YORKTON - It was a sunny Father’s Day afternoon and for something to do that was a little bit different the better half and I headed west of Yorkton to take in the Happy Centre School Vintage Tractor Show.
Now to be completely transparent I have no particular affinity for anything with a motor be it a car show, tractor pull, stock car races or in this case vintage tractors circa 1980 and earlier, but I do appreciate the passion people have for hobbies mine just happen to be board games, reading, disc golf and fishing.
That said there is a certain intrigue associated with old farm iron.
I see a tractor some 45 years, or older, starting up and being put through its paces – at Happy Centre that included a slow race, and chain in a box competitions – and I wonder will any of the machines rolling off assembly lines be operational in 2070?
Given the number of computer controls used today and how obsolete that tech will be some four decades into the future it seems less likely than the old machines from a half century ago.
It’s also interesting when considering old farm machinery just how different farming is today.
It’s difficult to imagine a farmer heading to the field to cultivate with a unit covering only a dozen feet each time around the quarter section.
And, the tractor sans a cab to protect from the sun, air conditioning to keep cool, radio to listen too, or computer to track the operation for posterity.
The machinery used has changed too.
The rod-weeder made Morris Industries a success for years, but that tech is obsolete and the long-time Yorkton-based company is gone too.
Changes in agriculture is very much the norm.
The Tractor Show at the Happy Centre School grounds was also interesting in as much as the community around the rural school have managed to keep the school house viable for such events in an era where most rural schools – once as common as wooden elevators – are like the visible Prairie sentinels – all but gone.
There is an obvious resilience to those around Happy Center to put in the effort to keep the school itself viable and then to hold events like the tractor show which is commendable in an era where volunteers are increasingly scarce as we become focused on just making ends meet.
The day didn’t turn me into a lover of machines, but it reinforced my appreciation to those who keep ag history operating. That is important because we should also know our past, and appreciate it was very different but was also the foundation of farming today.
