It is a family affair for this year’s recipient of the Farmer Recognition Award at the 29th annual Grain Millers Harvest Showdown in the city.
The award, sponsored by the Yorkton Auction Centre, was presented to Red Rider Enterprises of Foam Lake, which is truly a family farm operation. Those involved in the 9500-acre grain farm include Chris and Denine Rundel, Dustin and Jodi Hannah, Kelvin Hannah, and Doug and Brenda Hannah parents of Denine, Dustin and Kelvin.
Denine Rundel said her family was certainly proud of being chosen.
“We were pretty excited,” she said, of initially hearing they would be presented the award. “We were kind of surprised, but it was exciting.”
Chris Rundel was unable to attend the award presentation Thursday as he was attending a Prairie Oat Growers Association meeting, he did provide insight into the farm operation via a prepared video.
Rundel noted he did not grow up on a farm, actually becoming involved quite recently, becoming active in 2010 in the farm which grows a mix of wheat, oats, canola and canary seed.
While farming was not in his blood, Rundel said he has learned that farming has the diversity to allow a person to find a niche they most enjoy in terms of working on a farm.
“I love being a farmer, because working on a farm is pretty well whatever you want it to be,” he said in the video. “The possibilities are pretty wide open.”
Denine Rundel did grow up on the farm in Alberta, but it was not in her early plans to become one.
“I wanted to leave the farm, and I did for a few years,” she said, adding she quickly learned being in the city “wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.”
Marrying Chris, Denine said they ended up back on the farm initially as hired help one harvest season.
“He (Chris) really ended up liking it,” she said, adding she quickly realized she was so much happier being back on the farm, too.
Denine picked up on the theme of job diversity on the farm. She said husband Chris has found his niche on the marketing side of things, while her brother Dustin enjoys being the mechanic on the farm, and Kelvin takes the lead in terms of land management. She said it works well that the three can focus on areas they are most comfortable with.
“Everybody has our part on the farm,” she said.
The natural diversity of being a farmer creates a good place to raise a family, said Chris in the video.
“It offers us a pretty unique lifestyle,” said Chris Rundel in the video. Being on a farm provides opportunities for everyone, children included, to be involved at some level.
Chris Rundel said being a producer he also knows firsthand the food Saskatchewan produces is high quality and safe.
“We grow (crops) with attention to detail as safely as we can possibly produce it,” he said.
