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Harvest - fun hard work

“Today is about rides, for me,” says Tyson Martens as he opens the door for me to climb up into the combine cab. It’s the harvest at Kola on Aug. 23, where the public is invited to a barbecue and maybe even a combine ride.

“Today is about rides, for me,” says Tyson Martens as he opens the door for me to climb up into the combine cab.

It’s the harvest at Kola on Aug. 23, where the public is invited to a barbecue and maybe even a combine ride.

There is a gentle drone of machinery, and the sound of whizzing blades spreading straw. The warm breeze carries a smell of ripe wheat and from another combine, the golden chaff covers me.

Among a harvesting force that is gobbling up the 280 acres of wheat for the Crossborders Community Project for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Martens is “the rider”.

He has just let some children out of his combine cab. By 3:00 p.m. he had given rides to over 10 kids before I climb aboard.

 “We’re cutting pretty low,” he says, pointing to a couple of broken sickles on the cutting knife.

The field will be done this afternoon. Checking an electronic instrument panel on his right he says, “It’s so dry, we’re not leaving much behind.”

Panorama

Martens heads south down the field along the most recent cut. He re-sets his machine’s Global Positioning System guidance to accommodate a more irregular path cut by a combine ahead – one without GPS.

In the bright sunshine a hawk glides across our line of sight, taking a dive to the bald field below to grab a rodent for dinner.

“Oh man, they just feast this time of year,” says Martens.

GPS (computerized satellite guidance referencing latitude and longitude) is widely used in the new combines. It’s a feature this farmer likes.

“It’s just so efficient. When I’m steering, I try to be close, but I’ll overlap a little bit, or I’ll miss. But if you have the GPS set, you are just taking a full cut all the time.”

“For a lot of people, this is the only chance they get to see a combine.”

Driving in the treeless field with the self-propelled combine there is a sense of freedom in the heavy wheat crop. “I can go wherever I want,” he grins.

Although there’s no concern with tramping wheat or running over swaths, with eight other combines taking big slices out of the field, a little organization is required.

Crossborders Community Project has grown a bearded “Brandon” wheat this year, following last year’s canola crop.

“Around here, for sure, this variety of wheat has performed very well. My neighbours, guys that I talk to, they’re all growing this variety.”

Martens is driving their own family’s 2012 model combine. The large combine cab is outfitted with a comfy passenger seat. Like so many farm kids, his own three children enjoy riding “for hours at a time.”

The Kola growing project is a unique opportunity for the public to enjoy the thrill of harvest. “For a lot of people, this is the only chance they get to see a combine.”

Jesse Kernelson, Martens’ brother-in-law from Airdrie, Alta. is out to enjoy the harvest. He’s running a drone to film the event.

Well ordered chaos

Although it’s fun, there’s a sense of urgency at harvest time.

Across the field another combine’s lights flash persistently, a signal for the grain cart to come and take his hopper full of wheat.

On their own 4,000 acre family farm, Martens says communication is a key to coordinating their efforts.

“We have radios in our houses, service trucks, tractors, in the workshop, in the combines, grain trucks.”

The two-way radio reception is variable. “We can sometimes talk all the way to Virden.”

Our combine hopper is full of golden red kernels and he calls in the grain cart, but there’s no stopping. We “go on the go”; quickly unloading, we keep on combining.

Although he’s not reaping his own harvest, Martens says this event is a highpoint of the year, when farmers converge on the field in combines, drive tractors on grain carts and semi trucks, to reap the harvest for a Canadian Foodgrains Bank donation.

“It’s the best!”

 

 

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