AgNow | August 2024

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2024

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AUGUST 8, 2024

FEATURE STORY There’s always next year for optimistic producers See story on page 2

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WES KEATING THE CARILLON

Harvey and Karen Enns have been growing saskatoons on three acres of their Grunthal area farm since 2011.

There’s always next year for optimistic producers

by WES KEATING T he formula for success for any scientific experiment, or per- haps even for the invention of a better mousetrap, is to follow the same steps for each experiment until those steps produce the same satisfactory result time after time. A Grunthal area berry producer found out this year that formula doesn’t apply to farming, especially when it comes to growing saskatoons. Harvey and Karen Enns are at a loss to explain why their crop of sas- katoons this year did not live up to expectations. The berries certainly were of good quality, Harvey says. There just weren’t enough of them. In fact, regular pickers who look forward to visiting Rock Creek Sas- katoons every year were just as dis- appointed as Harvey and Karen. The couple did not open their farm as a U-pick this year, as they had picked all the available berries themselves during two weeks in July. The couple says they did every- thing the same as ever, and the weather was good, but the bumper crop they enjoyed last year just didn’t materialize. Although they are disappointed, Harvey and Karen are looking forward to a better crop next year. And the Grunthal fruit growers are certainly not alone, and by the sec- ond week in July, they had heard of other producers who didn’t have suf- ficient saskatoons to open a U-pick this year. One of the larger producers at Gross Isle shut down their U-pick for the first time in 12 years this season. There certainly have been ups and downs for Harvey and Karen since they planted 3,000 saskatoon bush- es back in 2011, but this year’s poor crop came as a complete surprise. When the couple decided to make a three-acre orchard part of their Grunthal farm, they chose Smokies and Northline varieties, in antici- pation of an extended picking sea- son. Smokies tend to produce fruit a week earlier than Northline, Harvey explains, and that means an extra week of picking. Except for this year, he added ruefully.

WES KEATING THE CARILLON Harvey says their owl is not the high tech model that moves its head to scare away birds, but it still does the job and they have suffered very little bird damage to the berry patch over the years.

while yet. While they shifted their efforts to growing fruit in 2011, Harvey en- joys a long history with the Grunthal farm. They have lived on the yard since 2005, and Harvey grew up on the family farm half a mile south, where they had hogs and cattle.

mixes the two kinds of saskatoons in his basket. If Rock Creek Saskatoons were to plant replacements in their berry patch in the future, he would stick to Northline Harvey says. And while they have no plans for expansion, the Ennses agree they may just put off retirement for a

Harvey says he bought this farm as a young man while living in Winni- peg and working for Canadian Na- tional Railways, until 2010. Karen grew up in Winnipeg, but also comes from a family with a farm back- ground.

The Northline is a sweeter berry and most customers prefer to pick it, after sampling both. Customers go back and forth to sample the two va- rieties and some stay with the Smok- ies, wanting that more tart flavour for jam. When Harvey picks, he says he goes from one side to the other and

See ‘Bumper crop’ on 3C

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Bumper crop in 2023 gave farmers hope Continued from page 2C

