FARM 2025: If you're a farmer in Huron County, you know Don Dodds

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

I’ll begin this feature in an unlikely spot by thanking Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb. As the long-time MP handed out King Charles Coronation Medals to 20 worthy people from Huron and Bruce Counties earlier this month he succinctly set out the goal for this article without even knowing it.

 

As Lobb presented long-time 4-H and Huron County Plowmen’s Association volunteer Don Dodds with his medal - just the most recent volunteerism honour bestowed on the great Dodds - Lobb ran down Dodds’ statistics, but put it this way, to paraphrase: “If you’re a farmer in Huron County, you know who this guy is.”

 

Thanks Ben - I couldn’t have said it better myself.

 

Indeed, Dodds is somewhat of an institution in the world of agriculture in Huron County - both in the traditional tending-to-the-fields, doing-the-chores kind of way and in the ways of agricultural and rural life as part of the very fabric of plowing matches and 4-H clubs, activities that, if there were a Mount Rushmore for agriculture in Huron County, both warrant a spot.

 

And he has spent generations volunteering with both, not just as a participant for himself, but as someone who has shepherded the next generation (and the one after that and the one after that and the one after that) along into a world in which they then become leaders, pillars of society and card-carrying members of the agricultural economy in Huron County and beyond.

 

It is perhaps fitting that Dodds has been honoured so thoroughly this year - first with a Huron County Citizen of the Year Award from this very organization and then by Lobb with the aforementioned King Charles medal - as 2025 represents somewhat of a full-circle moment for him. He has spent his whole life, until his somewhat recent move to Goderich Place, on the same Roxboro Line farm and now, later this year and for the very first time, the farm, now under the watchful eye of his son Paul, will play host to the Huron County Plowing Match.

 

As we covered in our Christmas issue late last year, Dodds grew up on the farm that came to be known as “Dodds Hills” for their tremendous tobogganing potential. The Dodds farm, Dodds said in a lengthy sit-down interview at Goderich Place, was where the community gathered when the snow flew and sledding was in the cards. That farm came into the family in 1851 when it was purchased from the Canada Company by Dodds’ great-grandfather and it still, to this day, remains in the family.

 

The mixed operation was successful for many years, as Dodds’ grandfather took it over from his great-grandfather and eventually his father took over while his grandfather still lived in the house, but was unable to work on the farm any longer. Then, Dodds’ mother died of tuberculosis when he was just a child and, at the age of 11, he had to step up and be a major part of the team working the farm.

 

He was no stranger to the farm operation. Dodds says that his parents used to bring him out to the barn and set him in a box while they did their chores and, once he was old enough, he began chipping in, bottle-feeding lambs, before taking on a full role in the operation following his mother’s untimely death.

 

Then, as if things couldn’t get more challenging for the Dodds family, Dodds’ father hurt his back severely when Dodds was about 13. Dodds assisted with the threshing, along with other members of the community, and when a load of sheaves was upset leaving the farm, his father was injured. 

 

In those days, he said, the community pulled together to do the necessary threshing. Community members left their homes around 8 a.m. on the day in question, sometimes earlier, and pitch in with the shared threshing machine. They were fed lunch and dinner and then head back home after dark, only to get up the next day and do it all over again.

 

In those early years, Dodds says there was a tremendous sense of community, whether it was threshing, a barn raising or coming together when one family was left in need, be it due to a lost family member, a fire or any other tragedy that might befall a farm family in those days. While Dodds appreciates the community spirit that remains in Huron County, he feels that is something that’s largely been lost as generations have passed. That can even be felt, he says, when it comes to volunteerism.

 

Speaking of which, Dodds started his time with Huron County 4-H when he was young, just as a humble member of the local swine club. That year, in the early 1950s, Dodds’ club leader suggested that he take part in the 4-H association’s annual judging competition the following spring. He won the Junior Section of that competition, earning a handsome plaque that hangs on his wall in his Goderich Place bedroom even today, alongside a number of other accolades he’s received over the years.

 

He continued as a 4-H member for years until he left the community to study at the University of Guelph for two years. At that time, partly out of necessity, he took a step back from the organization.

 

He graduated in Guelph in 1957 and waited until his soon-to-be-wife Maja graduated from nursing school. Only then, Don said, would she have the green light to accept his hand in marriage. She did, they did and the rest is history. The couple was married for 63 years when Maja passed away in December of 2023. Don still credits his wife for much of his volunteer work and, of course, the beautiful family they built over the years. Maja was known to describe herself as a “4-H widow”, Don said, but the work she did by his side with both 4-H and the Huron County Plowmen’s Association would not have been possible without her working just as hard, if not harder, than he had.

