It's one of the biggest prizes ever awarded in the western Canadian agriculture industry, and it's going to one lucky local farmer. Helen Choquette, who farms north of Kelvington, recently received the keys to her own New Holland CR 9090 combine, worth $331,000.
The Keys to the Combine contest worked by allowing growers of Nexera canola to unlock up to 25 keys online. In the 15 month contest, run by Dow AgroSciences, 50,000 keys were unlocked, and Choquette's key was the one finally drawn at AgriTrade in Red Deer.
For Choquette, it's not going to quite sink in until the combine is sitting in their own yard.
"We know it's here, but when you see it there and you know that's what you get to run in the fall, it's a pretty great feeling," Choquette says.
Still, while it's a surprise to actually win, Choquette says she was always confident that the combine would eventually be hers.
The family farms 2,000 acres, and Choquette says that it's going to continue into the family into the future, as their son intends to become part of their operation into the future, having just bought a farm of his own nearby. She says that having new equipment is exciting for the whole family.
"It never crossed our minds to sell it. We need a combine, it fits right into our farm, we've been New Holland fans for a lot of years."
Choquette says it comes at the right time, as the family would have been in the market for a new machine if they didn't win one in the contest.
"When you look at not having to make payments on a combine, that puts a lot of money into your bottom line."
