The Canada’s Farm Progress Show in Regina on June 20-22 had some familiar names with Schulte Industries and Bourgault Tillage both bringing home sterling innovation awards for farm innovations.
Schulte head engineer and Saskatchewan producer, Todd Hoffman, developed his soil star DHX600 disk/harrow unit through Schulte Industries Ltd. bringing home the stirling award for combining “a traditional heavy harrow design along with two rows of material sizing/ground engaging discs,” says the Farm Progress program guide.
The combination machine is not something that is available in the area, says Schulte Marketing and Communications Coordinator Rob Muench.
“What’s happening in farming now is the crops are being more productive so you’re getting more straw and chaff left over after harvest,” says Muench. “Sometimes the heavy harrow isn’t enough to do what it needs to do.”
While the machine is a combination machine, the heavy harrow can be used separately with the disks being retractable.
Schulte Industries had a lot of interest in their machine, says Muench, which will be a strong addition to agriculture markets in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
Joseph Bourgault, Frank Nagy, and F.P. Bourgault Tillage Tools Limited developed the BTT 50’ Weed Clipper for both conventional and organic farmers for weed control in their fields, says Bourgault.
Any farmer can take the weed clipper into a seeded crop and clip and mulch weeds between four to 46 inches in height, he says.
“Those are the weeds that will give you problems in your crops,” he says
Bourgault became an organic farmer in 2008 and he wanted to give both types of producers the ability to control weeds without the use of chemicals.
“Chemical weed resistance is another growing problem for all farmers. This machine has a lot of potential to reduce costs for conventional farmers, because chemical costs are high, and more and more people are demanding foods without residues.”
With heavy competition from both provincial, national, and North American companies, both Muench and Bourgault say they are proud of the innovations coming out of the Humboldt area iron triangle.
“This region is really well known for agriculture manufacturing and we’ve seen a lot of innovation come out of this region,” says Muench. “Whether it’s Bourgault, Doepkers, Michel’s, CMI, Schulte, or FPS...it’s nice to have those innovations happening because it’s providing jobs for our local region.”
Being in such a productive area, we have to remain as humble as we can, says Bourgault.
“Saskatchewan companies...we’re among the world leaders in the fields that we compete in. We know we’re capable of competing with the best companies in the world. I say it humbly because there are a lot of other good companies out there.”
We are blessed to have a region with so many strong manufacturing companies, says Bourgault, and it is growing.
