The 243 threshing mills in St. Albert beat the Guinness World Record of 139 machines set in Austin, Man., in 2016
ST. ALBERT, Ont. — It may be considered a dead occupation, but there was no lack of people willing to take on the challenge of threshing barley with pitchforks, antique threshing machines and antique tractors Aug. 11 in St. Albert in eastern Ontario.
A total of 250 threshing mills were brought to the site and 243 ran simultaneously for five or more minutes, beating the previous record of 139 threshing machines set near Austin, Man., in 2016.
Chaff filled the air of the 75-acre field in moments after the steam whistle blew for the start of the official five minutes. Most machines ran five to 10 minutes longer so the remaining barley could be finished. Participating threshing teams comprised of workers of all ages from farm children to great-grandparents. One team working alongside a bright pink harvester was made up of breast cancer survivors.
The event was the brainchild of Ste. Eugene resident and antique machinery enthusiast Francois Latour.
“It shows our youth what a lot of work it took to get a little bit of grain,” he said.
Latour was eager to reclaim the record he had set at the same location in 2015. That time 111 mills out of 115 ran for more than 10 minutes.
However, his wife, Suzanne, passed away from breast cancer the day following that event, which raised $24,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (since merged with the Canadian Cancer Society). This year’s event raised an additional $100,000.
Latour is involved with a local antique collectors’ club, Vintage Iron Traditions of Eastern Ontario, who along with area farmers, cheese factory workers, breast cancer awareness advocates, friends, neighbours, and supporters from Ontario and Quebec formed the 2,000 volunteers needed for this year’s challenge. Local businesses also provided sponsorship.
There to authenticate the win was Guinness adjudicator Michael Empric, who flew in from New York City.
Since the threshing machine record was set in 2008 in Rock River, Wisconsin, when 29 antique threshing machines ran, the world record moved to Canada where it has bounced around. In 2013 Old Tyme Harvest in Langenburg, Sask., took the record with 41 machines, and raised more than $65,000 for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. St. Albert then got its 111 machines in 2015. Latour’s triumph was short-lived though, as that record was exceeded by Harvesting Hope in Austin, Man., which attracted 139 working machines in 2016, and raised money for the foodgrains bank and the Manitoba Agricultural Museum.
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This time Latour expects to hang on to the St. Albert win for a while.
“I think it will be pretty hard to break this record,” he said.
The Guinness official record title is Most harvesters working at the same time for five minutes.
