A pedigreed seed grower from Fortier who started a fundraiser to raise money for cancer research says there was phenomenal support over the Thanksgiving weekend and he hopes other farmers and farm businesses will take up this cause.
Miller Agritec Inc. owner Darcy Miller vowed to grow a crop and donate the proceeds while in hospital recovering from surgery following a diagnosis of colon cancer in early 2014.
Last weekend he and his family along with 250-plus friends and family gathered for harvest of a 90-acre soybean field, followed by a dinner at the Elie community hall. All proceeds from the sale of the crop — and two more to follow — plus all monies raised by the event are for Growing Support for CancerCare (Manitoba).
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Miller said he hopes it will inspire others in the farm community to host similar events.
“I’ve put that challenge out,” he said. “I would love to see other farmers or seed-growing businesses jump in on this. Anyone could start a project on their own and it’s such an easy thing to do.”
There was immediate support when Darcy and his spouse Andrea began to pitch the idea last fall. Friends, business associates and neighbours immediately offered to donate land, seed and crop inputs. Bernie Chabot of Elie offered 90 acres of land for the project. Winkler’s Legend Seeds and Seed Depot at Pilot Mound donated soybean and wheat for what will be a three-year crop rotation. Arnold Blight with Portage Agri-Sales donated all the crop inputs.
As the harvest approached, they had so many offers of donated combines that they had to turn some down, or there’d have been too many on the field.
“There were eight machines on 90 acres so we weren’t in there very long, just slightly over an hour and 10 minutes and it was all off,” Miller said.
Meanwhile, many donations from area farmers and residents have poured in. The event also captured the imagination of University of Manitoba’s agricultural students, who donated proceeds from their annual bed push event this fall to CancerCare too.
T-shirts donated by the Millers bore the name of one of Growing Support’s staunchest supporters, John Smith of Seed Depot, who died of cancer earlier this year.
“Every single person in that hall has been touched by cancer, either directly, or indirectly through their families,” said Miller, who is still battling it himself.
“People had a chance to talk and visit. I love seeing that.”
The Elie-Oakville-area Growing Support for CancerCare project is expected to bring in upwards of $150,000 over three years.
Darcy and Andrea Miller and their four children are the fourth generation to farm at the old village site east of Oakville.
