Celebrating a record-breaking tractor parade

Aug 16, 2018

The World’s Greatest Tractor Parade set a Guinness world record in 2008

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

An Ontario community is organizing a parade to celebrate a milestone it reached a decade ago.

Stirling, Ont., will host the tenth anniversary of the World’s Greatest Tractor Parade on Aug. 25. In 2008, 601 tractors drove through the community during its 150^th anniversary celebrations to set the Guinness world record for the largest parade of tractors.

A flat tire on one tractor prevented the number from being 602.

The anniversary parade serves different purposes.

The event helps the community get to know the local farmers who contribute to every meal, said Darrin Heasman, a farmer, police officer and co-chair of the World’s Greatest Tractor Committee.

“Everyone who was in the original parade is 10 years older,” he told Farms.com today. “It’s an opportunity to celebrate the farming community through a celebration of a piece of equipment farmers use to make a living, support their families and feed the world.”

The World’s Greatest Tractor Parade also helps tell the story of the tractor’s evolution.

Facebook photo

Participants are driving vintage machines all the way to modern-day equipment, showing spectators how far agriculture has come.

“They see such a range of technology from an old Case tractor up to the John Deere 8000 series,” Heasman said. “Some of the great big ones make less noise than the old 40-horsepower models, and it’s amazing to see it all in one day.”

Tractor enthusiasts who want to get a closer look at some of the machines will have the chance to do so.

Every tractor in the parade will be parked at the Stirling Fairgrounds to allow people to learn more.

“The farmers will be on hand to answer questions about their tractors and how they use them,” Heasman said. “I’m sure it will be a big hit for the whole family.”

Registration is still open for any interested producers.

Farmers can fill out registration forms at local tractor dealerships in the Quinte, Ont. area or by visiting the event’s Facebook page.

More than 100 farmers have already registered and there are “hundreds of more registrations” to go through, Heasman said.

“Leading up to the event, there’s more registrations coming in,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we exceed our previous total of 601 tractors.”

Heasman thanked farmers for their participation in the parade.

“I know it costs money to move the tractor from the farm, into town and back again,” he said. “I also know that many farmers are busy at this time of year, so for them to take a few hours to celebrate tractors, agriculture and the community is wonderful.”

A parade of Canadian tractors broke the original world record two years after the World’s Greatest Tractor Parade set it.

The Canadian Cancer Society in Dresden, Ont., set a new record in 2010 with a parade of 1,231 tractors.

Top photo: World's Greatest Tractor Parade/Facebook

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”