A long-time farmer from southeast Saskatchewan is one of the first three inductees to be announced for the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame’s class of 2017.
The late Art Mainil, who was born in the Lampman area and farmed near Benson, was revealed to be among the inductees during Canadian Western Agribition on Nov. 20.
Mainil was one of the founding members of the Palliser Wheat Growers Association, and was instrumental in leading the fight against the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly for grain grown by western Canadian farmers.
He was also the founding president and a driving force for the Weyburn Inland Terminal, which was the first farmer-owned grain terminal in Canada.
“As such, he promoted protein grading for wheat, grain cleaning on the Prairies and the loading of 100-car unit trains,” stated a press release from the Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame. “He was also a champion and user of producer cars.”
He died in November 2011.
Also announced as inductees were Tim Oleksyn, a rancher and farmer from the Prince Albert area who has been a supporter of the cattle sector and beef research, and the late George Cooper of West Bend, who was a lifelong farmer who was involved in many aspects of agriculture, and even spent two years teaching farming practices in Sudan.
Three additional inductees will be announced at the CropSphere convention in January. The induction ceremony will occur on Apr. 22, 2017.
The Saskatchewan Agriculture Hall of Fame is housed at Saskatoon’s Western Development Museum.
