Nancy Haughian recently cut the message of positivity into her Grande Prairie-area wheat field (Photo: Buddy McBride / Nancy Haughian / Facebook)

By Shaun Penner

Crop Art

Grande Prairie area farmer shares positive message through crop art

Oct 1, 2020 | 7:18 AM

A local farmer recently took time out of the busy harvest season to share a message of positivity through some self-made crop art.

Nancy Haughian has been creating crop art with her combine on-and-off during the fall season over the last 20 years on her Grande Prairie area farm.

The images or messages Haughian creates, she says, are meant to capture the moment in time, with this year’s message being “Be kind, be calm, be safe.”

“I understand this is Dr. Bonnie Henry’s (B.C.’s chief medical officer) signature sign-off after giving COVID presentations,” said Haughian. “Seeing as how we’re in the middle of COVID-19, I just thought it fit the times.”

Haughian cut the message into her wheat field using both a 15’ and 30’ straight cut header, while also not using any form of GPS to help guide her.

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She says the seed rows and sprayer tracks do help guide her, but the process of creating the crop art has little room for error.

“I start off with a straight line at the bottom, and then I start making my letters, and I have to back out of all of my letters because it’s a one-shot deal,” said Haughian. “Once it’s cut, it’s cut. Thinking like your pencil can’t leave the paper.”

Though she hopes air travellers overhead and as many others as possible can enjoy her work each fall, the message or image is typically short-lived. That’s because the rest of the wheat needs to be harvested on time.

“It’s only out there for about four days, and then it’s combined up and it’s gone.”

Haughian says the remaining wheat around her crop art has since been combined.