Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Dairy-farming couple on cross-Canada trek



Henk and Bettina Schuurmans of  the Elmira area are on a cross-country trek, hauling a Holstein float behind their tractor.

It’s their way to defend milk-industry supply management to the Canadian public.

It's not a good idea. I can just imagine hundreds of impatient motorists honking to get them out of the way as they trundle along at 40 kilometres per hour or less.

Greg Mercer of the Waterloo Region Record interviewed them recently and they told him “we decided biking is not good for our bodies, at our age.

“The car is kind of boring and motorcycle is not our thing.

“So we said we’re farmers. Why not by tractor?”

They are driving an open John Deere 6430 with top speed of 40 kilometres per hour. They figure it will take 30 to 40 days to get to Vancouver.

They will haul the rig back to Elmira, then out to Halifax to complete the cross-Canada trek in the fall.

Their twitter handle is @CdnMilkTour .

May you have the good fortune to never be following them on the highway.