His family were hog farming and had beef cattle on 320 acres until 2004, when they sold half the land and the barns. Harvey continued to raise beef cattle, buying animals in spring, pasturing them all summer and selling them in fall. Now he grows hay as a cash crop and a neighbor rents the pasture for cattle. Harvey says it’s kind of nice having the cattle around just to see them, without having to do any work. When the couple started the berry patch they decided to go with a size that could be handled by two people, and that is still their plan. There are, of course, the U-pick customers who do a lot of the pick- ing for them (except for this year) but Harvey is still out there every day picking for the pre-picked supply so many customers ask for. Last year’s bumper crop encour- aged Rock Creek Saskatoons to try a hand at marketing their berries with off-farm sales. In spite of a disas- trous trip to the Steinbach Farmers Market, Karen was looking forward to a return there this year. This year’s crop just wasn’t big enough. They thought they would try the farmers’ market for the first time last year and Karen set out for Steinbach with a dozen baskets of saskatoons in the trunk of their car. They had just set up a table and canopy because of a threat of rain, when a torrential downpour washed out their plans, and ruined the day for the rest of the farmers’ market crowd as well. Karen couldn’t get the berries back into the trunk fast enough and soon she was as soaked as her saskatoons. To make things more difficult, the trunk didn’t close properly and Kar- en had to get out of the car to attend to that. By the time the storm passed, there were canopies blown down all over the place and the farmers’ mar- ket was cancelled. But the day was not a total loss, as Karen met Eva, a regular at the Stein- bach market who bought 10 baskets of saskatoons and ordered another 10 baskets to be delivered later. Karen expected Eva was going to be a good customer again this year, but along with the host of regular pickers, she was to be disappointed this year. And if misery loves company, there was plenty of that to go around for Manitoba Saskatoon growers this year. Just one example is the July 20th media update from a major grower who headed the bad news “Defeated, depressed, stressed and sad.” “We gave it our all, but Mother Nature defeated us. We ran our har- vester Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19 and were getting very few saskatoons and low quality. To put it into perspective, the (Manitoba Sas- katoons) orchard typically produces an average of 15,000 pounds. This year we took off 3,400 pounds and approximately 1,500 pounds were low quality. It was just a poor, poor season.”

WES KEATING THE CARILLON

The 2024 saskatoon crop was disappointing, but the sour cherries were plentiful at Rock Creek Saskatoons this year.

ry patch, when the birds are singing and the baskets are being filled with really nice berries. A lot of saskatoon pickers, who spend their time collecting wild ber- ries every summer would agree. The Rock Creek Saskatoons field is indeed a pleasant place to be and has become a popular alternative for many who like to pick wild sas- katoons on road allowances in the Southeast. Rock Creek Saskatoons is just a half mile off a paved road, four miles south of Grunthal, and is very acces- sible for pickers from Winnipeg to St Malo. And it’s certainly more fun than going out in the bush to pick wild berries, Harvey adds. The Ennses are most thankful for all the help they have been getting from the Prairie Fruit Growers Asso- ciation over the years. Their website is invaluable in providing informa- tion to growers, as well as promot- ing their products, and perhaps the PFGA will be able to shed some light as to what happened to this year’s crop of saskatoons, Harvey says.

While the quantity of saskatoons may also have been a disappoint- ment for the Grunthal fruit growers, at Rock Creek Saskatoons, the cher- ry trees on their yard flourished and produced a bumper crop. Until this year, the Ennses were themselves able to use all the cherries the trees produced, but this year the abun- dant crop allowed them to put sour cherries on the market along with saskatoons for the first time. There are four sour cherry trees on the Enns farmyard and the fruit is great for making jams, pies or platz, which is his favorite. A couple from Iran, who visited the farm and bought a basket, told Harvey they liked to eat sour cherries with salt. The cherries need to be pitted, though, and that is another task add- ed to the picking, but even with that, it is worth the effort, Harvey says. “Put on some good music, grab a pail of cherries and away you go. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon.” Harvey says he also doesn’t mind picking saskatoons. He actually finds it therapeutic to be in the ber-

ROCK CREEK PHOTO In his final year as a friendly greeter at Rock Creek Saskatoons, Darby relaxes in the shade of a saskatoon bush. After 15 years, the friendly beagle, who loved eating the saskatoons he would strip off the lower branches, died this summer.

August 6, 1965

Co-op hits jackpot after five-year wait

showed up. Plans to sell to wholesalers and to set up roadside stands never got started. Pickers cleaned up the crop as fast as it rip- ened. During the biggest single day, pickers har- vested 2,900 pounds of strawberries. Man- ager Bill Wowk pointed out that even at 25 cents a pound, pickers got a bargain, since most city stores sold their strawberries in the neighborhood of 50 cents a pint, and each pint contained only three-quarters of a pound. Members of the Co-op credit the success of their berry plantation to representatives of the Department of Agriculture, who have guided the experiment from the start. Peter J. Peters, fruit specialist with the Soils and Crop Branch, was particularly helpful, spending a lot of time on the project. In extensive experiments on its small test- plot, the Co-op has proven that Sparkle, Red- coat and Dunlop strawberries are most suit- able for the soil and climate at Hadashville, and most of this year’s crop came from these three varieties. The largest of the berries measured up to 2½ inches in diameter. During the past week, dozens of cars of would-be pickers have been told they came too late, and to try again next year. Most of the shares in the Reynolds Fruit Growers Co- op are owned by local people. All are hopeful that their enterprise will be able to elude this winter’s hazards and that they’ll be able to harvest another bumper crop next year.

