Photo by Alan Krahn from the Bear Lake Growing Project Facebook page.

By Curtis Galbraith

Agriculture

Special harvest near Bear Lake completed

Sep 25, 2020 | 4:27 PM

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – The Bear Lake Growing Project crop for this year will not be staying in the field.

Combining the 130-acre barley field, donated by the Polasek family, was started on Sunday and finished on Tuesday.

Spokesman Gary Beyer says some old equipment was used for the harvest.

“They had seven antique combines out there for about three or four hours. They took about half the field. Most of those guys really enjoy doing that sort of thing with their old combines.”

He adds the yield was down. It looks like it will be around 45 to 50 bushels per acre.

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“(There were) poor conditions, too wet seeding this spring and too much rain during the summer, but, still, we’re thankful for what we got.”

The money raised when the barley is sold next week will be donated to the Canadian Food Grains Bank.

Beyer says it feels good to get the harvest done this year after last year’s canola crop stayed out all winter.

“It wasn’t dry, but most of us have grain dryers nowadays, so we dried it and it will go to the elevator that way.”

Last year’s crop was combined in early May. This year’s was seeded in early June.

Photo by Jeannette Beyer from the Bear Lake Growing Project Facebook page.

As for the harvest overall, Beyer says it has been slow going.

“Guys with dryers are going, but there’s been very little dry grain. Most of it has been dried coming off the field for that reason. Most people probably have 25 to 40 percent done or something like that.”

Beyer is optimistic he will be able to finish harvest this fall.

“We’ll eventually get it here. I sure hope so anyway. There are some farmers that have had a real struggle for a couple of years and it starts to hurt financially.”

Beyer adds most of the crops are around average for his area.