The Rural Voice, 1988-10, Page 32AN EASTERNER'S VIEW
OF WESTERN FARMING
Agronomist Mervyn Erb, now
working for Cropco out of
Centralia, recently returned
from a job at Green Leaf Farm
Supply in Three Hills, Alberta.
He writes of history, geo-
graphy, people, odd events, and
the prairie crops through the
1988 seasons. Three Hills is 35
miles east of Olds, and Olds
happens to be 35 miles north of
Calgary .. .
N
umber 2 highway, which runs
from Calgary to Edmonton,
cuts through the blackest,
deepest, most agriculturally produc-
tive soil in the province of Alberta
(once you get north of Carstairs).
This is the Black Soil Zone area,
with cool weather and good rainfall
rivalling that of our area in south-
western Ontario. It was our good
fortune at Green Leaf Farm Supply to
have Ellwood Thompson, who farms
out at Spruceview (which is west of
Innisfail), as our customer. Ellwood
is one of a handful of Alberta farmers
who holds the title of Master Farmer.
As well as cash cropping, Ellwood and
his sons grow pedigreed seed and run
a farrow to finish swine operation. It
was on Ellwood's place that I first saw
138 -bushel Sampson barley and 123 -
bushel Cascade oats weighing 44
pounds.
Over at the Olds Land and Cattle
Co. feedyards, owned by Mark
Wright, you'll see 300 acres of silage
corn and probably the only six -row
John Deere corn planter north of
Lethbridge. Because of the climate,
Mark's silage is fairly green at harvest
time, so he cuts it in with "green feed"
for storage in the bunk silos.
But that's black -soil, high -rainfall
country. Going east towards Three
Hills, every 25 miles means one inch
less rain. The Number 21 highway
that runs north and south through
Three Hills marks the black soil,
brown soil boundary.
Kneehill County has some of the
most picturesque and rolling prairie
country you'll see anywhere. Hard
red spring wheat, barley, and spring
canola are the main crops. There's a
scattering of custom feed yards as well
as many farmers feeding 80 to 100
head. You'll also see a good number
of modern and not so modern hog
operations.
In September of 1987 the Three
Hills area received four -tenths of an
inch of rain. That was an accumula-
tion of two two -tenth showers, contin-
uing the dry winter of 1986-87 and the
Soil zones of the prairies
dry summer of 1987 — and the sign of
worse to come. But the spring of '87
arrived with a ray of hope: a fuel war.
It started out somewhere near the
Alberta -Saskatchewan border when
Turbo Resources, being long on fuel,
decided to deliver tanker load lots to
farmers at deep discount prices. When
Esso and Petro Canada got wind of
some newcomer trying to mow their
grass, the fat hit the fire. Coloured
diesel (normally 9 to 10 cents) went to
3 cents; coloured gas, I believe, was
19 cents. We sold a whole truckload
of plastic 1,500 -gallon tanks in one
day alone.
When the fuel war hit your town,
you had until midnight to get your
cheque into your dealer. You then had
to take delivery of all that you pur-
chased by the end of May. It was
nothing to drive through a town and
see vehicles lined up and down the
street. One dealer in Trochu was
open until 2:30 a.m. Most people
purchased a supply for months to a
year. I know one fellow who bought
30 THE RURAL VOICE
-b_...,i
_r_
1 No soy
I ,c4 o`'P t�
14-4 Q
I we' O Q.
OD
I`
,` ''Q°LI,
`
••
\\
` I
..,
.m
`
/
p..
T. -S
I
I aQ
�QE
OQQ
EOE
I sU/`
' 2QryE
MI
s
DARK . ,t ZONE
1 Dh"h
BROWNSOIL ZONt ��•
I
oB
� pooco,. jr
• 1 ,c,„,,,04. i
t q
r f rggtis r/
EYE I .' ti, ,fit, tiq/ i
.-_ 1pRECA4f //
I eg4�_-.
l/ /
1 s 1
1 NIQN 00411 1
ZONE 1
it 1
b t
1 q ,
tory, 1
1rA—_�
John Deere corn planter north of
Lethbridge. Because of the climate,
Mark's silage is fairly green at harvest
time, so he cuts it in with "green feed"
for storage in the bunk silos.
But that's black -soil, high -rainfall
country. Going east towards Three
Hills, every 25 miles means one inch
less rain. The Number 21 highway
that runs north and south through
Three Hills marks the black soil,
brown soil boundary.
Kneehill County has some of the
most picturesque and rolling prairie
country you'll see anywhere. Hard
red spring wheat, barley, and spring
canola are the main crops. There's a
scattering of custom feed yards as well
as many farmers feeding 80 to 100
head. You'll also see a good number
of modern and not so modern hog
operations.
In September of 1987 the Three
Hills area received four -tenths of an
inch of rain. That was an accumula-
tion of two two -tenth showers, contin-
uing the dry winter of 1986-87 and the
Soil zones of the prairies
dry summer of 1987 — and the sign of
worse to come. But the spring of '87
arrived with a ray of hope: a fuel war.
It started out somewhere near the
Alberta -Saskatchewan border when
Turbo Resources, being long on fuel,
decided to deliver tanker load lots to
farmers at deep discount prices. When
Esso and Petro Canada got wind of
some newcomer trying to mow their
grass, the fat hit the fire. Coloured
diesel (normally 9 to 10 cents) went to
3 cents; coloured gas, I believe, was
19 cents. We sold a whole truckload
of plastic 1,500 -gallon tanks in one
day alone.
When the fuel war hit your town,
you had until midnight to get your
cheque into your dealer. You then had
to take delivery of all that you pur-
chased by the end of May. It was
nothing to drive through a town and
see vehicles lined up and down the
street. One dealer in Trochu was
open until 2:30 a.m. Most people
purchased a supply for months to a
year. I know one fellow who bought
30 THE RURAL VOICE