Five men will be inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame during ceremonies scheduled Aug. 8 at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon.
The 1999 inductees are Herman Milton Austenson of Saskatoon, Constantine Alberga Campbell of Swift Current, Harry-Jae Elder of Fillmore, Joseph Ernest Hull of Balcarres and Hugh Duncan McPhail of North
Battleford.
Herman Austenson worked as a crop scientist, instructor and research administrator from 1951 to 1996.
Austenson served as head of the Crop Science and Plant Ecology Department at the University of Saskatchewan starting in 1966, and director of the Crop Development Centre 1975 to 1983.
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He promoted a checkoff on wheat and barley to finance research, which led to formation of the Western Grains Research Institute.
Austenson won the Outstanding Extension Award from the Canadian Society of Agronomy in 1983. In 1984 he was named a Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada and in 1987 an Honorary Life Member of the Canadian Seed Growers Association. He died March 2, 1997.
Con Campbell earned his PhD at the University of Saskatchewan in 1965, where he showed that the carbon dating technique could be used to measure soil organic matter changes.
He joined Agriculture Canada’s Swift Current Research Station in 1965 as a research scientist and with the exception of one year in Australia, spent the next 33 years at what is now called the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre in Swift Current.
Campbell helped to make dryland farming more productive and sustainable by unlocking secrets of soil fertility and soil organic matter decline. He became the principal research scientist and head of the Soils and Environmental Section at Swift Current and served as an adjunct professor at the University of Saskatchewan.
His achievements include the Agronomy Merit Award from Western Co-operative Fertilizers Limited in 1986, Fellow of the Canadian Society of Soil Science, Fellow of the Agricultural Institute of Canada, and Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy. In 1998 he received the Order of Canada and Saskatchewan Order of Merit.
Harry-Jae Elder was raised in the Fillmore, Sask., district and earned his diploma in Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in 1952.
He farmed all his life at Fillmore, raising grain, pigs, cattle and sheep. For a period in the late 1970s he taught short courses on farm management and livestock at the Star Blanket, White Bear and Carry The Kettle Reserves.
Elder was active in the formation of the Saskatchewan Hog Marketing Commission and served as the first chair. He was also the first chair of the Saskatchewan Beef Stabilization Board and served several years as chair of the Saskatchewan Natural Marketing Council. He was elected Saskatchewan’s representative on the Canadian Pork Council and was the president in 1975.
As well, Elder was a founding member of the National Farmers Union and was elected to the Senior Grain Transportation Committee for six years. He served as a 4-H leader in Saskatchewan from 1954-74.
Elder was an honorary life member of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Graduates Association and a Distinguished Graduate of the College of Agriculture. He died Jan. 16, 1998.
Ernie Hull is known internationally for the development and promotion of Landrace swine.
Hull started his farm at its present site in Balcarres, Sask., in 1951.
He led the way in importing Landrace pigs and since 1956 many of the prominent herds of Landrace in Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, South America, Germany and the United States started with, or made selections from his herd.
Hull showed his purebred swine across Canada and the U.S., winning championships at the Toronto Royal and Canadian Western Agribition in Regina.
He served as president of the Canadian and Saskatchewan Landrace associations, was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Pork Council and a director of the Canadian Hampshire Club.
Hull received the Saskatchewan Livestock Association honor scroll and was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1981. He passed away in 1994.
Hugh McPhail, pioneer flying farmer, was born on the family farm at Elfros, got his schooling at Elfros, Vancouver, Prince Albert and Wilcox, then earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in agricultural economics at the University of Saskatchewan in 1942.
He served as a Lancaster bomber pilot attached to the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
After the war he worked as fieldman for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool until 1951 when he used his veteran’s credits to set up McPhail Air Services in North Battleford.
He pioneered aerial spraying starting with 2,4-D, then other herbicides and insecticides. He sprayed special crops, did dessication, control of weeds and brush in pastures and along power lines, often using his own farm as a testing ground. He also did aerial photography.
His spraying operation became the largest in Western Canada.
The Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame is dedicated to recognizing men and women who have made outstanding contributions to agriculture and rural life.
