership, Drummonds Farm Services, that sits across the highway from the town proper and is run by a family that has been a part of Holland almost as long as Holland has been around.

The town was established in 1878, and the Drummonds have been farming there since the spring of 1892. Archibald Drummond and his wife, Janet, came to the area after learning of available land through Janet’s brothers, who were also farming there, then called the Camille district (now the rural municipality of Victoria).

Archibald and Janet brought their eight children, including son William, who started farming with his father in 1897. Upon Archibald’s passing, William, his wife Maude, and their two sons took over ownership. And so it continued, passing from parents to children and then from children to cousins, until the current owner, Lloyd Drummond, and his father, Morris Drummond, took over in 2011 (though Morris and his wife, Barbara, had been farming their own land since 1991).

“We started with a very small acreage. We were renting (Morris’s) dad's land across the road from us,” explains Barbara Drummond, Morris’s wife of 53 years.

“At that point, we were doing wheat, oats, and flax. We dropped the flax because our land didn't seem to like it. We dropped canola because our land didn't like it. It was too expensive for us to grow. We have poorer land. We don't have A or B land, or C. So now we grow soybeans, corn, sunflowers, wheat, and oats.”

The family, which also includes Lloyd’s siblings Melanie and Tanis (who lives in B.C.), now farms 1500 acres, and Lloyd is Archibald's great-great-grandson. For those having trouble with that complex family tree, he manages the dealership and shoulders his duties on the family’s farmland with the help of his parents, siblings, and children.

“We’re awful busy when it’s grain season,” says Lloyd, who enjoys the multi-generational aspect of the business the family has built together.

“Growing up on a farm gives multiple generations a chance to work together. I've had a couple of my kids run equipment for me now. I've got a 17-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son, and they both run equipment in the field for me, whether that’s spreading fertilizer or actually cutting a crop,” he continues.

“It's nice to have that opportunity to bond in a way that you're equals. It gives your kids a chance to learn you in a different environment other than just sitting at home at the dinner table saying, ‘Eat your vegetables,’ and that sort of thing. It helps build work ethic. We've been blessed to end up with land and crop in our area where our customers and ourselves succeed seemingly every year. There's ups and downs, but it kind of bonds our community as well, knowing that we're all in it together. We can sure understand what other farmers are going through.”

Lloyd was, of course, introduced to the farming business by Morris, who, despite a brief stint of city living, remains attached to country living. He worked as a rep for Vermeer before opening the dealership, traveling around the province to build customer relationships. This skill came in handy later when he ran the dealership, which he opened in 1977. At that time, it was specifically a White Farm Equipment dealership, located in a preexisting building in downtown Holland.

“It was basically an old IH repair shop. International Harvester had pulled the dealership, and he was the older guy that was in there at the time, just doing repairs, and he was kept pretty busy,” explains Morris, who will be celebrating 50 years in business in 2027. “We basically bought him out in ‘77; we worked out of that building for three years.”

It became clear at that time they needed more space, so they found a plot of land on the opposite side of the highway from the town and built a 5,000-square-foot building.

“We thought we had the world by the tail,” laughs Morris. “Well, it didn’t take long to outgrow that place.”

So, in 2002, they added on, and in 2016, they added on again, growing to 20,000 square feet, including a 10,000-square-foot service area, because “if you haven’t got service, you got nothing. Pack your bags,” Morris says.

The Drummonds were selling MacDon headers while they were still a White dealership, but became official MacDon dealers in 1987.

“We didn't want to give it up,” Morris admits, adding that they also run MacDons on their own land.

“We’ve run MacDons for approximately 25 years,” adds Lloyd. “Back then, 25 years ago, we would have been running MacDon 9300, 9250 series swathers. They were really good at cutting canola. We've since stopped growing canola, but we're straight cutting wheat, oats, soybeans these days with our FD75.”

The Drummonds started with an FD70 FlexDraper® header and moved up to an FD75 in 2017, and Lloyd says they have been impressed with its performance from the start.

