The Rural Voice, 1989-12, Page 34In the HEART
A few years ago,
Robbie Fine gave up his
modern machinery for
heavy horses and the
Mennonite way of life.
He found many helping
hands. As Mennonite
church elder Daniel
Martin says, "The old
way of farming requires
working together. You
can't argue with your
neighbour because you
need each other."
of the COUNTRY
by Lisa Boonstoppel
At one time, Robbie Fine drove a
car, used electricity, and worked like a
conventional fanner.
Then, about two years ago, he
gave up his automobile for a horse-
drawn buggy, his modern machinery
for horses, and his Baptist upbringing
for the Mennonite belief.
Now Robbie Fine is living the life
of a Mennonite.
"I farm like a Mennonite because
I believe it is more pleasurable to
God," says Fine, who operates a 153 -
acre rented farm near Whitechurch in
Huron County with his wife Suzie and
four young children. He grows wheat,
corn, oats, barley, soys and white
beans, using his own five heavy horses
and five heavy colts along with four
other heavy horses on loan.
The farm supports the family
along with an assortment of animals.
The work horses and the two horses
for the buggy share the barn with a
herd of 16 Jerseys for shipping cream,
some sows, a gaggle of geese, some
laying hens, and a sheep.
"I am a little too ambitious some
say, but I have to pay the rent," says
Fine, who rents the property for about
$6,000 a year and finds he needs a
substantial operation to cover costs.
However, he does plan to plant fewer
acres next year because he admits the
work is too much for one man.
"It's a lot easier when you have a
large family because you can all work
together," he says. His children are all
under the age of six.
If it weren't for the help of the
Belmore Mennonites, with whom Fine
is affiliated through the Mennonite
church in Belmore, he would never
have been able to harvest his crops.
"I am in charge of my own farm
but if I or another Mennonite isn't
done his harvest, other Mennonite
farmers will get together to help him
finish up."
"I can sow about eight acres a day
with the horses and seed drill," says
Fine, whose days are very long. Just
sowing his 40 acres of wheat, for ex-
ample, took five full days. Harvest is
also time-consuming. The wheat is
cut with a binder. The stalks fall on a
canvas that leads to a binding appar-
atus which ties the stalks into a sheaf.
The binder then deposits the sheaf on
the field.
For single farmers like Fine, who
may not be able to get into the field
the next day to stook the sheaves,
sheaves can be dropped in piles of
three so they're easier and faster to
stook than when lying individually.
The sheaves are then picked up
and made into stooks, usually of seven
sheaves. This year, Fine got his field
stooked on August 16 with the help of
five Mennonite men who drove almost
three hours from Belmore to help him.
One of those men, Daniel Martin,
estimates that "a good man can stook
about eight acres a day."
Since Fine's wheat had been lying
unstooked in the field, the Mennonite
crew planned on threshing the wheat
the next day after it had been stooked
only one day in the sun. In fact, had it
not rained, Fine says they probably
would have threshed the grain without
stooking it.
Daniel Martin says that stooks
withstand the rain much better than
the swathed rows of wheat in con-
ventional farmers' fields.
The next day, a three-man crew
was ready to thresh the grain. One
man took to the field with a pitchfork
and horse-drawn wagon. With skill
and strength, he loaded the wagon as
high as square bales are stacked on
wagons, except he loaded it from the
ground. The horses were trained to
stop and go on voice command.
32 THE RURAL VOICE