Update on Harvey Gjesdal

While at the Pike Management Group’s AgProgress conference in Saskatoon in July, Alberta farmer Allan Murray asked me what ever happened to Harvey Gjesdal. Allan had read my update on Alf Bryan a couple of months ago and thought I should do the same for Harvey.

Harvey, a farmer and machinery inventor from Birch Hills, Sask., wrote for Grainews regularly from 1976 to 2004. His articles were usually about some sort of machinery, often his own. He developed a tractor-powered snow shovel in 1948 that sold 1,700 units over the years. And he developed a farm-scale seed cleaner that Flaman still manufactures. 

I phoned Harvey in August to catch up. He’s 86 but by the sound of his voice, I would have guessed he was 65. He still works about six hours a day on the farm, which his daughter now runs. At harvest time, he’ll work the combine while she trucks the grain. He says crops this year are the “nicest he’s ever seen.” He estimates that 75 per cent of his area is seeded to canola and it “looks tremendous.”

Before I said good-bye, I told Harvey that he'd be welcome to write a few articles a year if he's up for it. Or, I said, he could pass the torch to his daughter. We'll see what comes of my invitation.