Community came out to the Boissevain-Morton-Whitewater Foodgrains Harvest this past Monday near Fairfax to share the noon lunch and work together to clear off the 300-acre field of wheat.
It was touch and go whether the combines could actually harvest the field as the moisture level was still too high at lunch time. But shortly after 1:30 BMW committee member Ben Martens got the call that the grain sample was dry enough and they were a go.
"It certainly was good to see the grain come off the field like that when we thought maybe it wouldn't even work on that day because it was hardly mature enough, but in the end it went through and we had a wonderful yield, so we were very thankful for that," shares Martens.
The crop yielded an average of 81 bu/acre which was one of the highest yields to date on the Fraser Farm field. "Yes, that was probably the most we've ever taken off of that field," he adds.
Martens attributes the bumper crop to a variety of factors that worked in their favor.
"Yeah, I mean, the good Lord's blessing, you can't do without that. The rain. It was peas the year before, so that helped to probably give a little bit of extra nitrogen ... and just the showers. Yeah, you never quite know what's going to be there until you're done. So just a lot of things worked out. Good seed and a good job fertilizing. The field was relatively clean of weeds, so there was a number of things that were in its favor."
After one of the rains this summer the field did lodge in some areas but seemed to bounce back so it didn't really become a problem for the seven combines that came out.
With the yield being that healthy Martens says the trucks, trailers and grain carts had a challenge to keep up.
"I just want to say a big thank you to Bunge/Viterra for taking the grain even though it wasn't as dry as they would have liked," added Martens. "But we thank them."
The new Manitoba rep for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Dale Friesen, was able to attend the harvest celebration at the Fraser farm, and Martens was very pleased to see the new rep get into a tractor cab right from the get go.
"We were really impressed with Dale that he would come, and he was there right to the end, you know, and the sun was setting and he was still there, making sure that everyone realized how much the Foodgrains Bank appreciated us being there. So that was that was pretty neat, I thought," added Ben Martens.
The partnership between the BMW grow project and the Foodgrains Bank is now over 35 years.
"It has been an ongoing relationship, and you know when I when I added up, I think we started in '89. So, if my math is right, then this is the 36th year for that project. There was one year when we couldn't seed the crop just because it's too much rain. I think that was '11, if I'm right."
Another significant relationship is the ongoing understanding between Del and Heather Fraser and the BMW Grow Project committee. The Frasers have rented the 300 acres to the project for over 15 years.
"It has been very amazing to have the landowner on side," he shares. "You know, that makes all the difference. And you don't have to worry about whether that chunk of ground going to be there. I mean, someday it might change, but it has been a very, very special relationship."