The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
Hardman can be seen in this photo near a tractor and seeder. He’s holding a grain scoop to fill the seeder by hand, something he had to do all the time before fill augers became relatively commonplace. “That’s really old school. It builds up some muscles,” he says, laughing.
Photo: John Hardman
The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
This is a side draw seed tender used to fill the grain drill John Hardman uses on the farm. It can hold up to 200 bushels of grain seed at a time. A tarp can be placed over the top of the bin to protect seed when it’s raining.
Photo: John Hardman
The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
Those two large metal circles attached to the back of the tractor are harrows. Hardman notes they date back to the 1940s or ’50s. They leave a “wiggly, squiggly” pattern in the soil because they are constantly moving and cleaning themselves when in use, he says.
Photo: John Hardman
The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
This menacing-looking machine is a Morris Seed-Rite 80-14 seed drill. Hardman used it as recently as two summers ago. The 14-foot drill was manufactured in the late 1970s. Hardman says it is rarely used these days on most farms and most remaining models can be found “in the bush now.”
Photo: John Hardman
The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
Hardman refers to these three combines as his Gleaner trifecta. The one in the middle is a 1998 rotary model and is the newest of the three. The other two models were manufactured in 1982 and 1989.
Photo: John Hardman
The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
This is a look at the interior of a drill filler. Hardman says the bristles near the bottom of the device help to gently lift seed for soybean and peas without cracking them unlike many regular augers, which can damage seed and prevent it from growing.
Photo: John Hardman
The ‘vintage’ equipment of Crooked Creek Farms
Crooked Creek Farms has twice been named a winner of Manitoba Conservation’s Farm Family awards, first in 1989 and again in 1999. The awards recognize individuals, organizations and family farms that promote sound farm management and conservation practices. “I guess they like what we do with the buffer strips around the fields and lots of grass headlands. It’s nice to know you’re doing your part to give birds some place to nest and a habitat for animals. We’re not hungry for land, as my dad used to say, where we push every piece of bush down,” Hardman says.
Photo: John Hardman
If you ever happen to visit Crooked Creek Farms near Dauphin, Man., there’s a pretty good chance you’ll take note of the many vintage farm implements stored on the property. Some of those pieces of equipment on the 750-acre family-owned farm date back as far as the 1940s, including a W-6 International Harvester tractor. But this is no farm equipment museum. Most of these implements are still in working order and were used as recently as last fall to help farmer John Hardman and his family to harvest their fields.
“It’s nice to be able to smell the dirt and get out there and back to your roots,” Hardman says of why his farm continues to rely on older equipment. Hardman shared the stories behind some of his favourite and most reliable farm apparatus with Grainews.
