Lots of work, then play | Everyone has a role on the 7,000 acre grain and beef operation
LUSELAND, Sask. — Long hours of cultivating and rolling peas on the family farm provided Dylan Kennedy with time to dream up his latest invention. Last year’s grain storage bag is now a giant water slide.
“I got thinking about the things I can do and thought of this,” Dylan said.
He remembered how slippery the plastic bags were while working on them during a rain shower on his western Saskatchewan farm.
With support from his parents, Travis and Dawn, and his sister, Nicole, 17, he cut two 76 metre grain bags from last year’s canola crop.
Read Also
AgriStability updates offer stronger support for farmers
One of the most significant updates to the AgriStability program for the 2025 program year is the increase in the compensation rate.
Next, he overlapped two eight metre pieces and pegged them into the ground in a hay field near the top of Heart’s Hill, a local landmark and one of the highest elevations in the province.
Two full water tanks provide 9,400 litres for an hour and a half’s worth of cold fun. A hose stretched across the top of the slide with holes drilled every few inches allowed water to trickle throughout the entire length. A tap regulates the flow.
The Kennedys’ 7,000 acres of farmland stretches over several kilo-metres. Travis’s father, Clayton, and brother, Neil, share the work and returns. Now in its fifth generation, the farm grows wheat, canola, peas and barley, has a commercial beef herd and runs a small feedlot during the winter.
“It helped pay the bills at one time and now it just keeps us busy,” said Travis.
Travis and Dawn first met on the Luseland school bus, which they rode together for years, then married in 1992. Today, Dawn has taken over that school bus route.
After a stint at university, Dawn spent a year travelling and working in agricultural exchange jobs in Australia and Germany while Travis worked at various off-farm jobs in Western Canada.
Travis said with large family farms, members tend to specialize.
“You almost have too,” he said.
He handles the spraying and “gophering” while his father and brother combine. The women also operate the combines and trucks and look after meals.
Feats of engineering using secondhand farm parts are not new for Dylan, who recalled scrounging farm materials with his dad to build a suit of armour at age 15.
“Everything was recycled from the farm,” he said.
An old combine pick-up belt was fashioned into a chest plate. Duct work cut in half and bolted to a rubber inner tube created moveable arm protection.
A sword came from a metal scrap pile and an old bucket and bullhorns became a helmet.
“Very typical of Dylan making things from the farm,” said Dawn.
“That group of kids was always up to some kind of thing like that. Imaginative. They did things like that.”
Added Travis: “That’s what’s good about the farm. You can find the space and material.”
Dylan, who runs the grain cart and trucks, is not sure if he wants to farm full time and plans to study civil engineering at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton this fall.
The farm has compensated for his departure by hiring help for the first time, said Travis.
“Could be interesting … it makes a busy time of year a little more busy.”
