Foodgrains harvest a good time to showcase Canadian farmers

By Tim Kalinowski on August 10, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

Nice weather Wednesday brought out many members of the public to celebrate the Canadian Foodgrains Bank harvest on South Boundary Road.

Dozens of spectators enjoyed the sight of three combines donated and piloted by operators from Western Tractor, Rocky Mountain Equipment and Robertson Implements making the rounds in the golden wheat fields. Fiona Machin was posing for pictures in the field with her children Abby and Matthew. Machin is visiting Medicine Hat from England. She admitted she had never seen anything like this kind of harvest before, and confessed to being somewhat overawed by the moment.

“I live in a city so I have never seen anything this big before like the combines,” she said. “They are massive. I think it’s wonderful, isn’t it? Because that’s what gives us our food, and you don’t realize how much work goes into it sometimes. The wheat is lovely.”

Jasmine Klassen and her young friend Katie Ross went for a ride-along on one of the combines. It was an exciting moment for both.

“I think it was pretty cool to be on that big machine,” said Ross.

“It was fun,” agreed Klassen. “I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I thought it was cool how he had air conditioning, Blue Tooth and auto-pilot steering. It’s definitely modern farming.”

Medicine Hat Canadian Foodgrains Bank project co-ordinator Charlie Redpath said that’s what harvest day is all about: Raising awareness about local agriculture and doing good works overseas.

“Everything (harvested) here goes to a Third World country,” stated Redpath. “I feel we’re obligated to those people there who have nothing; they probably don’t even have food to eat. We should be doing something like this, and donating the proceeds to help.”

The dry conditions took a toll on this year’s crop value, admitted Redpath, but he was still pleasantly surprised by the good yield.

“It’s looking pretty good actually, and it’s yielding well. I would say it is probably in the area of 40 bushels per acre,” he said.

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