Crop Message A Tribute To Dad

Crop Message A Tribute To Dad FARM HOME Miscellaneous 31-2-21 As David Fehr of the Winkler, Manitoba area, swathed the last crop seeded by his late father, many thoughts and memories were running through his mind. In fact, there was only a five-acre piece left to go on the 40-acre field, when Fehr got an idea. He would use the old 400 Versatile swather to carve out a message as a unique tribute to his dad. Without the help of GPS or anything else, Fehr swathed out the words, "Dad's Last Crop." He worked "freehand," with only visual reckoning to guide his inspired movements. "It was important for me to do something special," Fehr says, admitting that the memorial project gave him a good feeling. "It took me about an hour to create, but I wouldn't have cared if it had taken me a day." David Fehr, Sr., had farmed that piece of land since the early 1960's and planted a winter wheat crop in the fall of 2002. However, he was diagnosed with cancer in February of 2003, and passed away in May that same year at the age of 71. When the winter wheat was ready to harvest that summer, his son David accepted the task of reaping what his father had sown. "Since I didn't get the idea for the tribute until I was almost finished, I knew I had only one chance to get it right û if I messed up, I'd be done," he explains. "It's not perfect, but it still conveys the message." Fehr says it helped that he could see the rows running lengthwise in the wheat. To maintain the same height for each letter, he first made a path that followed the rows, and then did another one and stepped it off. "I transferred the swath by hand in a few places, because when you make a circle with the swather, it leaves a space," he says. Before harvesting the wheat and destroying the tribute, David and his sister Kathy captured an aerial photo of the comforting project as they flew together in David's paraglider (also called a powerchute). This is a small, two-person recreational aircraft that David says looks like a small go-cart with a propeller and parachute. The fitting memorial capped off the elder Fehr's farming career that involved growing sugar beets and grain on 400 acres between Haskett and Rosengart, on the U.S. border. Contact: FARM SHOW Folllowup, David Fehr, R.R.#1, Box 80, Winkler, Manitoba, Canada R6W 4A1 (ph 204 325-7017 or 204 325-8385; davidfehr@xplornet.com).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.