Saskatchewan is a province built on agriculture and is nicknamed “Canada’s breadbasket.” Over time the technologies related to agriculture have evolved, but at Ken and Kevin Wilson’s farm south of Wawota, a demonstration day was held to showcase the agricultural history of Saskatchewan with an antique combine harvest and a threshing machine demonstration on Saturday, Sept. 2.
The threshing machine is widely thought to be a key advancement in agriculture, which allowed for large scale farming on the prairies. Although it was quite labour intensive – and many people made their living on threshing crews – it allowed for larger amounts of grain to be harvested at one time than ever before. While the introduction of the first combines furthered this advancement because farmers no longer had to swath, pick up, and thresh in separate stages; they could simply straight cut their wheat crops. This mechanization and advancement in agricultural practices are directly tied to the booming grain economy on the prairies.
Ken Wilson, his son Kevin Wilson, and his grandson Colton Wilson are all passionate about antique farm equipment – having started restoring antique tractors and eventually came across a 1962 Massey-Ferguson combine in 2010.
The demonstration day involved an antique combine harvest at 11 a.m., while the threshing machine demonstration was held at 2 p.m.
Kevin Wilson has explained before to The Observer that “For farm days like these the thresher is usually the star of the show, but the binder is actually the unsung hero because it’s work is usually done prior to the event and the binder is usually just sitting there having done its behind the scenes work.”
“The binder creates the sheaves that can then be pitched into the thresher, so we were excited for people to see that.”
The bundles were taken straight from the field to the threshing machine, hauled by an antique tractor and grain cart. Included in the machines working hard to showcase how work was once done on the farm included the 1917 20-40 Case tractor and the 1928 Red River Special threshing machine – which Ken and Colton took to Austin, MB, last year, for the world record setting thresher day there.
Raise the Rafters group from Wawota were there to sell food and drink throughout the day to the numerous people – a couple hundred – who were out to take in the demonstration. From infants to individuals in their 90s, it was a day to celebrate the past and remember how things have evolved over time to what we now have – including tractors and combines with cabs and air conditioning.
In addition to the demonstrations there were also antique tractors and other equipment on display – some functional and others not.
The idea behind the event, which enjoyed a second successful year, developed when Ken and Colton returned from Austin, MB, last year – seeing more than 150 threshing outfits operating at once – they realized that those efforts had spawned interest from friends, family, and neighbours; so, they decided to test out the event last year and following its success were committed to continuing it into the future.
