The 620 CKRM Country Cookout returned for the harvest season Tuesday with the first stop in the Lipton area.
Murray Huber was the first winner for the fall and his farm hosted the Cookout, featuring dinner catered by Nicky's Cafe & Catering and a live acoustic performance from Regina-based country singer and songwriter Kelten Chyz.
"It was just a great evening and the entertainment was superb also." said Huber.
His family has been farming since the late 1920's. Huber is a third generation farmer but is transitioning the operation to his son and fourth generation farmer, Nolan.
As for harvest, Huber said lentils were combined, but admitted they "were not good" as the crop received "too much early rain" and there were "too many drowned out spots."
"The land that they were on this year just had too many low-lying areas in it that really didn't produce much at all."
Spring wheat will be the next crop to combine, but Huber said they would have started combining at the beginning of the week had it not been for rain over the weekend. Once spring wheat is complete, they will move on to durum and finally canola.
He said they've sprayed canola twice this season, once for flea beetles and another for cabbage seed pod weevil.
When asked about whether tariffs from the U.S. and counter-tariffs from Canada, following a breakdown in CUSMA talks, would impact his farm, Huber believes it will bring some challenges.
However, he wants to see both sides return to the negotiating table.
"Let's be adults in the room. Nothing gets done unless you're sitting at the table, and right now nobody's sitting at the table." he stated.
The Country Cookout is also an opportunity for sponsors to connect with the winners.
Two representatives of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) were present for the Cookout – Curtis Hemming, the Director of Stakeholder Relations and Brenda McBride, Office Manager and Event Planner.
"It's important for us to go out and talk to folks in rural Saskatchewan and get a sense of what issues are impacting them on their farm or their ranch, and then we come up with solutions to those issues," said Hemming, " We advocate to the provincial and the federal government and industry to get those solutions implemented, because it's really important for APAS and other organizations like ours to keep working on fixing those issues that are impacting farms around the province."
McBride added, "So getting together at an event like this allows people to gather, discuss, and engage, and realize what other opportunities there are about organizations as well. So that is one of the reasons why it's good to get together. It's good at this time during the harvest cookout to celebrate all that we have here in Saskatchewan as well."
Another organization at the Cookout was the International Rural Exchange, which helps bridge the gap in labour shortages in agriculture by connecting Canadian farms with workers in Europe and vice versa.
Luis Seidl, who is from Germany, arrived in Canada recently through the IRE program and is helping a nearby farm with harvest.
Seidl said he was interested in working in another part of the world and decided to come to Canada based on good feedback he's heard from others.
"Since August I've been here and has been really great so far." he said.
He also enjoyed being at the Cookout.
"I have to say it's nice that all the people get together, we don't really have that in Germany that this is like hosted, so it's pretty nice to see it's a cool experience."
The next 620 CKRM Country Cookout is Thursday.
