Community came together yesterday to break bread and to harvest the 140-acre field of wheat located northeast of Killarney, on behalf of the Canadian Food Grains Bank. A total of 13 combines lined up for this year's harvest with tractors and grain carts, and tractor trailers waiting at the opposite end of the field to unload hoppers as fast as they could fill them and truck the grain to town.
The committee was pleased with this year's yield of 73.44 bushels per acre.
"It ended up doing 73 bushels an acre. That's to the elevator, clean the whole, whole shebang and protein was 15 three and the moisture was 14 five, so we're very, very happy with the yield this year. Yeah, it's just a very big blessing," shares Field Manager Myron Peters.
"I don't know how to put it into words," shares committee member, Betty Turner. "Every time that we do this celebration of harvest, it just fills my heart to know that so many people care, and that so many people attend and help in so many ways to make it such a success."
A harvest fueled by big hearts, many hands, and living hope
From the preparing of the soil for planting, to the seeding of the crop, to the spraying for bugs and disease, to prepare for harvest day, there are hundreds of volunteer hours that goes into the growing of that crop. And then harvest day comes, and a whole new set of volunteers join in the efforts. They volunteer their equipment and their time to ensure the crop gets safely to the elevators.
The Holmfield and the Willowcreek Hutterite Colonies volunteer their food preparation skills, and ingredients and the use of their kitchens provide a feast to feed over a hundred people for the noon harvest meal.
Still others help with input costs by supporting the project with a financial donation. And just as important, prayer warriors lift up the crop and all the volunteers for the Lord's blessing.
Harvest day brings it all together, the donation of time, the donation of money, the donation of service. The project showcases a servant's heart each year from beginning to end.
"It takes the whole community, and we've had people here drive as far as from Saskatchewan, just to celebrate with us this harvest." says Turner.
As has become tradition over the past few years, Adrian Kroeker, blew the ram's horn, the shofar, to signal the start to combine operators to begin the harvest!
Flags, horses, and celebration of togetherness in the fields of Killarney
This year marks the 15th Anniversary for the Killarney Grow Project, and to help celebrate this milestone the committee asked local farming family sisters Annalee, Ariah and Haley Duerksen if they could lead the procession of combines down the road to the starting point on horseback. The sisters agreed wholeheartedly and led the convoy of combines not only to the end of the field, but also through the wheat field all the while carrying Canadian flags.
It made one proud to be a Canadian living and farming on the Prairies!
"To see the horses, and the girls, and the Canadian flags, it was just wonderful, just to start us all off," adds Turner.
Thirteen combines, three riders, and one unforgettable experience
Dale Friesen is the new Manitoba representative for the Foodgrains Bank and so this was his first time to see this community's harvest celebration in full swing.
"When I was driving in, I was wondering would I know which is the right field and I pull up and I see 13 combines, a bunch of trucks, a bunch of trailers and a whole bunch of people probably like 100 people at least," explains Friesen. "It has been absolutely wonderful to be here. It's overwhelming to see how many people can come together at a field!"
"Just to see the community spirit, the generosity of people, and not just with their resources, but with their time," he continues. "I mean the fact that they were here was incredible. And yeah, it's quite heartwarming. It really is an emotional experience to be here."
Friesen says he didn't quite understand what was happening with the young women on horseback and the procession of the combines going around the field to enter and position themselves on the far end of the acreage. But then it all came together once the riders led the way with the row of harvesters behind them.
"To see the horses lead the combines around the field—and then down the field—it was something... It was really, really wonderful to see. I don’t quite know how to put it into words just yet; I’ll have to think about it for a little bit. But to see three young women leading these farmers down the field—there’s something really powerful about that image. It’s actually an image that will probably stick with me for a while. Watching those three women lead the whole crew down... yeah, it was very beautiful," shares Friesen.
'To Feed the World' is the motto of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
This mission statement reflects the CFB's commitment to end global hunger and support food assistance programs worldwide.
For the Killarney chapter and the community that supports it, they have marked their 15-year milestone this summer.
"When we started, we used pick-up headers on our combines, and now it's straight-cut headers," shares Betty Turner. "But the volunteerism and the donations of time and people and equipment has not changed. That part has I think grown. And I think also the sense of helping others in that ... it's community, yes, but community is also helping others overseas or wherever in the world it is needed."
Please listen to final thoughts from Betty Turner and Dale Friesen below and the final interview with Field Manager, Myron Peters.
