PIKE LAKE, Sask. — Murray Purcell looks on from the driveway as his brother, Dwight, flushes nitrogen fertilizer out of their new RoGator 1386 self-propelled sprayer.
“I have to be honest, I’d rather be at a meeting than riding the sprayer,” said the outgoing chair of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers.
It’s not that Purcell is allergic to farm work. He is there to lend a helping hand when Dwight refills the sprayer with DuPont’s Assure II herbicide to be used on a field of red lentils.
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Purcell just feels he made a bigger contribution to his farm and others when he was helping shape farm policy while sitting around a boardroom table.
“I would rather be at the table helping with the decisions than having somebody else make the decisions for us,” he said.
Purcell got his start in farm politics in 1991 when he became a Saskatchewan Wheat Pool delegate. He was later elected a councillor for the Rural Municipality of Montrose, which led to a 2004 election to the board of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
His latest gig as chair of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers ended June 27, when he was replaced by Lee Moats of Riceton, Sask.
“It was just a fabulous experience,” said Purcell.
One of the highlights of his tenure as chair was handing over a cheque for $1 million to the University of Saskatchewan’s agriculture college for its phytotron project, which should accelerate pulse crop breeding efforts in the province.
“We spend 60 percent of our budget on R &D. That is huge in any industry,” said Purcell.
He also enjoyed accompanying Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall on a trade mission to India.
“That was a very, very positive experience.”
Being chair of Saskatchewan Pulse Growers was a big time commitment, taking up an average of two days a week.
Purcell plans to devote that freed up time to the family farm he owns near Pike Lake with his three bothers, a nephew and his son, David.
“It’s going to be full-time farming, full bore. We’re not a little farm anymore. We want to expand our operation,” he said.
The family moved to the Pike Lake area from Dinsmore, Sask., in 1954 when Purcell’s father purchased a half section of land in the South Saskatchewan River Valley.
The sons took over the farm in the early 1990s, expanding it into a 4,000 acre operation, about one-quarter of which is irrigated.
Purcell credits the operation’s success to the decision to install irrigation equipment in the 1990s.
“We paid a lot of money per acre for land (back) then and we thought that was one way of ensuring a crop.”
The move paid off in the 1990s when prices were low and conditions were dry. Water from the South Saskatchewan River ensured good yields.
“The irrigation really helped us make it through those tight times,” he said.
Off-farm income has also played an important role by bankrolling the operation’s expansion. The Purcells own all but two quarters of the land that they farm.
Purcell taught school in Rosetown, Sask., for 20 years before taking over from his father. He credits that experience for putting him at ease speaking in front of and on behalf of his fellow farmers.
The 62-year-old hopes he can help inspire the next generation of farmers to get involved in farm politics.
He said federal and provincial bureaucrats and politicians are always seeking input from the farm community, as long as the demands are not outlandish.
Purcell recalls one SARM meeting where a fellow director was pushing for federal aid during a period of prosperity in the farm community.
“He said, ‘well, we’ve got to go to Ottawa.’ I said, ‘no we don’t. We’re cooking. You don’t go crying wolf when you don’t need to cry wolf.’ ”
Purcell isn’t completely hanging up his director’s hat. He is still active on the boards of the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame and the Saskatchewan Municipal Hail Insurance Association.
And he has a fallback plan in case the itch to skip out on spraying and attend an agricultural meeting becomes too strong to ignore.
“I happen to know the (federal) minister of agriculture and I’m sure if he needs somebody to go to a meeting he would be giving me a call,” he said with a chuckle.