by WES KEATING T he first experiment in co-operative strawberry growing ever tried in Man- itoba has finally paid off, after a five- year wait. With the close of the strawberry season last week, the Reynolds Fruit Growers Co-op at Hadashville announced to its elat- ed members that for the one-month-long picking season, it had produced 22½ tons of berries. For a solid month, thousands of house- holders from Winnipeg and other towns and districts have been swamping to the 16-acre plot to harvest the 45,000 lb. crop of berries. For the privilege of picking their own ber- ries, they paid 25 cents per pound and poured a total of over $11,000 into the treasury of the 74-member Reynolds Fruit Growers Co-op. The Co-op’s resounding success this year only came after a series of failures as hail, too much rain and spring frost destroyed three crops in a row. This year’s crop was the first one actually harvested. In spite of the long wait for a crop, this sea- son’s success surpassed all expectations for the Co-op management, and berry-picking customers literally swamped the Hadashville location day and night, during the month of July. Promotion the Co-op received on city tele- vision stations proved positively embarrass- ing, as time after time, there weren’t enough berries to go around, when hordes of pickers

CARILLON ARCHIVES Co-op Manager Bill Wowk with a basket of top-grade strawberries, part of a bumper crop the Reynolds Fruit Growers Co-op grew at Hadashville this year.

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Ridgeville farmer shows neighbours benefits of SRR Watershed projects

by WES KEATING L ast year’s winner of the Mani- toba Watershed Association’s “District Builder Award” has never been averse to trying some- thing new and has certainly taken a leadership role in a growing regener- ative agriculture community in the Ridgeville area. Seine Rat Roseau Watershed man- ager Joey Pankiw says Neil Claring- bould was one of the first producers to sign up for the Alternative Land Use Services program in 2019, when he converted 40 acres of cultivated land into perennial grasses along a creek on his farm. The next year, the Ridgeville farm- er went back and added pollinators to the site, adding further environ- mental benefits. Over the years, Claringbould has implemented several other ecologi- cal projects on the acres he farms in the Ridgeville area. He has fenced off riparian areas and dugouts to pro- tect sensitive wetland areas, and cre- ated water retention ponds to help with water management in his area. A sub-director on the SRRWD board since 2022, Claringbould is an enthusiastic promoter of all the proj- ects that fall under the funding um- brella of the SRRWD, Pankiw says. Leading by example, Claringbould has impressed his neighbors to the point where enquiries about proj- ects at the Watershed office often in- clude the comment, “My neighbour Neil told me to contact you.” In nominating Claringbould for the 2023 district award, the SRRWD said the Ridgeville farmer has a re- generative mindset and a willing- ness to listen that lends itself well to trying new things and redefining what it means to be a successful agriculture producer. He is always open to bringing the public to his farm to show how these projects are integrated into his operation. During a tour of a couple of the projects on Claringbould’s farm last month, Neil explained how listening to the experts brought his family to Canada in 2,000 and a much more recent seminar impressed him with how regenerative farming made sense. When Claringbould was a young man in Wales, his parents had a beef operation and he had a job with a company that sold and repaired farm equipment. He also helped his dad on the farm. One evening in 1999, “for something to do”, Clar- ingbould attended a Canadian farm sales seminar in the area, conduct- ed by Steinbach’s Bob Schinkel and Sheldon Froese. Claringbould was impressed with the idea of farming in Canada. He says he couldn’t buy a farm in Wales because the land was too expensive there. It wasn’t long before he moved to Canada with his parents to a farm in Stuartburn. Today, he farms eight quarters in the Ridgeville area, with a 170-head cow/calf operation. It was at another agriculture sem- inar that Claringbould heard of the benefits of regenerative farming practices, and changed the way he was farming. What Ray Archuleta, a soil scien- tist with the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture and Gabe Braun, a North Dakota regenerative farmer, said had made sense to Claring- bould. The theme of the two experts was to adopt a farming practice built more on ecology and less on the reliance of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, using a variety of cover crops to regenerate the soil with a minimum of tilling. Alternative Land Use Services projects are very much a part of the funding assistance provided by watershed districts throughout the province. In the five years Pankiw has been with SRRWD, he says there has been a tremendous growth in government and industry support for projects aimed at the long-term sustainable use and management of land and water resources. Since 2019, the SRRWD’s budget has increased from around $1 mil- lion to over $2.4 million. Funding comes from the province of Manito- ba and 17 municipal partners in an integrated sharing plan. For every dollar the municipalities put in, the province matches with $3. Most of the SRRWD budget comes from ex- ternal sources, including a number of agricultural industry sponsors and the federal government. With the funding and the in- creased interest in the types of projects the Watershed District is supporting, more and more farm- ers across the SRRWD are taking the opportunity to participate in efforts to control overland flooding and provide cleaner water for livestock

