J. R. ERNEST MILLER
J. R. Ernest “Ernie” Miller and his wife Evelyn Mather were well known at Tayside Farm (located at Miller Lane, on the edge of village of Glen Tay) for their Holstein cattle, Yorkshire swine, and Shropshire sheep. Despite losing the entire dairy herd in 1948, Tayside earned a Master Breeder shield in 1970. A Tayside bred sire, Tayside Pabst Rockman, shipped semen to every continent of the world and produced more than 4500 daughters in Canada alone and earned both Superior Type and Superior Production designations thanks to his progeny. Ernie was an active member of the dairy community, holding at various times both the Chairman of the Lanark Milk Committee and President of the Lanark Holstein Club, as well as being involved at the provincial and national level of the Holstein breed associations.
Ernie played a key role in the formation of the Junior Farmer’s Association of Ontario (JFAO). In 1944 and 1945, he chaired a series of meetings both locally in Lanark and provincially in Toronto that spearheaded the movement to unite young farmer clubs across the province of Ontario into the JFAO program. This new program partnered with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Department of Agriculture, bringing the Junior Farmer and Institute club and the United Farm Young People of Ontario clubs under one umbrella, with JFAO continuing to positively impact youth across Ontario in present day.
In the early 1980s, Ernie, along with 17 other farmers from across the province, assisted the University of Guelph with the development of the CANFARM program – one of the first computerized farm record-keeping programs. This program has since evolved into the AgExpert program offered by Farm Credit Canada (FCC) today and used by more than 15,000 farm businesses across the country.
Ernie’s leadership in agriculture was recognized in 1973 when he was awarded the Harris McNish Memorial Award. His support for this community was evident through his many years of service on the Board of Directors of the Perth and District Co-operative and continued later as a board member for 10 years with the United Co-operatives of Ontario. In 2003, Ernie was inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame, one of only two inductees from Lanark County.
Ernie passed away in 1997.