Correen and Robert Smith’s children, who are in their 20s, have an unusual family circumstance.
Not only are all four of their grandparents alive, but each side of the Leslie, Sask., family has received a century farm designation from the province.
“They’re both stubborn grandfathers,” Correen said while explaining why her father and father-in-law stayed on the land.
Added Robert: “They loved to farm.”
Howard Smith, 92, is the family elder and went through the Dirty Thirties.
“They lived on rhubarb pie and he hates it to this day,” Robert said of his father.
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Howard and Olivia Smith and Claud and Clara Simpson each had four children. The two farms, which received century designations in 2002 and 2003, are both about 2,500 acres and grow mainly grain, although the Smiths also have some cattle.
Robert said the families’ success in keeping their farms for 100 years is because “they worked hard and were very cautious with their money.”
Robert said his father came from Manitoba on the train. When the track ended at Sheho, Sask., he walked to the land he homesteaded. Correen’s dad came with his father from the United States to farm in eastern Saskatchewan.
Modern equipment has changed the farming landscape, he said.
“In 100 years they’ve gone from horse to steam to small tractors to huge machinery. They used to farm a quarter,” he said.
“They lost a lot of good crops due to leaf diseases. It would take all the kernel.”
Correen said the older men “talk a lot about rust in the ’60s and grasshoppers. Now we have chemicals.”
They are not sure if both farms will continue in the family for another 100 years.
Robert said he would like to farm until he’s 70, but his wife said it depends on how the economy goes because most parents can’t afford to give the entire farm to their children.
“You have to look after your finances. You can’t buy and buy,” she said.
Her husband agreed, but said the other side of farming is that “it’s a great way of life because of your freedom.”
They say the next generation will have to depend on off-farm income to survive.
“But it’s a balance,” Correen said.
“Your farm goes to pot if you work off the farm or at a city job and can’t get back at the right time to seed or spray or harvest.”
In the future she sees several partners working together to farm a big patch of land.
“Robert’s brother farms with us and our son but Robert is the only one who works full time farming.”
While their son is involved in the farm, their daughter, who used to combine but now teaches in another community, wanted to hold a traditional meal in the fields last fall with the whole family. That supper “brightened my dad up for weeks,” Robert said.
For this spring the Smiths plan to grow as much canola as they can, as well as barley and oats. They sold most of their herd but kept a few older cows for one more calf crop.
