(From left to right) Nichole, Mark, Logan and Evie Neubauer at the family's wheat field north of Walsh on Wednesday. (CHAT News photo).

By Alex McCuaig

Share the land

Fifth generation of farmers taking to the field for this year’s bumper wheat crop

Aug 19, 2020 | 5:14 PM

WALSH, AB – The wheat crop looks good on the Neubauer farm north of Walsh as the family’s two teens pull up to the hopper in a combine full of this year’s harvest on a toasty southeastern Alberta late morning.

It’s an exercise performed now by five generations of Neubauers who have worked the fields around Medicine Hat since 1910.

And this year’s crop looks good says Mark Neubauer as he and his wife Nichole watch their son Logan, 16, and daughter Evie, 14, combine and dump load after load of the thick and heavy harvest.

“We always called a bumper crop on this field 40 bushels an acre. That’s about what this crop is running today. We’re very please,” said Mark.

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But hard work is only half the battle for farmers in the Palliser Triangle – named after John Palliser, whose description of the arid shortgrass prairie was something along the lines as uninhabitable during his 19th-century exploration of the area. The other half is weather and the hopes enough moisture falls on the dryland crop at the right time to make a go of it.

This year, both came through.

But the future of the family farm is something of an open question as both Logan and Evie say they are looking at other occupations, though the ties to the land are something that remain strong.

“It’s just something I want to do,” said Logan of farming. “It’s more of a culture than a passion, honestly, if that makes any sense. It’s something that is hard to explain. It’s something that you feel motivated to do and yet you just enjoy doing. You never work a day in your life if you enjoy doing what you do.”

It’s much the same for Evie who has an appreciation for the lessons learned on the farm and the responsibilities each family member has.

“Everybody plays a part. Everybody has their responsibilities in order to get the work done for the day. Everybody has their own tasks they have to do so you learn to work together as a team in order to get everything done and completed for the day,” said Evie.

Whether or not Evie and Logan take on the farm, Nichole says it will be ready for them.

“Sustainability is at the heart of every decision that we make here on our farm,” said Nichole. “We have to protect our soil. We have to make good decisions because our kids have the potential to be the fifth generation on our farm. We want to pass that farm on to them should they decide to pursue a career in agriculture.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Mark.

“We’re certainly doing everything we can do to encourage them to have other options,” said Mark. “They are going to be strongly encouraged to pursue some college or university degrees. And then maybe farming can be part of that.”

And if there is one thing Nichole says people need to realize it’s that farming families like theirs represent a minute fraction of Canada’s population but provide a safe food supply for this county and those around the world.

Something Canadians should appreciate and be proud of.