SRRWD PHOTO Before perennial grasses were planted in this horseshoe-shaped low lying area, the St Elizabeth area landowner would have to go back to seed after the water went down in spring. He no longer has to do that.

WES KEATING THE CARILLON A dam across a creek at the Claringbould farm in the Ridgeville area backs up water to a pond, supplying water for a portable system for watering cattle, while a culvert controls the flow downstream at times of heavy rains.

WES KEATING THE CARILLON Dani Gosselin has created a rain garden on the front yard of the Steinbach office to deal with runoff water from the eaves trough downspout.

along the way. Water retention projects like the ones on Claringbould’s farm provide an economic benefit for both farmer and municipality alike, Pankiw ex- plains. There are a number of projects on small creeks in the Ridgeville area. Dry dams hold back the water in times of heavy rain, slowing the flow by a couple days to up to a week. This is a tremendous help to the municipality, as roads that used to wash out in a heavy rain no longer need that constant and costly main- tenance, saving thousands of tax dollars. The pond created by the construc- tion of these dams provides a reser- voir for the backflow and provides a water supply for grazing cattle. The dugout has a culvert and the exact same design on two different creeks helps everybody downstream. Fencing off creeks and dugouts keeps the cattle from wallowing and keeps feces out. Installation of an alternative, solar-powered watering system improves livestock health, as there is a much better weight-gain when the cattle are drinking clean water. These projects are helpful to live- stock health, the environment, the

producers, and municipal govern- ments alike, creating a win-win, win- win situation. But the watershed doesn’t stop at the outskirts of urban settlements, Pankiw says, and there are water- shed projects designed to curb pol- lution and deal with runoff problems in these communities as well. Six or seven rain gardens are on the project schedule in the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District this year, which includes more programming in urban areas. Rain gardens, for example, are helpful in allowing the water to soak into the ground rather than running off in a heavy rain, carrying pollut- ants to ditches, streams and rivers and overwhelming a community’s storm sewer system. In some areas, sump pumps are running all year, little areas where the water can soak in are most help- ful. The Village of St Pierre has been having trouble with storm sewers backing up and is now providing funding for mulch for residents of the village who create rain gardens, Pankiw said. Funding for the rain garden projects comes from SRRWD, with the village providing the mate- rials. Dani Gosselin, Alternative Land

WES KEATING THE CARILLON Neil Claringbould and Joey Pankiw explain the benefits of a portable watering system that uses a huge mining truck recycled tire as a trough.

Use Services co-ordinator for SRR- WD, has been instrumental in cre- ating a rain garden at the office in Steinbach to help educate the com- munity on its benefits. Sod was removed from an area of the front lawn, once the shape of the garden was determined. Soil was used to create a small berm on the down-slope side of the garden at 154 Friesen Avenue. Gosselin said a variety of plants suitable for the climate conditions in this area were planted around the perimeter of the garden, which slopes to a bowl at its centre. Water from eaves troughs is direct- ed to the rain garden via a French drain rather than by surface drain-

age. The variety of plants in the rain garden help to soak up the water. The SRRWD works with Prairie Shore Botanicals at Gardenton to get local plants and those that act as pollina- tors, Gosselin explains. Among the plants that do well in the Southeast are asters, milkweed, prairie loose- strife, and goldenrod. Funding through the Seine Rat RoseauWatershed District office in Steinbach is available on a project by project basis, and in some cases as an annual acreage payment for Alternative Land Use; Agricultural Shelterbelt; Rain Garden; Surface Water Management and Prairie Wa- ter Climate Program projects.

