PHOTOS/VIDEO: Farming is a family affair at harvest time

Soon, they are on their way to the field. It’s harvest time. The canola fields have been swathed and are ready to be combined.

Family farms are alive and well in northern Saskatchewan, as evidenced by the Blocka Farms and many other farms like theirs in the region. The money the Blockas make from the crops they harvest later in the year is enough to pay the bills generated in the spring, if not better, Lynn said.

The profits from the harvest are put back into the farm. For example, it goes towards the machinery. They have also recently built a new equipment shed to store the farm equipment, protecting it from the elements.

Lynn explained canola is the most lucrative crop – they’ve received as much as $15 per bushel for their canola. The canola the Blockas grow is Nexera canola. The oil from this particular kind of canola is used by fast-food chains, which can leave the oil in their fryers longer. They are paid a premium for this kind of canola.

The Blockas also grow wheat, oats and barley. The diversity of crops covers your bases, as Ken pointed out. Crops are also planted in rotation, for disease control, soil health and chemical resistance control among the reasons.

“You grow a bunch of different crops just … in case one doesn’t do well, maybe the next one will. And a lot of times, that generally happens,” he said.

The land they farm is in the Rural Municipality (RM) of Prince Albert and the RM of Duck Lake. The third meridian crosses through the area, with some of their land west of the meridian. The Blockas farm is about 4,000 acres of land. While they, or members of the family, own much of the land they farm, they also rent fields from other landowners and pay in cash. According to Ken, it’s all family farms in the area too.

But Blocka Farms hadn’t always been a grain farm.

Ken took over the farming business in 1987 from his father, who had purchased the land in the 1950s. He, like his son now, would help out on the farm. “At that time, we had a dairy farm, and we’d have to put bedding under the cows and feed the calves. And then we also had some chickens, so I had to pick eggs, and wash eggs and whatnot. And then at harvest time, I would work in the field too, do some cultivating and stuff. And then at harvest time, I’d haul grain, or drive a combine … there’s always never an end of things to do … when we had the dairy farm.”

As one of four children, Ken was the one that was most interested in farming, and he had a passion for and interest in grain farming. So, that was where he decided to put the farm’s focus. Prior to taking over the family business, he was a journeyman electrician by trade. He saved the money he made working as an electrician to buy the equipment for the farm.

“I just liked being in the field, driving equipment – trucks and tractors and combines – and eventually, we phased out of the livestock and just into grain farming now.”

When he first started out, crop prices were low, he said. “The inputs were high, and the weather wasn’t co-operating at all. It was dry those years … My first attempt at farming my own rented land was kind of a disaster because of the way the weather turned out. But we pulled through. I went to work in the wintertime and farmed during the summer, and eventually, things kind of during the 90s picked up a little bit. But every year, we seem to manage to get a crop, expand the farm a little more.”

He also worked as a trucker in the 90s, and that too helped him expand the farm. He purchased more land.

“It seems like the years have gone by very fast, but it’s enjoyable,” he said, as he steered his combine.

Running the farm is primarily a family affair. Lynn, a full-time registered nurse, also takes care of paperwork, and sometimes uses the combine. Bryn and Cole help out with tasks at home during harvest season, and Garrett helps his father in the fields. The Blockas also have one full-time employee that works with them year-round,

Randy Watchman, who transports the grain to the grain bins and then from the bins to the grain elevators.

Harvest season began at the beginning of September for the Blockas, starting with swathing the canola. Ken said during harvest time, they generally run on six hours of sleep. But when it looks like bad weather is threatening, they push ahead working in the field and keep going, sometimes all night.

When Ken’s hopper is filled with canola seeds, he radios for Garrett, who operates a tractor pulling a grain cart to let him know he’s ready to offload the harvested canola. Garrett pulls up beside him, and Ken fills the grain cart.

The Grade 8 student has farming “in his blood,” according to his parents and Garrett himself.

He started out helping his father by cutting the grass when he was four or five years old, and from there, his involvement in the farm grew. “I’ve been, all my life; I’ve been involved in all this, stuff. Just being around machinery, kind of my whole life,” he said as his father’s combine pulls away, and he drives towards the grain bins located at the bottom of the field.

The harvest, for him, is the most rewarding part of farming. “Seeing it go into the bin and getting it off the field is a good feeling.”

At harvest time, his teachers have been understanding. “My teacher’s pretty good about it. He doesn’t give homework. All the teachers that I have, they haven’t really given me any homework, so it’s pretty good that way.”

