The Dying Towns Of Southern Saskatchewan- 20 minute video

[GON]

Good watch for a Sunday.

The Dying Towns Of Southern Saskatchewan. 20 minute video, interesting watch. Video showcases the region as the farm population has departed from Southern Saskatchewan.

 

[doitmyself]

That video is super awesome. Thank you Gon. I have some unexplained fascination with old things that were once vibrant. My imagination runs wild with thoughts of how these homesteads and towns once had thriving families doing what families do.

 

[GON]

That video is super awesome. Thank you Gon. I have some unexplained fascination with old things that were once vibrant. My imagination runs wild with thoughts of how these homesteads and towns once had thriving families doing what families do.

Thanks, when I reflect on those towns, areas, and regions, one asks why

The default answer is young people have more opportunities in urban areas. I ask myself how much has combines, massive farming, etc impacted small farming communities.

 

[wwillson]

Similar to what I call the decay of rural America. At one point in the video a large 4-wheel drive tractor was visible. Scale of farm machinery and livestock operations has been putting the squeeze on labor for a long time. Notice the Ag land is not abandoned, just the farmsteads and towns. There simply isn't nearly the demand for Ag labor like there was 75 or 100 years ago. Labor is migrating to the city where job are this drives abandonment farmsteads and towns all over rural America and Canada.

 

[fdcg27]

For those areas within a reasonable commute of a solid job, this also creates lower cost housing opportunities away from the cities and their expensive HOA run suburbs.
This is certainly the case in Ohio as the small farm towns that look like throwbacks from the early post-war era are often commutable to places with real jobs as well as being charming in a way that stroad divided suburbs will never be.
Takes a little initiative in searching things out, as well as commuting routes, though.

 

[BrianF]

Many small towns out here are dying. Its sad. Less and less family farms, just bigger and bigger corporations. First a school closes, then a bank and then it's just a cascade effect.

 

[carviewsonic]

Family farms in our area have mostly all been bought up by large corporate farm companies. Some of the biggest land owners now are pension funds that rent land to these large corporate operations. In my 38 year career in construction I went from having meetings over coffee with farmers at their homes to sending letters to lawyers offices.

 

[4WD]

Similar to what I call the decay of rural America. At one point in the video a large 4-wheel drive tractor was visible. Scale of farm machinery and livestock operations has been putting the squeeze on labor for a long time. Notice the Ag land is not abandoned, just the farmsteads and towns. There simply isn't nearly the demand for Ag labor like there was 75 or 100 years ago. Labor is migrating to the city where job are this drives abandonment farmsteads and towns all over rural America and Canada.

I live in farm country and the size/cost of today’s machines is just stunning - to the point where “custom cutters/pickers” might be your best bet - and then own minimum equipment to do the rest with …

 

[wwillson]

I live in farm country and the size/cost of today’s machines is just stunning

John Deere now makes an 18L 900HP straight six to power even larger equipment. Where is Ag headed? Purely industrial farming by a few gigantic companies driven by spreadsheets?

 

[Sedin26]

I’m from southern Saskatchewan - both sides of my grandparent’s families homesteaded in 1907 and 1915. Both families had 10 kids, the vast majority of whom stayed in the community throughout their lives.

Dad stopped farming in the early 90’s, as he found that he could make as much money renting out the land most years as he could farming it himself. He also realized that he could be innovative and do various things to improve efficiency and yield but world events had an outsized effect on his profits.

He farmed 3 sections. Nowadays, most guys farm 20 or 30 sections of land. Corporations are buying more and more land. The Mennonites also bought large chunks of land in our area.

The land is still in the family but I will never farm it. The cost of equipment is impossibly high. It would be fun to farm a quarter section with vintage equipment some day.

So, as others have mentioned, the changing nature of the business and the other options available to young people have driven people out of the rural areas. I’d love to live on the farm but it’s not in the cards.

I’ll attach a picture of me on the truck, waiting for the combine, in 1996. Also one of the old farm house, which was last lived in around 1998.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Thanks, when I reflect on those towns, areas, and regions, one asks why

The default answer is young people have more opportunities in urban areas. I ask myself how much has combines, massive farming, etc impacted small farming communities.

I've traveled a lot in rural America and have actually lived in rural America for the past 15 years. There are two types of towns -- the ones that have hospitals, and the ones that don't. The first category are the ones that continue to survive, and sometimes even prosper if they are close to an urban center. The second type are deteriorating and dying fast. There is very little other economic activity.