YORKTON – Farmers and implement dealers gathered north of the city the morning of Sept. 17 to take part in the Health Foundation’s Farming for Health harvest.
“Between the farm implement dealers and some of the ag suppliers in the area we manage to put a crop in every year and we harvest 400 acres of canola annually,” told Ross Fisher, Executive Director of the Health Foundation in an interview with SaskToday.ca.
Among those taking part in the yearly harvest event were Pattison Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Equipment, Mazur Group, Canada West Harvest Centre, Larry Hilworth and Ford Family Farms.
Fisher said that last year’s crop netted the organization a little over $200K.
“We have expenses like everybody else. We get an awfully good deal on some of our inputs but we have to buy fertilizer like everybody. We have expenses that go with the crop too,” said Fisher.
The initiative, now in it’s 13th year, has had a total net revenue of just over $2.3M according to Fisher.
“We set aside a million dollars for the new hospital a number of years ago and since then we’ve been investing in equipment for the hospital to help maintain the services that we have here,” said Fisher.
Larry Hilworth, former co-chair and current committee member of Farming for Health, has been involved with the initiative for over 10 years and was on hand to pilot one of the seven combines in operation.
“To me it’s a sense of community and it’s helping out,” said Hilworth of the event, adding, “to rally these troops here. To get all these guys together — we’re all competitors — we come here and we put our biases aside and we do it for the betterment of the community,” said Hilworth.
“If we can get needed equipment and fund needed equipment that the health professionals need I think it kind of makes it worthwhile because we all need it one day or another. It’s pretty remarkable how you can get the ag community together,” added Hilworth.
Other local businesess pitched in to support the cause as well, and that includes fuel donated from Yorkton Co-op, fertilizer from Cargil, fungicide from BASF, gungicide application from Miccar Aerial Applicators, glyphosate from Synergy Ag, canola seed for Corteva, hauling by AVT Transport, crop purchasing from LDC, agronomic services from Agratactics Agronomy with the land being donated by the City of Yorkton and a donation of a grain cart by Flaman Sales.
“It’s really interesting and nice to see how competitors come together — work together — once a year to help raise funds for the hospital to help us buy medical equipment for everybody in the area,” said Fisher.