Four generations of farming, one tractor
June 29, 2026, 1:33 pm
Donnie Matichuk
Farmers have access to very advanced technology for their fields today, but a family from the Rocanville area is celebrating technology from a different era.
Heather and Tim Graham, who run Cornucopia Gardens near Rocanville on Highway 8, use a tractor in their garden that has been used by four generations of their family. Cornucopia Gardens said that they are proud to have been using the 1951 International W4 for all these years.
“On the farm with the cattle, it was a never-ending source of work. We only had square bales—that was before round bales came around—and it was a very physical job.
“Dad happened to be on the tractor that day, and Mom took a picture, so there’s the proof that four generations have used that tractor on the land,” said Dennis Hack, father of Heather Graham.
“The land is still being used to this day, which is very cool some seventy-five years later. Of our three kids, two are still actively farming and using that same tractor on the same land.”
Hack says that he is proud to have had a role in the story of the old machine.
“When I first saw the picture of our grandson John on the tractor, I felt proud and thought it was really special. I think it must be quite a unique story, especially that the tractor is still running so well. It’s had very little modification over the years, we put a hydraulic system in and built a three-point hitch for it. It’s still very usable with all the equipment in the garden.”
He said that the tractor has stayed working well with very little work compared to what you would think.
“It’s pretty special that it’s survived this long and has been used by so many people in the family. It’s had some work done on it, but it’s surprising how little. Another thing that is kind of neat is that it’s only ever ran on Co-op brand oil, so in my opinion you can’t knock Co-op oil.”
Hack says that surprisingly, the machine is working harder than it did back then.
“It’s been a wonderful little tractor ever since Dad bought it, and it’s served us well ever since then. Back then, it was smaller than what we were using in the fields, so we used it to pull the bale racks, like you see in the photo. Today, it probably gets more work than it did years ago because it gets used in the garden so often. You’d think it wouldn’t get used as much as it got older, but it’s only getting more work.”
He says that the tractor has stayed mostly unchanged from when it was first purchased, and that it is an example of how long well-built equipment can last.
“A lot of farms today don’t have a tractor that’s more than 18 months old with all the new bells and whistles. Seeing this old machine still running as well as it is makes me proud to have used it.
“Lots of people say that if it’s in such good shape, we should give it a new coat of paint and restore it. I think that that is something we could do, but I agree with my daughter Heather. She says that she couldn’t imagine the tractor looking any different than how it’s looked for the last seventy-five years.”
