Inspired by the horses-only farming project at the Bar U Historic Ranch, Ken and Verna Pohl decided to try something like that on their own Ponoka-area farm.
“There was a steady stream of people for the two days of seeding,” explained Pohl, who put up five acres, which was seeded to oats by several teams. When harvest time came, there was another good turnout for the binding and stooking day. Visitors, young and old, were fascinated to see the four-abreast team of Percherons from Brett Fulford of Haynes, with his 1938 John Deere binder at work.
The Ponoka Ag Society helped host a threshing day at the farm. Folks were invited to bring their pitchforks and help load the bundles onto the rack, for their trip through the antique threshing machine.
“We’re donating the sale of the crop to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, so it’ll go a long ways to help a lot of needy people in the world,” explains Pohl, who had numerous teams and bundle racks join his own team for the September harvest day.
Pohl is a heavy horse fan, and enjoys using his Percheron-Quarter horse cross in Canadian Cowboy Challenge events, as well as for some old-fashioned field work.