Plenty of help to harvest Vauxhall Foodgrains crop
There was no shortage of volunteers and equipment at the annual Vauxhall and District Foodgrains harvest last Tuesday as 19 combines, 13 trucks, and four grain carts took to the field to harvest the bountiful barley crop.
The yield was above average with 475 metric tonnes, equalling just over 131 Bu/acre on the 160 irrigated acres and 20 Bu/acre on the 40 acres of dryland.
"It went fairly well. We had lots of help and got it done quickly. We're really happy with the quality of grain. We got 58 lbs. per bushel average. That's more than 20 percent heavier than average," said Kerby Redekop, Vauxhall and district growing project spokesperson, adding that the barley went directly to the feedlots the following day.
Prairieview Seed Potatoes offered the land for this year's project and had the site all prepped for harvest day. Six swathers in the field a week prior to the harvest.
"We use different fields every year. We're lucky that we always have people in the area who will donate land to us every year. For some projects, finding land is their biggest challenge," he said.
Kolk Farms Ltd. and Marketplace Commodities purchased the barley and the monies raised will go to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
The Canadian Foodgrains Bank, founded in 1983, partners with churches and church-based organizations and is dedicated to ending global hunger through a number of different programs.
CFB, in 2016-17, provided $25 million in food assistance programming.
For that same time period, they contributed $13 million to agriculture and livelihood programming which is focused on helping people provided food for themselves and families for the long-term.
CFB works with farmers to increase yields through sustainable agriculture practices, help generate more income from what they grow and sometimes, provide seeds and farming tools to help them get started.
They also organize women's groups to support women farmers in managing their income earned from selling produce and teach new farming methods to help them adapt to changing weather patterns, or help to better withstand natural disasters.
Under their nutrition program, CFB also helps to reduce malnutrition through education, clean water, and feeding programs, teach mothers about importance of breastfeeding, provide fortified supplementary foods for malnourished children, and works with families in starting vegetable gardens. In 2016-17, $3 million went to nutrition programming.
Also in 2016-17, the organization helped more than 900,000 people in 35 countries and every year, the Canadian government contributes $25 million in matching financial support.