Western Irrigation District Memories – Joan Yule

By John Godsman Times Contributor

Jean Pierre (Joe) Paris and Elizabeth Lispomidaire were born in the Pyrenees region of southern France. They immigrated to Canada separately and later met and were married in Vancouver in 1910. They began farming in the Langdon area, where they had three children. Mary, Joan’s mother, was their middle child.
Joan’s paternal grandparents were Richard Barlow from England and Hannah Holland from Wales. Richard originally came to Canada in 1906 and, returning home from a visit to England in 1922, met Hannah, the ship’s nurse. They were married in 1924, and homesteaded at Cessford where Ed, Joan’s dad, was born. He married Mary Paris, and they farmed in the Langdon and Cheadle areas before moving to Gleichen where they immediately started farming with irrigation.
George and Annie Yule arrived from Scotland in 1914 and settled in the Gleichen area. Joan married their grandson Allan Yule, and they farmed and ran cattle in the Standard and Gleichen area while Joan taught school. They had two children – Steven and Holly. After Allan’s sudden death in 1993, Joan and her family continued to farm.
In the beginning, Allan flood irrigated and ran wheel move systems. After his death, Joan figured it would be easier to use a pivot, and purchased her first one in 1997, before ultimately replacing all the wheel moves with pivots.
Prior to installation of pipelines in their area, there were ditches all around, and the low land between the ditches was boggy and filled with foxtail and brush. The land was so soft, one could sink a tractor, if one attempted to cross at the wrong place.
The installation of irrigation pipelines has meant they can rejuvenate the soil and grow grass, and use land that was previously inaccessible. Irrigating with low pressure pivots has resulted in more efficient use of the water and maintains the soil. Additionally, production has increased, and they are now able to successfully grow more diverse crops. In recent years, they have grazed the cows on corn most of the winter, then grow a variety of cocktail mixes and grains for swath grazing, resulting in greatly reduced machinery costs, corral cleaning and winter labour.
This year has been particularly dry, and they were certainly appreciative of their pivots. They are currently working towards implementing fertigation, which reduces fuel and labour costs, and increases fertilization efficiency.
Joan looks forward to the continued development of new technologies that will make even more efficient use of our water.