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Vol. 131 • No. 6 Friday, August 12, 2016
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The Souris area threshing teams took part in the antique threshing demonstration that set a Guiness Book of World Records for vintage threshing machines continually separating grain. Pictured here, at the Harvesting Hope event at the Manitoba Threshermen’s Reunion and Stampede held in Austin July 31, are Clair Moir on the tractor, Butch Locke on top of the threshing machine, Ronnie Robinson on the rack. PHOTO/JESSE GOODWILL
Local residents and machines help set threshing world record by Glen Kirby More than a dozen Souris-area residents and several pieces of their antique farm machinery have contributed to a new world record. On a sun-soaked field in Austin, MB, during the August long weekend, 139 threshing machines generated bags of grain for charity and established a new record for the greatest number of pioneer threshers operating at one time. “We thought it was a good idea,” says Clair Moir, “helping the poor in the country. It’s nice to be a part of that.” Moir, who farms north of Griswold, took his 1944 John Deere “D” tractor to the Harvesting Hope event at the annual Thesherman’s Reunion and Stampede. He also brought along a threshing machine he co-owns with Butch Locke. The thresher revolutionized agriculture when first introduced in the late 1700s, offering a mechanical way to separate grain from stalks and husks. For thousands of years before, grain had been processed
by hand - a long and labour-intensive activity. “We did some research and we think it’s about a 1946 threshing machine,” says Moir, who will turn 71 this year but has only vague childhood memories of threshing on his family farm. “Dad used to do a little bit of thrashing but I can barely remember that. Then we bought a pulltype combine so that ended the thrashing days in the early 1950s.” Dan Lovatt, who lives a few minutes east of Souris, took his 70-year old International Harvester “Farmall M” to the event, a tractor owned by his family since rolling off the assembly line. “I have a picture of me with that tractor when I was 3-years-old,” says Lovatt. Next to that picture is one with the tractor and his 3-year old son. Next to that is his grandson at age 3 with the IH. “I was too young to thrash when my dad did it,” says Lovatt. “But we just wanted to take part and break the record. It was great. I’ll remember this for the rest of my life!”
The threshing record was a monstrous undertaking, with 1,400 volunteers, 45,000 sheaves of wheat and 150 threshers lined up in a W shape stretching across more than 5 hectares. Organizers say the machines would have formed a line two kilometres long, if placed end-to-end. Machines were all built between 1890 and 1950. Threshers were driven by tractor, combustion engine or even steam. Each machine was given 200 sheaves to thresh; volunteers pitch-forked wheat into the threshers, labouring under 30-degree heat and humidity. “It was hot,” laughs Moir. “But if you’re excited enough it doesn’t seem to bother you. Just the excitement of the event.” The Manitoba crews broke the previous record of 111 machines operating at one time, set last year in St. Albert, ON. Official approval from the Guinness Book of World Records is pending. “It’s something for Manitoba,” says Moir. “It’s great to be a participant in something like that.”
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