“It really impressed us cutting soybeans and wheat and oats since then,” says Lloyd.

“And our farm isn't big, so we just do some maintenance every winter, and it just goes and goes,” adds Morris.

In addition to the FD75, the Drummonds also run an FD240 with the ContourMax™ Contour Wheels Performance Option, designed to enhance ground-following performance and maintain a consistent stubble height.

”Every year, every generation (of header) has gotten so much better. We've had an FD1 with the four-inch tine spacing on the reel, and that was a really nice addition to those units. And the FD2 is that much smoother again,” says Morris.

“Well, the flexibility of the new header is incredible; it's heavy-duty, it's beefed up, it's a heavier header than what we're using here, so it'll withstand more bangs if you happen to hit a… we don't have rocks, but if you happen to hit a rock in the field it'll take some hit.”

“That's the number one header as far as I'm concerned that's out there. Anybody that's bought one buys another usually if they’re running two,” he says.

Lloyd especially likes the smooth knife operation on the FD240. They have a double-knife drive on their header, and he says it can “go all day.”

“The knives are in time. We're cutting green, we're cutting dead ripe, there's trash on the ground, the knives never plug. The lightweight sickles, I think, are a big contributor to the smoothness of the knife drive. In soybeans, the spacing of the tines on the reel is perfect. You don't lose short bean plants. Those are my favorite parts about the header,” he says.

On the dealership side, Lloyd says demoing opportunities really help move the product. Once someone tries it and sees what the header can do, it’s an easy sell. MacDon also makes the demo process easy because the company wants people using the products and having those first-hand experiences.

“We've never demoed to anyone that hasn't been impressed with an FD2,” says Lloyd.

“If I had to say one thing about the MacDon demo process, it's that MacDon really wants us out there showing what the header can do. It compares very well to competitive heads, and we're able to sell MacDons based on the experience during a demo. So, it's a really helpful process.”

Because the Drummonds are both MacDon dealers and customers, they like to take advantage of any product events the company offers, especially since the award-winning FD2-series FlexDraper® headers launched in 2021.

“We've tried to make every one because you can see all the products there and they have sessions on each product and then you can move around them,” says Morris. 

“Like when they brought out the FD2 header, we went to most of the sessions that applied to us. And I went to the FD2 session; I'm sure I went four times when they introduced it because each time you'd pick up something you missed the first time. And you'd try to get with guys that were asking questions; I'd ask my own questions too, learned a lot at those meetings. They were first class.”

The Drummonds are clearly a true family-run company through and through, and it’s that same quality in MacDon that appeals to them. Their interactions with various MacDon reps, whether a learning session or a visit from their territory manager, only strengthen that family-first feeling. And they know that no matter the day, no matter the time, no matter the problem, the MacDon team they have grown to know and love will do whatever they can to be available and actively provide a solution.

The Drummonds have worked with MacDon territory manager Kyle Campbell for many years and appreciate his knowledge and skill set.

“He's really good,” says Morris. “I think they've learned it from the older MacDon boys because their commitment to that company is phenomenal; I think they instilled that in all their staff and that's what good leaders do.”

Morris and Lloyd also love that MacDon is a local product, and being only a few hours away from the main distribution center makes parts acquisition a breeze.

“It's a good product; it's made right here in Manitoba. It's a big plus. If you haven’t got a major part (to replace one) that breaks on a swather, an hour and a half you're into Winnipeg, an hour and a half you're back putting it together. We've had that instance this summer in hay season; a guy had a gearbox blow out, and it’s not normal for it to go. So he roared in and picked it up, and we had it on for him the next morning, and away he went,” says Morris.

“I'd say if you haven't tried a MacDon header, you don't know what you're missing,” adds Lloyd.

“It's one of our premium brands that we have on the farm and at the dealership. It's not something that anyone’s ever disappointed in.”

Drummonds Farm Services Ltd.
Website: drummondsfarm.com
Facebook: Drummond's Farm Services Ltd.
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