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Watershed is literary month focus for Agriculture in the Classroom

by WES KEATING W ater is wasted and polluted every day around the world, but the agriculture and food industry in Manitoba has had great success sharing about what farmers are doing to keep water clean and ensure the sustainability of water- sheds for the benefit of all. Manitoba’s 14 watershed districts, over the next three years, will be con- tributing $40,000, towards an Agri- culture in the Classroom program focussed on watershed stewardship. Katharine Cherewyk, Executive Director of AITC-M, says this wel- come support marks a significant step forward in her organization’s mission to educate Manitoba’s youth about the importance of clean water and a sustainable watershed. Starting with Canadian Agriculture Literacy Month (CALM) in March 2024, AITC-M introduced Caring for Our Watersheds to hundreds of Manitoba early years classrooms. The resource is designed to engage students in Grades 2 to 4 in mean- ingful watershed education, includ- ing why watersheds are important, what Manitoba farmers are doing to protect them, and what everyone can do to preserve watersheds for to- day and future generations. Farmers and other agriculture in- dustry volunteers delivered the pro- gram to Manitoba schools in March, giving students a first-hand look at a number of things that are being used to keep runoff water from being pol- luted on the way to streams, rivers and lakes. Students at the Sigurbjorg Stefans- son Early School in Gimli provided an enthusiastic audience for Lady- wood area farmer Everett Gibson as he spent an hour and a half sharing his farming experience with two combined Grades 3 and 4 classes there in early March. Gibson’s presentation included videos and pictures of his farm in a very interactive way with the stu- dents, who were very interested in the topic of agriculture and what it was like to be a farmer. Gibson manages the family farm, which has five acres of saskatoons, raspberries and haskap, along with a number of apple trees, acres of hay fields that produce bales for neigh- boring horse owners, and pastured poultry, which lay eggs to be sold to berry pickers. Gibson said students enjoyed the video of his farm, filmed by a drone, and were most interested in the pas- tured poultry on the grass next to the acres of berry bushes. Gibson said his watershed presen- tation included four activities to get the students thinking about water- sheds, specifically, the importance of a watershed and how it can be protected and cared for. The students were very interested in this topic once they understood what a watershed was. Gibson talked a lot about the importance of clean water, giving examples in the way Grades 3 and 4 students at the Gimli school could relate to. “When you are playing soccer and you get thirsty you want a drink of clean water. When you are swim- ming in Lake Winnipeg, or out with your parents fishing, clean water is important.” He also went over the importance of clean water for agriculture to keep the animals and crops healthy and how farmers support a clean water- shed by activities such as injecting manure into the ground or using only the exact amount of fertilizer to grow a crop. The final exercise was a practical demonstration of how the actions of a community, can impact the water- shed. The students gathered around

WES KEATING THE CARILLON Everett Gibson shows a touring farm group how the irrigation system pumps well-water and a controlled amount of fertilizer to soaker pipes between rows of haskap, Saskatoons and a variety of other berries at the Gibson Farm.

a watershed model and a washable marker was used to illustrated dif- ferent sources of pollution, from highways, schoolyards, farms, and city streets and country roads and ditches. The Agriculture in the Classroom volunteer sprayed water on the wa- tershed model and the students got to see how pollution runs down into the watershed affecting the water quality for all of the community. Gibson said he found it most re- warding to spend time with the Grade 3 and Grade 4 students at Sig- urbjorg Stefansson Early School. Gibson said the teachers were fan- tastic and very helpful with his pre- sentation and explained how their students learned about growing food in a garden located just outside the school. “I had several kids in Gimli excited to tell me that their fathers or uncles are commercial fishermen. These kids understand the link between farmers and fishers.” Bolstered by the support from Manitoba Association of Water- sheds, AITC is already planning wa- tershed resources and content for middle and senior years students. Future offerings will delve deeper into the intersection of agriculture and watershed stewardship, show- casing the proactive measures the agriculture community is taking to safeguard Canada’s water resources. Over the last two years agricul- ture producers, in partnership with landowners and the watershed dis- tricts have created retention ponds to store water, conserved over 1,900 hectares of wetlands, created 28 ki- lometers of fenced areas to keep cat- tle from waterways and established more than 30 km of shelterbelts. Cherewyk says Manitoba Associa- tion of Watershed’s funding commit- ment not only enhances Agriculture in the Classroom’s capacity to deliv- er impactful educational program- ming, but also serves as an invitation to other organizations to join in sup-

