Threshing Days exhibits old days of farming
Staff writer
Todd and Christina Reid brought two pair of Halfinger draft horses and a mule to Goessel’s Threshing Days this weekend.
It was the fifth year Reid had brought teams for field demonstrations.
The Reid Family Farm has Haflingers, Percherons, Clydesdales, crosses, three mules, and mini horses.
“We have too many, so we take donations of hay,” Reid quipped.
Halflingers originate in Austria, where the breed was developed for logging in mountains.
Winters in Austria are so cold, Halflingers were bred small enough to stay inside houses with their owners.
A friend of the Reid family, Gene Siebert, drove a second pair of Reid Family Farm horses during Threshing Days.
Besides field demonstrations, Threshing Days offered displays of antique farm equipment ranging from old and rusty to shiny and renewed.
Tractors ranged from lawn tractors to prairie tractors. Four Allis-Chalmers tractors were brought from Concordia. An Avery steam engine came from Oklahoma.
Other makes of tractors on display included John Deere, Cockshutt, Oliver, Farmall, Ferguson, Case Avery, Emerson-Brantingham, Rumely, International Harvester, Reeves, McCormick-Deering, and Moline. Many were started up.
Old engines were displayed and also started up for the crowd to witness. So were gleaners.
All told, 142 tractors, steam engines, trucks, and threshers were on display this year, said Wheat Heritage Engine and Threshing Company member Bruce Funk.
Classic and antique cars were also on display, along with gleaners, a Wurlitzer Military Band organ, and a windmill.
This year’s 49th annual Threshing Days was expanded from two days to three days.
The club is building a 40-by-100 feet building for owners who want can store equipment on site.