Sask. farmers help family complete harvest

Aug 21, 2018

Brian Williams passed away before he could combine his durum crop

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Saskatchewan’s ag community came together to finish a farmer’s harvest.

Brian Williams, a 68-year old producer from Milestone, Sask., passed away Aug. 17 with more than 600 acres of durum still in his fields.

That’s when fellow farmers decided to help.

Jeff Brown, a producer, Milestone’s mayor and family friend, contacted area growers to see if they would help.

The family originally refused the help during Williams’s hospital stay but accepted the generosity after his passing.

“We were hoping to get six or eight combines,” Brown told CBC yesterday. “Next thing I know, we were telling guys, ‘No, don’t come.’ It just snowballed.”

About 20 farmers arrived with their combines to help with the harvest on Sunday. Farmers also provided four grain carts for the work. Another 100 volunteers supported the producers.

The combines operated in a v-formation with Williams’ Case IH harvesters leading the pack. The farmers harvested all 600 acres that day.

“This was unbelievable,” Brown told CBC. “Anybody who was able to, they just came. They didn’t take no for an answer, they wanted to be there, and they were coming.”

For people in the area, the show of community support is not surprising.

“I went to high school in Milestone with the Williams family,” Ralph Goodale, public safety and emergency preparedness minister, said on Twitter yesterday. “This outpouring of generous solidarity is typical of that community.”

Farms.com has reached out to Brown for more comment on the community support.

Top photo: Jeff Brown

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