Crops of the Parkland returns for summer

A popular summer attraction for visitors to Yorkton, and for tourists just passing through, is back for another year. 

Crops of the Parkland is something started nearly 25 years ago because there was an interest from travellers to learn more about the crops they saw in area fields, explained Tourism Yorkton Executive Director Randy Goulden at a press conference today to officially launch this year’s crop plots. 

“We were finding visitors who stopped in here were asking a lot of questions about the crops they were seeing,” she said. 

Goulden said initially as a one-time farm girl herself she could answer some of the questions, but there was clearly interest in providing more information. 

It was Thom Weir who came up with the idea for crop plots, in conversation with former Mayor Phil DeVos, the pair scratching out a rough plan on a napkin at Robin’s Donuts. 

Weir said it made sense to him to promote agriculture locally. 

“Yorkton wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for agriculture. We are an agricultural community,” he noted at the press event. 

So a few partnerships were forged -- including with the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce, and with the City of Yorkton, which provides the land adjacent to the Tourism Yorkton office for the plots, and agriculture industry volunteers -- and the project was born. 

The plots remain much as they have been providing an opportunity to walk, explore and learn about Saskatchewan crops and agricultural practices through informative signage.  

It’s also a chance to learn how these crops contribute to our provinces positions as a world leader in food production.  

New this year is a display of live grain on the site of Yorkton’s historic Flour Mill which traces the development of milling wheat from ancient Egypt through the 1800s to today.