AGRICULTURE IN THE CLASSROOM Using a watershed display and water soluble markers Everett Gibson shows a group of Gimli students how rainfall will move pollution from farms and urban communities into streams, rivers and lakes.

AGRICULTURE IN THE CLASSROOM

porting the crucial work of teaching young people about agriculture and environmental stewardship. Cherewyk says March was an in- credible month for bringing the fu- ture generation of decision-makers closer to those who produce their food. With in-person visits spanning Carman to The Pas, in French and English speaking schools, in both urban and rural settings, 155 agri- culture industry volunteers brought their experiences, stories and hands-on activities, and an agricul- ture-themed book to 345 Manitoba classrooms during the month. “We are humbled that so many amazing individuals in the agri- food industry share our vision of the CALM program, creating high-qual- ity, fun and educational visits that leave an impact on students.” Katharine outlines Agriculture in the Classrooms programs at an agriculture industry conference in Winnipeg earlier this year. Cherewyk

EVERETT GIBSON PHOTO The sun rises over a shed at the Gibson Farm, as a flock of hens enjoy some early morning “grazing” on patch of grass next to a field of berry bushes.

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Blumenort shop good fit for Ridgewood farmers

by WES KEATING I t may not be too long before the next generation of Penners will be found working on the family farm, four miles east of Blumenort. But this time around, they will not be farming, but rather becoming part of the family’s welding, machining and manufacturing enterprise. In 2008, Elden and Corey Penner, like many others at the time, found it impossible to make a living raising hogs. Elden opted for an off-farm welding job with Brian Thiessen, and Corey went on to do other things. Thiessen had left hog farming to others in 2004, sold his farm to the Penners and established a machine and welding shop at Blumenort. Years later, when Thiessen decid- ed to retire, Elden and his son Corey purchased Blue Ridge Welding, and the father and son team was re-unit- ed at what is today Heritage Steel Works. Along with the welding and ma- chining operation at Blue Ridge, Thiessen was manufacturing a piece of equipment he developed for de- livering a consistent supply of wa- ter-soluble medication to livestock and poultry. Thiessen developed the product, called Medimix, in the late 1980s and Elden and Corey Penner have continued to manufacture a limited quantity of that product, along with their welding and machining opera- tions. The Medimix machine mixes the solution in a 15-gallon or 30-gallon tank on a timer and maintains the integrity of the medication by keep- ing it from settling out over time. Medicating livestock should be easy, and the Medimix system is effective for all farms that require water-sol- uble medication for hogs, chickens, turkeys, beef or dairy. Corey says Medimix is sold through livestock and poultry equip- ment dealers from Ontario to B.C. Early on, the Blumenort company had manufactured the machine for direct sales to producers in the Unit- ed States, but that didn’t work out too well, because the product hasn’t taken off down south. It didn’t take long for the Pen- ners to establish their reputation as “neighborhood welders” and with- in a year of buying the company in 2017, Heritage Steel Works had out- grown its space at the shop at Blu- menort. As the company grew, Elden and Corey found they were pressed for more manufacturing space and needed a larger facility than what they had at Blumenort. The solution was close at hand and a major reno- vation to the then empty hog barn at the farm, four miles to the southeast, has been perfect to handle the over- flow from the Blumenort location. One of the major pieces of man- ufacturing equipment they now had space for in the manufacturing division of Heritage Steel Works is a press break and shear capable of transforming 12-foot sheet metal and plates for any number of appli- cations, from truck frames to stair

