THE FRINGE

Your reading list

Nervous season

Don’t get between a Liberal and his telephone when the prime minister is contemplating Senate appointments.

This example of Senator Dave Steuart’s wit could also be applied to a farmer and his combine in the harvest season.

Yet a crowd of farm people took a day off from harvesting Aug. 9 to attend the annual installations in the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in Saskatoon. This event each year is slotted for early August to avoid the harvest season.

But the planners hadn’t counted on El Nino, which allowed early seeding and crops ready to swath in many areas at that time. In this country when the crop looks ready you crank up your machinery because a stretch of wet, windy weather can do nasty things to standing crop. Hot, dry weather can be just as much of a problem.

Read Also

Producers face the reality of shifting grain price expectations

Significant price shifts have occurred in various grains as compared to what was expected at the beginning of the calendar year. Crop insurance prices can be used as a base for the changes.

With grain prices dragging, a loss of grade is a serious matter. Hence it was a tribute to the farm leaders being inducted that a crowd of 300 dropped tools for the occasion.

The late Neale Abrey of Imperial, the late Ralph Baker of Flaxcombe, Roy Crawford of Saskatoon, Bill Farley of Grand Coulee, Glenn Flaten of Regina and Geoff Strudwick of Balgonie each drew their contingent of farm people.

And what did they all talk about? Uh huh. The hot August sun, progress with swathing and haying, the battle with bugs, the rain that prevented spraying, the low prices and how to cope with new specialty crops being tried. Whoever thought we’d see the day that a dedicated wheat farmer would be growing spices?

From now to the end of harvest, don’t stand between a farmer and his combine or you might get trampled.