Once again we have Terry James guest posting on our blog to finish our series on the mechanization of prairie agriculture! Terry is a mixed farmer who lives near Vegreville, Alberta, on the farm his grandfather first moved to in 1917. He studied agriculture at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and worked for a number of years in the crop supplies industry. Currently he is a full time farmer. Together with his brother and son, they farm about 2000 acres of grain land, and maintain a commercial herd of beef cattle. You can read Part 1 of this series here.
An early thrashing machine
It is difficult to argue that one machine is more important than another on a farm as all are necessary, but for many years, the tractor was the machine that enabled the others to operate. The tractor began as a self-propelled steam engine, the “traction engine.” A pioneer in the manufacture of steam engines for farm use was a man by the name of J.I. Case. Early steam engines were used to provide power for the threshing machines, but were stationary. Case added wheels to some of his to make them easier to move and in 1876 he brought out a model was that suitable for pulling a plow. JI Case and the company he founded went on to manufacture many more tractors throughout the years and eventually merged with the International Harvest Company.
Another American entrepreneur was also very active at this time. In 1837 a young blacksmith name John Deere came up with the idea of using polished steel in a plow. His “self-scouring steel plow” was an almost instant success, and the company he founded continues to thrive today.
When a homesteader first arrived in Alberta his plow was probably pulled by a team of oxen. However as soon resources permitted, the oxen were replaced by draft horses similar to these. After World War II, the replacement of draft animals with tractors proceeded quickly.
Steam traction engines and steam plows certainly improved agricultural productivity, but they were slow, cumbersome and had the potential to blow up if not properly looked after. As the twentieth century dawned, they began to be replaced by tractors with internal combustion engines. The gasoline powered tractor received a big boost in 1915 when Henry Ford announced his attention to mass produce a tractor and sell it for around $300. Ford brought the same acumen to tractors and farm truck that he had brought to the auto industry, and the Fordson tractor quickly became a best seller, in part because of World War 1. The British government ordered 6000 of these tractors. The Canadian government also ordered a large number of these tractors and sold them to farmers at cost.
The Great Depression which began in 1929 slowed the mechanization of prairie farms. Cars were converted into “Bennett buggies” and on the farm, the use of heavy horses increased. But this was to be the last hurrah of the teamster. The onset of World War II helped revive Western agriculture. The decade following 1941 saw farm mechanization make its most spectacular advances. Farm tractors increased in numbers by 150%, farm trucks by 153% and harvester-combines by 375%.
The trend to increased mechanization has increased right until the present time. Along the way we have developed small square balers, large round balers and now large square balers. Sprayers have gone from being simple machines to one of the more sophisticated machines on the farm, with guidance systems, automatic boom height control and rate controllers to ensure uniform application. Steel plows, cultivators and drills have been replaced with machines that apply seed and fertilizer in a single pass in no-till systems. Canadian inventors have also played a part in major developments. Versatile, a Winnipeg based manufacturer was the first company to mass-produce an articulated four-wheel drive tractors, starting in 1966 with the D100 and G100 four-wheel drives. Those ground-breaking tractors were primitive by modern standards, with a 6-cylinder diesel or 8-cylinder gas engine producing 100 horsepower. Early models sold for less than CA$10,000, a far cry from the $300,000 or more a present-day version would cost. Prasco, Flexicoil and Bourgault are just a few of the many Canadian companies that have brought innovations to the farming world.
It is difficult to say what the future will hold. It would seem logical that at some point there would be diminishing returns to increasing the size of farm machinery. However it does not seem that we have reached that point yet. Fifty foot air drills are being replaced with 70 foot air drills. John Deere has recently tested a combine in Saskatchewan with a 60 foot header, 20 feet larger than the biggest currently in use. But perhaps the biggest developments in the last few years have been in the use of electronics. No longer does a farmer have to run to town to determine the moisture content of grain sample. He is able to obtain instantaneous readouts of moisture and yield as he combines. Yield maps, variable rate application, and precision agriculture are today’s buzzwords.
A modern threshing bee near Strome, Alberta. Many farmers look nostalgically back at a time when harvest was more of a social event. (Photo courtesy of the ECAReview, Drumheller.)
However as in the past, new developments bring some unanticipated changes. It is unlikely we will see anything as dramatic as the Swing Riots of the 1800’s but more than one senior farmer has retired early because the sophistication of the new machinery is just too much to deal with. Bigger machines have led to bigger farms, and depleted rural neighborhoods. Farmers are more likely to view neighbors as competitors than at any time in the past. Old time threshing bees are popular events as farmers look back fondly on a time when harvest was more of a social event. However, it’s unlikely that any farmer today would leave the comfort of his air-conditioned cab to return to the back-breaking labor of yesteryear. Increased mechanization has removed so much of the drudgery of farm work and at the same time, been part of a system that has provided Canadians an unparalleled supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food.