33 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | August 2024 UP CLOSE BOURBONNAIS EQUIPMENT Sarsfield • 613-835-2623 G.J.’S HARVEST CENTRE INC. Burgessville • 519-424-9374 Milverton • 519-603-8374 HAWLEY’S GARAGE Belleville • 613-969-5525 J&H SALES & SERVICE Chesley • 519-363-3510 J&J EQUIPMENT REPAIR INC Powassan • 705-724-6565 M&P FARM EQUIPMENT Almonte • 613-253-4957 MARK McCABE TRACTOR SALES Lindsay • 705-799-2868 PROFOTA’S FARM EQUIPMENT Chatham • 519-354-5100 YURKE SALES & SERVICE Comber • 519-687-2209 factor would be relationships and succession, followed by financial viability. There’s more to life than just dollars, but it helps. Derek: The lights are all still on and everyone still wants to come to work most days. Doug: We continue to try to do the best we can on the farm and grow successful crops. We still get along and are able to spend time with family, even though it’s not as much as we’d like sometimes. If we do all those things, I think we are pretty successful. How do you manage working with your family? Doug Sr.: It’s a huge task for the first generation to pass on the farm to the next generation. You work very, very hard at it. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue, sometimes you end up saying too much, but it is about having open communication. When we visit as a family, we try not to talk shop. Derek: You have to try to understand where the other person is coming from and what they’ve experienced and their opinions. For me, personal time away and space is important. It can be either at home or away somewhere else, or even just having those days where you’re in a tractor by yourself and can listen to music and enjoy farming. I’ve come to really enjoy my alone time as I’ve gotten older. Doug: You have to have a level of respect for the other person’s opinions and what they want to do, but you can have constructive conversations. You have to be able to come to agreements and be able to compromise. Some things are easy, and some are more difficult, but often there are two ways to get to the same point. Be willing to compromise. What’s your favourite piece of equipment? Doug Sr.: I am a self-taught mechanic. I just rebuilt the tractor I bought in my first year of farming for the second time. It’s a 1968 Nuffield. I just used it the other day for three to four hours and it still works well. The other favourites I had that recently went down the road were a couple of cab-over road tractors – a ’74 Kenworth and an ’86 Freightliner. Those were antiques. Derek: I would say it’s our John Deere 5500N with the weed sprayer. We built a new weed sprayer – which my daughter named ‘the Spraying Mantis,’ and we put it on a cab tractor. It turned a lousy job that nobody liked doing into a job that’s quite comfortable and enjoyable. I also like harvesting with the G170 Grape Harvester because that means there’s a crop there. Doug: We have so many pieces. The only tractor job I do consistently is spraying, but being able to sit in our John Deere 6410 tractor is comfortable and it’s big and the AC works well. It’s nice to sit in there for a day when it’s quiet and I’m by myself. BF
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