Working at 620 CKRM teaches a person a lot about the agriculture industry in this province and how much it has changed over the years. Events like Canada’s Farm Show, Agribition, Ag in Motion, and even our Country Cookouts show people how big farming has become.

First and foremost, the sheer size of machinery is absolutely astonishing nowadays. As a kid who grew up on a farm in southeast Saskatchewan, I can safely say our equipment was nowhere near the size of the machines operating today. We had a four-wheel-drive Case IH 9240 tractor that we thought was huge, but by today’s comparison it almost looks like a toy compared to the tractors we see today.

Combines are massive as well. Gone are the days of the pull-type combines and swathers that farmers would pull behind their tractors. Many of the combines today have about has many gizmos, gadgets, and computerization as the newest space shuttles! As a kid far removed from the farming scene, it looks almost frightening to even touch, let alone operate. On a recent country cookout I noticed combines with tracks instead of tires!

The country cookouts have been a real eye-opener to see and understand farming in the 2020’s. It’s such a different profession thanks to bigger farms, smaller communities, and distant elevators/terminals. The family farm has evolved into a large enterprise as the next generation takes over and prepares it for, hopefully, another century of continued success and feeding our fellow man.

While I do miss the old family farms, it only makes sense to see how farming has evolved into large operations. With the rising costs of everything, farms must buy more land to afford the machinery which gets them the grain to ship to terminals that are sometimes 60 minutes away or further.

Thank you to all past and present farmers for everything you have done, and continue to do, to keep your fellow man fed. Each year this farm kid feels more and more like a city kid, but as long as our country cookouts continue, farms will always feel like home.