At 13, he knows how to operate and has used almost all of the machinery on the farm. He’s also knowledgeable about crops and the business side of the farm. “You just learn as you go,” he said. “Maybe four years ago, I just kind of learned what bushels meant and all that stuff.”

There probably isn’t anything that he doesn’t already know, and he said there’s not much he can think of that he doesn’t know. But the one thing he does want to do is take the sprayer out into the field and spray crops. He’s driven it around, but hasn’t had a chance to use it.

Already, Garrett has his own business, his mother later pointed out, ‘Garrett’s Oats.’ After the oats are harvested, he sells it in five gallon pails to people for feed. He does his business mainly during the winter.

But Garrett thinks he will be a farmer for his whole life. “Just kind of take over from my dad when he starts to slow down, and keep on, keeping on.”

As Garrett drives the tractor pulling the grain cart on the field, he navigates around ruts caused by burrowing muskrats, and around patches of cattails and sloughs that resulted from all of the wet weather.

The aftermath of the spring flooding

While Saturday’s weather was ideal for harvesting, the elements haven’t always been co-operative this year. Land in the RM of Prince Albert was inundated earlier this year with water from heavy rains. Much of the water has since subsided since the spring deluge, but some of the fields have remaining sloughs or were too wet to seed earlier this year. Winter wheat, now sprouting, was planted in these fields.

At one point, 30 per cent of the Blockas’ fields were under water.

In the recent wet years, the canola crops have been doing well. “Canola has been able to take the wet soil and still produce a decent yield, whereas some other crops maybe didn’t fare so well in the wet conditions.” Ken said.

And because the ground is so soft, it’s often difficult for Watchman’s semi to drive around the field to collect the grain directly from the combines.

Watchman hauls grain through the winter and also does maintenance on the equipment all year round. He has been working for the Blockas for eight years and said they treat him well. “The treat me will,” he said again and added, “That’s for sure.”

At one point, he was driving for the wheat pool. He started talking to the farmers and found out that Ken needed a driver and he started working for him seasonally. “After the season was over, he said he wants to hire me full-time.”

After the harvest, once the grain is sold, he will haul it to grain elevators, such as one owned by Bunge in Nipawin. That’s where the canola goes. The wheat and barley goes to Saskatoon.

“The odd times, we’ve gone into Alberta, those trips are fun too,” Watchman said. “I like being home every night with family.”

Two trailers hooked up to his semi can carry about 2,200 bushels of grain, and he has carried 65 to 70 loads to the elevator after a harvest, using the two trailers.

Seeding and harvest are his busiest times for him, and harvest work is weather dependent. “The sun is crucial for sure, if it’s good to go, you’ve got to go.”

During the harvest, he takes samples of canola for seed quality tests and fills the grain bins with grain harvested from the fields. He also performs a very crucial role – checking the bins. If the grain in the bins spoil, the hard work at harvest time is all for nought, so Watchman makes sure that the moisture levels are right and the contents are in good condition.

“That’s your money for the year,” he said of the grain in the bins. “If one of your bins spoil, that’s horrible for you … That’s lots of money you’ve lost.”

The future of the family farm

While the future of Blocka Farms will continue on through Ken and then Garrett, the technological evolution on the farm also has a role to play in the profitability of the business.

The grain bins are equipped with moisture testers, which help monitor the grain and ward off spoilage. The grain cart is equipped with a scale that helps the driver tell when it’s full, to prevent overflow and lost grain.

But it’s the introduction of global positioning (GPS) system technology that is cutting down on supply costs and making farming more efficient.

The Blockas’ sprayer is outfitted with GPS technology, which auto-steers the machine in the field. The operator inside just has to make sure the sprayer avoids obstacles, sometimes turning a corner, and re-engaging the auto-steer. The sprayer only sprays areas in the field that has not yet been touched by the chemical.

It helps save on chemical costs, as less of the fertilizer and insecticides are wasted when the machine overlaps a previous path. It’s all from the GPS, Ken said, and added it’s more environmentally-friendly because less fertilizer is sprayed.

“With that technology, it has just taken the stress right out of spraying,” he said. It used to be that they used foam markers to see where they have sprayed. But we don’t need that stuff anymore with GPS, Ken said.

“It’s kind of something we really depend on now. If they took it away from us, we wouldn’t be very happy.”

The new technology is something the younger generation is more in tune with.

“They know how to operate it, just from using their iPods and whatnot. It just becomes second nature to them. It definitely is easier for them to operate equipment in the field with that modern GPS technology.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

PHOTOS/VIDEO: Farming is a family affair at harvest time

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