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Late this summer I had the opportunity of visiting with
three crews of Canadian custom harvesters, all from Saskatchewan, working
the wheat harvest in the United States. They were the Brownridge outfit,
from Arcola; the Kuntz outfit, from Yorkton; and the Prevost outfit, from
Rose Valley. Only about twenty harvest crews from Canada still work in
the U.S., so these are all hardy survivors.
During the Second World War, making the harvest was considered patriotic
service that aided the war effort of both the U.S. and Canada. During
wartime, with industry devoted to production of weaponry, it was important
to get maximum use from combines. So by executive agreement in 1942, the
two countries pledged to streamline
border crossings so that Canadian and American harvesters
could work in one another’s country. An exchange of diplomatic notes
continued the arrangement after the war was over.
Despite honest intentions, the international harvest exchange was imperfect
from the outset. It was (and still is today) relatively easy for American
harvesters to enter Canada, but repeatedly, Canadian outfits heading south
had trouble obtaining the papers they needed. Officials failed to recognize
that farmers on the southern plains raised winter wheat, harvesting of
which began before the first of June, and that Canadian harvesters, therefore,
needed to clear the border in May. Nor did they understand that Canadian
harvesters needed to remain in the United States for an extended time,
perhaps three months, to complete their circuit back to the prairie provinces.
Not until 1945 were timely procedures established. From then on hundreds
of Canadians regularly worked in the United States, beginning with 157
outfits in 1945 and reaching a peak of 1100 outfits in 1947.
Participation in the American harvest became a profitable and traditional
ritual for western Canadians such as Vernon Wildfong of Craik, Saskatchewan.
He and his brother, Bert, first made the harvest in 1947 with a fourteen-foot,
canvas-table No. 21 Massey-Harris combine they hauled down to Protection,
Kansas, with a Maple Leaf Chevrolet truck. They were just initiates in
business, and even such simple needs as laundry and cooking posed unexpected
problems, but the attractions of such southern-plains exotica as iced
tea and Dr. Pepper, and more important, the initial profits they made
("I'd never seen so much money in my life!" marveled Wildfong)
landed them in the harvesting business for good.
Eventually, though, there were pressures from within the United States
to exclude the Canadian operators. In the 1970s an organization called
U.S. Custom Harvesters was formed to seek such exclusion, which resulted
in new requirements of procedure and documentation for the Canadians.
The organization’s lobbying and publicity campaigns have continued
in recent years, which is one reason why the number of Canadians working
the American harvest has dwindled.
A few days after September 11, 2001, Al and Marilyn Kuntz, from Yorkton,
Saskatchewan, were harvesting fall crops in North Dakota. Al bought an
American flag and mounted it atop his Case-IH combine. In his daily diary
he recorded his sympathies for Americans under attack by a common enemy.
The flag gets tattered in the prairie winds, and so Al has to replace
it about twice a year, but it still flutters up there beside his grain
auger today.
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