The Stettler Antique Tractor Club had a great turnout with more than 100 people attending its annual threshing demo on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24 at the grounds off of John Deere, just west of town.
Despite old-fashioned tradition giving way to far more efficient machinery to optimize farmers’ time on the field, there is an active interest in the community about the old ways, according to President Dan Wasyleshko, who is now in charge of the tractor club.
“The modern farming methods of today have increased production in a more-timely matter,” Wasyleshko said. “For example, the thresher here did approximately two acres of the 26-acre field in three hours, which does not include the cutting down of the grain by the binder, which took another two hours.”
Wasyleshko said that the rest of the field would be completed with one machine in an hour or less.
“The technology limits the number of workers in the field. At the event we had about eight workers doing what nowadays one worker can do, finishing the remaining 24 acres,” added Wasyleshko.
The two main attractions of the afternoon were the crew threshing using a 1939 McCormick Thresher and the team of horses that were cutting and binding the barley.
There was also a concession, which had club members serving homemade pie and other refreshments, with proceeds from the sale helping cover the cost of the event, which was free to spectators.
A total of $300 was raised from the threshing demo event, the other fundraiser being the annual antique tractor pull.
“We would like to thank Cervus Equipment who provided the field for the Stettler Antique Tractor Club to demo the equipment,” Wasyleshko said. “Special thanks to Walter Haustein, owner of the thresher and Jim Long and his horse team with the binder.”
Wasyleshko also thanked the club members who had taken time from their weekends to volunteer at the demonstration.