pans for the construction industry. During the pandemic, Heritage Steel Works was kept busy manufac- turing the frames and steps for 10 trailers a week for a company at Blu- menort that provided “washrooms on wheels” for construction sites. These small units, five feet wide and 10-feet long, were equipped with electricity to produce hot running water from a tank, as well as toilets and a tank for sewage. In a sense, Elden Penner’s off-farm job has moved back to his farm. The shifting of gears, so to speak, for El- den, who was the third generation of the Penner family on the farm, has led to a successful agriculture-based business, ready for the fourth and fifth generations to take over. Elden says his family had been raising pigs “forever”, when he took his welding skills off the farm in 2008. He has been welding since his father, Martin P. Penner, bought a welder when he was 16, Elden said. His new-found welding skills came in extremely handy on the farm over the years, as they did everything from building their own pens for the hogs and rebuilding a “honey wag- on”. Corey kind of followed in his fa- ther’s footsteps when he was a teen- ager and took up welding, as well. El- den recalls Corey built a bale trailer as one of his projects. The hog industry was not treating anybody well at the turn of the cen- tury, but Elden decided to keep going after his neighbor quit in 2004. Four years later, the 450-farrow-to-finish operation wasn’t looking at a bright future and hog prices were still drop- ping, so Elden and Corey decided it was time for a change. Corey says at that point his dad went to help Thiessen at Blue Ridge Welding, and he went on to do a number of off-farm jobs, ranging from driving a semi locally to man- aging a kitchen cabinet company. For the next eight years, Elden worked at Blue Ridge Welding until Brian Thiessen decided it was time WES KEATING THE CARILLON Long-time Heritage employee Wilhelm Friesen is set to demonstrate how he can punch a perfect hole in a piece of steel with one blow of his hammer. Removing a worn-out bearing was the task at hand in this case.

WES KEATING THE CARILLON A wagon suspended from the shop ceiling is ready for the next time Corey Penner finds time to hitch up the team of Clydesdales.

barns need repairs and maintenance of farm equipment like cultivators and other farm machinery, provides Heritage Steel Works with as much work as they want. Equipment in barns needs repairs and in some cases the mobile guys get called in, Corey said, but often a piece of equipment, like a feed cart, is brought in to Heritage Steel for re- pairs. The fourth generation of the Pen- ner family is already working at Her- itage Steel Works. Corey’s son Alex and son-in-law Mike Peters have joined dad and grandpa in the grow- ing business. Elden says he started slowing down a year-and-a-half ago and now he is at home recovering from heart surgery and hasn’t been in the shop for a while. But he isn’t ready to be completely

retired just yet. One of the projects he has been working on for years and would like to finish is the resto- ration of a Farmall-A tractor his fa- ther bought new in 1951. He rebuilt it once before in the ear- ly 1980s and drove it until the 1990s, when something went wrong and there was not time to spare to fix it. During the latest restoration proj- ect, there are not too many pieces of the tractor that haven’t needed Elden’s attention. At this stage, it is ready to be put back together, and Corey is hoping his father will re- member where each of the hundreds of pieces, spread out on the floor in a corner of the shop belongs. Elden says he has already started to put the engine back together and hopes to be able to get back to his project soon. “It’s been kind of fun.”

to retire. A couple of years before that, Elden and Corey had discussed the possibilities of purchasing the company and Thiessen had agreed to sell to them when he retired. “I quit what I was doing, joined Dad, and we bought the Blumenort shop.” Today, Penner describes what they do as mostly “one-off specialty man- ufacturing and all areas of welding and machinery repair jobs.” Creating specialty products for agriculture operations is one of the many areas he works in, Crey says “A chicken farmer came in com- plaining about a door lift system he didn’t like and we found a way to make it operate better. When we left that farm, the door was no longer dragging on the cement.” Repairs in the agriculture world of beef and dairy, where equipment in

WES KEATING THE CARILLON The newest Heritage Steel Works employee is David Wall, who recently won the gold medal in a national competition for high school welders.

WES KEATING THE CARILLON When Elden Penner gets back to his restoration project, this pile of spare parts will again be a “just-like- new” 1951 Farmall-A tractor.

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