Great farm stories still a good read online years later

By 
Paul Yanko
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: December 17, 2015

An interesting thing happened last week. A story from more than two years ago was suddenly back among the most popular stories on our site.

This is no small feat, considering stories on Bill 6 and glyphosate have been dominant and driving record traffic to our site in recent weeks.

The story in question, and its accompanying video, features St. Gregor, Sask., farmer-inventor Wilfred Mollenbeck and his unique home. Written by Sean Pratt and with a video by Robin Booker, the story originally appeared in the Nov. 7, 2013, printed edition.

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It was wildly popular when we first ran it, and the video still sits atop our ever-growing collection as the most-viewed to date.

If you haven’t seen the story yet, you can check it out at bit.ly/1Upwqik.

But why was it so popular, again, last week? The short answer is, we don’t really know.

Somewhere, its link was shared, maybe posted on a Facebook page, maybe included in an e-newsletter — it could have been tweeted by Justin Bieber.

No, the reason that story suddenly resurfaced, as others also do from time to time, will likely remain a mystery. But the fact it did does remind us of a couple things of which we’re well aware, and you should be too:

The first is that www.producer.com is home to a wealth of information, closing in on 70,000 stories published in our online database dating back to Jan. 6, 1994.

The other is that a good deal of our content holds up over time.

This particular story was one we call an “On The Farm,” in which our reporters visit farming operations across the Prairies, and sometimes beyond.

They’re entertaining and informative portraits of families engaged in an industry for which we all share a passion.

And they’re just as readable today as they will be in six months or three years’ time.

So if you’re ever looking for an interesting read, check out our archive for some interesting tales, and share it with a friend on social media.

Especially if your name rhymes with Bieber.

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