MOSSLEIGH, Alta. – The men gathered around the augers, silently
watching their friend’s barley flow out of the grain truck,
occasionally grabbing a handful to check quality.
Puffing on cigarettes, they commented on the nice harvest weather as
they watched four combines circle the field. They were there to help
Jim Greenfield’s family get the crop off one late October Saturday at
his farm south of Mossleigh in southern Alberta.
Greenfield, a 44-year-old father of four, had died earlier that week
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when he became entangled in his combine while harvesting peas.
No one knows for sure what happened the night of his accident. His
wife, Anne, found him the next morning. Word of the tragedy spread
around the community quickly and within a day, talk at the elevator
convinced everyone to lend a hand.
“He was quiet. He didn’t say much but he was a good guy,” said Eric
Donovan, one of the harvest bee organizers.
Eventually, 14 combines, eight semis and eight tandem trucks showed up
Oct. 19 to finish Greenfield’s last 600 acres.
“The plan is to be done in five hours and have everything gone,”
Donovan said. “It’ll be one less thing for the family to worry about.”
As the machines circled the fields in a cloud of dust and chaff, it
gave the neighbours time to remember a well-liked friend.
Greenfield played defence for the Blackie Black Sheep hockey team. Most
of the team was there to help, offering additional promises “to do
something for the kids.”
They laughed about their haphazard style of old-timers’ farmer hockey,
and the jokes and the beers shared later. They admired Greenfield’s
devotion to his wife and kids.
Most of these men were only half finished their own fall work, but they
all understood that helping a neighbour in trouble is the right thing
to do and a quiet way to say farewell to one of their own.
Although farm fatalities are not up this year in Alberta, the delayed
harvest has been particularly tragic. Four men were killed in four
separate incidents during the week of Oct. 14.
“The number of fatalities and injuries goes up during the busy times.
With the harvest being stretched late, we are seeing these incidents,”
said Laural Aitken of the farm safety branch in Alberta Agriculture.
So far this year, 12 Albertans have died in farm-related accidents
compared to an average of 20 fatalities in a year.
In the other prairie provinces, the Saskatchewan Safety Council
reported one fatality in early October while Manitoba has only had one
work-related farm fatality this year. A 27 year old died in July after
a tractor rollover.
Over the past 10 years, there has been an average of nine work-related
farm fatalities annually in Manitoba. Saskatchewan’s most recent
statistics reported six fatalities in 2000.
