Whats better than harvest? Having pizza and prizes delivered to your combine step during harvest and that’s exactly what we did, as we visited two more winners for our Meal in the Field contest this week.

Stretching in opposite directions of Kindersley, we visited the Hewlitt family south of town in the Eston area and yesterday we made our way northeast of Kerrobert to see the Ralston’s.

The Hewlitt family had a little bit of moisture lingering from the frost the night before and were waiting for things to dry up so we made it a meal in the quonset instead! Although they were kind enough to invite some neighbours to indulge on some pizza, the family farm is run solely by the Hewlitts including Dave, his wife Christina, their son Tanner, Dave’s dad, Verne and last but certainly not least, their sweet dog Ava.  The farm has been in the family dating all the way back to 1928 and they are currently farming around 4800 acres and seem to be making their way through the harvest season with flying colours.

The Hewlitts have a few different crops including, wheat, durum, canola, chickpeas, lentils and canary seed and was jovial about the fact that they just have one dog and cat as far as livestock is concerned so should be doing fine through the winter for feed.

Moisture hasn’t been much different for the Hewlitts with Dave referring to the rainfall as being “vertically challenged” in the area, receiving about two inches during the growing season and another inch and a half since the crops have matured. “Given the amount of rain, our quality and yield is still turning out pretty good and we haven’t seen any issues with bugs or disease,” said Dave.

I’m starting to see a trend with farmers, as I asked Dave the same question as I had with the Sieben family, what their favourite part of farming is? Dave answered much in the same way,“The excitement and hope that comes during seeding and then the reward of harvest.”

Skipping along approximately 17 kilometres northeast of Kerrobert, Jim Ralston met up with us and toured us out to their field where his wife Elaine was busy running the combine. The fourth generation farmers keep busy with their 1250 acres which Jim said, “it’s a small operation but it’s nice and manageable for just the two of us.”

Among those 1250 acres, the Ralston’s have hard-red-spring wheat, barley, red lentils and canola, half of which, Jim clarified, is Nexera canola producing higher quantities of omega-3 fatty acids. The rain situation was a little bit more favourable out on the Ralston’s land where they said they received about five inches total, with the bulk of that coming in May and June. Jim stated that an ideal year for them would be around eight or nine inches but said with the clay soil in their region, they were able to hold on to the rain they did get.

Similar to the other winners, Jim and Elaine said that they haven’t run into any major issues this year as far as bugs, disease or fungus is concerned, it was always just the hope for a little more moisture but said they are faring well regardless.

The couple proclaimed, almost in unison, that it truly is the lifestyle of farming that they love and that makes the current 15-plus hour days worth it.

Both the Ralston’s and the Hewlitt’s said they will be wrapping up harvest in approximately three weeks providing the weather holds out.