The Rural Voice, 1997-07, Page 28It's off to the field with a load of seed grain as the spring planting proceeds in
the long -held traditional way on the Kuepfer farm near Milverton. Manuel and
Ruth Anne Kuepfer are proud to be carrying on a Mennonite farming tradition.
Tradition lives on
In a time when farms grow bigger and more
industrialized, Mennonite families carry on the
traditional ways
Story and photos by Sandra Orr
Apair of heavy draft horses,
tossing their manes as they
cross the fields, is a common
sight near Milverton, Ontario. In this
area, you might see several adjacent
farmers using draft horses to seed
their fields. When the horses stamp
their feet at the end of the row and
turn to come back, you can hear the
harness jangle in the quiet air.
Manuel A. Kuepfer is one of the
Amish -Mennonite farmers who is
trying to get his crops in the late
spring of 1997. His horses happily
trot out to the fields and traverse
them while he stands on the back of
the seed drill.
Four years after moving from
town to his father's farm near Poole,
southeast of Milverton, and back ro
farming, he and his wife Ruth Anne
24 THE RURAL VOICE
feel they've made the right decision.
They hope they don't have to move
for another 40 years, Ruth Anne says.
The red barn and white farmhouse
are surrounded by large gardens,
woodpiles, pasture, fenced lanes and
outbuildings, an arrangement you'd
see years ago on the farms of many
non -Mennonites.
In the yard is a plethora of
equipment most people would
identify with yesterday: two -furrow
ploughs, wagons, harrows, and steam
engines. Kuepfer admits he likes to
collect and use this equipment. The
equipment gives the impression of a
pre-war farm, but Kuepfer puts many
modern conveniences, including
equipment, to his advantage.
Talking about farming in his
friendly way, it becomes apparent his
wish to be back on the family farm
and continue the same practices his
father did is something he's proud of.
Manny joked he thought farmers
made money so that's why he went
back to farming.
Coming back on the family
farm and using old methods is
unusual in a farming business
obsessed with modern advances.
Manny gets some custom work done,
making the most of modern
equipment. In a distant field on the
Kuepfer farm, a neighbour is
working the land with a tractor and
cultivator while Manny loads his
wagon with bags of seed, hitches the
horses and takes it to an already -
worked field. He changes the horses
from the wagon drawn along the
fence to pull the seeder across the
field. The more careful way of
seeding grain and planting corn with
a team is a tradition in this
community and one which many
farmers will remember their fathers
or their grandfathers doing, using a
team long after tractors were around,
thinking they'd get a better crop if
they were careful and could watch
the seed going in. Kuepfer puts in
about 40 acres of grain and eight
acres of corn. He has about 25 acres
of hay, and he gets a round baler in to
do the hay, another example of using
modern equipment to advantage.
Kuepfer says he'll only change if he
has to, and he is hopeful his sons,
still very young, can continue his
farming practices. He grew up on the
farm and he thinks living on a farm is
a better place to raise children than in
town.
To do his farm work, Manny
keeps 14 horses including two colts
and a pony. His family helps him
harness the horses. Manny and Ruth
Anne have five young children:
Joseph, 8, in school; Seth, 6;
Lydiann, 5; Jacob, 2; and Ada Mae, 4
months. Ruth Anne's father, Joseph
Jantzi, who farmed off highway 19
near Topping until he retired, lives
and works with them.
One of the several harness -makers
in the area nearby, Kuepfer
specializes in work -harness, mostly
for teams of two. He says it's a rainy -
day operation and he could take on a
lot more leather -work if he had the
time. Using tanned leather from
Pennsylvania and metal hardware