Perfect Fall Weather For Pumpkin Harvest

Sep 30, 2021

Manitoba's pumpkin harvest is underway.

Scott Friesen grows about 60 acres of pumpkins near Halbstadt.

"So far the weather's been cooperating very well for the harvest," he said. "It's just been excellent weather getting the pumpkins off the field. No mud to deal with, no dirty pumpkins. We cut them off the vine and then roll them into windrows and then put them in wooden crates and take them home to get washed and put into the shipping bins and we have been shipping fairly steadily since about September 10th."

Friesen noted harvest started about a week early this year.

He commented on yields so far.

"Yields are pretty good. The pumpkin profile has sized up fairly well. A little bit smaller, but overall, pretty good. The yield is as good as any year, maybe even a little bit better. Those August rains are what the pumpkins really needed."

Friesen says about 7.5 inches of rain fell in his area throughout the month of August.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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