Saskatchewan was built by early settlers homesteading and farming throughout the province. The Century Family Farm Awards honor the families who have kept those farms through the generations for 100 years. This year 635 families across the province have been honored. At the Yorkton event, 23 families attended to receive their award.
Vernon and Jean Burbank, now residing in Yorkton, represented one of the farms receiving the award. The family farm near Togo, SK. was started by Jean's grandfather George Holliday in 1904.
Vernon is proud to be part of a farm that has been in the family for so long, and believes that honors like the Century Family Farm Award are important.
"It's a way to keep our heritage, and it's something for our grandchildren to see in the future," Vernon says.
Farming has become more complicated since they started, the Burbanks note, with Vernon pointing out that he didn't even have a cab on his tractor when he started in 1975.
The family farm is in the process of being passed to the fourth generation, as son Chad has taken over with his family. Vernon hopes that one of his grandsons will also take over when they get old enough, keeping the farm in the family.
Julianne Jack from Information Services Corporation (ISC) says that honoring families that have kept their farms for 100 years is important, since farming was and still is a vital part of the economy.
"A farm being in a family for 100 years is an incredible milestone... It's really an incredible thing when you think about a farm starting 100 years ago, with the technology they didn't have, to what family farms are today," Jack says.
The number of farms recognized by the ISC each year has increased substantially. The record of 661 families being recognized in 2009 was almost matched in 2010, which is substantially more than the slightly over 300 families recognized annually in previous years.
"We've noticed in the past two years that the numbers of families we have recognized has skyrocketed. We have doubled, actually," says Jack.
For a complete list of 2010 recipients, visit www.isc.ca/cffa.
