KEMPTVILLE — May 8 was a gorgeous day for planting. Plenty of tractors were in the fields turning up dirt and putting in seed.
One seeder had a rough morning start. North Gower crop farmer Dwight Foster was pulling a seeder around a corner but it swung wide and tipped over, ending with one arm firmly lodged in the ditch, witnesses said. The hitch snapped and the tractor remained upright. No one was injured. The massive seeding arm stuck itself into a ditch at the corner of South Gower Drive and Dillabaugh Road, about 15 minutes south of Kemptville.
It took three heavy machines to guide the seeder back onto the road. About 12 people showed up to help, including a nice young woman handing out butter tarts. It wasn’t until 2:45 p.m. that the seeder was fully extricated and attached to the tractor with a new hitch.
An accident at the busiest time of the year draws out the community, and this one brought help out in droves. Foster told Farmers Forum that he got calls from 15 other farmers offering to loan their planters and he couldn’t thank them enough. “Working without a planter at this time of year is like working without a raincoat in a rainstorm,” he said.
A repair team at Reis Equipment, in Winchester, had the seeder back in shape in short order. The seeder was back in the field planting corn the next day. “It was a bad-news story that turned out to be a good-news story,” Foster said.