 

He returned to 4-H as a leader, answering the call of the neighbour who served as the swine club leader when Don first got involved. He asked if Don wouldn’t mind leading for a year or two and that time period has yet to end, as Don is still actively involved with the organization.

 

Back in those days, Don said, the 4-H organization was run by the local branch of the provincial Ministry of Agriculture, which meant it was flush with resources. The books were kept by the province and the meetings were organized by the government. 
He also noted the increased participation in those days. When he first became a leader, it was the first time the organization put together a county club. It had 78 members, which was staggering even at the time. 

 

Now, the clubs are on their own in regards to organization, fundraising and more. So, it’s different, but the group of volunteers that has made it a priority to keep the program vital and healthy, Don said, has done an excellent job.

 

He says, even now, that he likes working with the young people and has enjoyed being involved for so many years; seeing members grow up and then seeing their children or even grandchildren enrol as 4-H members. That kind of continuum, he said, is quite rare.

 

As for Don’s decades of work with the Huron County Plowmen’s Association, like 4-H, it began when he was just a young man and he went to his first Huron County Plowing Match. Gordon McGavin worked with students to find participants at local high schools, like Seaforth District High School, donating a tractor to the program to help keep interest top-of-mind for local students. 

 

He participated in the match for a number of years and found some success, but it wasn’t until he took on coaching and judging that he really found his place in the local plowing match culture.

 

Don attended his first few local plowing matches and then his first International Plowing Match (IPM) in the early 1950s. He punched his ticket to the match through high school and being one of the two top finishers in the school’s plowing class/competition. Don and a scrappy upstart of the plowing match circuit, Neil McGavin, then travelled to Breslau for the match.
Things began to lock into place when Don took the customary judging course ahead of the IPM one year. Four locals attended and Don was pulled aside after the fact telling him that he had the class’ top marks and that he should consider being a plowing match judge in the future.

 

His career as a plowing match judge began locally. The first time he held the clipboard was in Perth County and he was accompanied by another judge - standard operating procedure while a young judge learns the ropes.

 

He said things have changed in the world of plowing match judging as well over the years. In the old days, a lot more was covered for judges in those days, he said, and there was a lot more camaraderie among the judges. After a day of competition, for example, they would all get together that night and discuss what they’d seen in the field and compare notes, a practice that has since fallen by the wayside; another loss of the sense of community.

 

He has, however, continued to judge well into his advanced age, plying his trade as recently as the last few years at the Perth County Plowing Match. This came after he officially retired from judging at IPMs in 2017 - a moment that was truly a highlight of the 2017 IPM, which was held in Walton, just a stone’s throw from his home farm.

 

Over the years, Don had heard grumblings from the competitors about this or that judge as they would age, saying that they weren’t seeing the fields or making judgments as they had in past years due to understandable, age-related factors, such as vision and mobility challenges. He never wanted to be one of those judges and 2017, a match that was a homecoming of sorts for long-time Walton-area plowing match enthusiasts, marked 25 years of his judging at IPMs and he thought that the time was right to hang up his clipboard.

 

Those behind the match, however, had other ideas - not about Don’s retirement, but clipboard-related ideas - and, at the end-of-match awards gala, where the winning plowers were celebrated and the Queen of the Furrow was crowned, organizers honoured Don for all he has meant to plowing matches, not just in Huron County, but throughout Ontario. Lynne Godkin, Don and Maja’s daughter and a former Ontario Queen of the Furrow herself, presented Don with a golden clipboard, signed by many of his colleagues and friends from over the years. This irreplaceable keepsake is another that hangs on his bedroom wall at Goderich Place as a testament to his years of expertise and dedication to the craft.

 

And while this year’s Huron County Plowing Match will mark a celebration of sorts for the Dodds family, the culmination of decades of hard work, volunteerism and the passing of irreplaceable knowledge from generation to generation, as our conversation draws to a close, Don can’t help but discuss his beloved Maja, who was there with him every step of the way. All of the accolades he’s earned, he says, are hers as much as they are his.

 

He says that while Maja may have joked about being a “4-H widow”, she came to enjoy getting involved in the work on the home farm and volunteering with 4-H and the Huron County Plowmen’s Association and did a lot of good work with them.

 

As the match draws nearer and the Dodds family prepares to play host to this year’s Huron County Plowing Match, we can expect, fittingly, to hear Maja’s name mentioned often.