7 News Belize

A Modern Mechanical Marvel: 11 Combines Al At Once!
posted (October 8, 2012)
And there's surely more bad news of weekend mayhem and mishaps to report tonight - but we'll take a short break from all that to share an inspiring story.

For weeks, we've been telling about the grand plan of Alexander Perez and his organization Belize Camping Experience. Their big mission is the Harvest For Kids - which exposed children from the Southside of Belize City to Mechanized Corn Farming. They watched the seeding of 20 acres of corn at the Banana Bank Farm - and on Saturday - in a spectacular conclusion to the event -those acres were harvested in a record time by 11 Combines working in unison.

It was an impressive sight and 7news had a front row seat - Jules Vasquez reports:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
A good crowd showed up at the Corn field at John Carr's 1500 acre farm in Banana Bank on Saturday afternoon including folks from the city and nearby Spanish Lookout.

George Plett, Farmer
"Words can't say, it worth to see people coming out like this."

There were all manner of winged craft aloft like six of them - ultra lights included as well as cowboys and cowgirls.

But the combines - 11 of them, all in a row - that was the main attraction - at 2:00 pm the drivers climbed on and cranked up - a powerful roar in unison which you will very rarely hear - and probably never see again - 11 combines in one field - about three hundred thousand pounds of heavy equipment valued at about 2 million dollars.

John Carr, Farm Owner
"This is an absolute first - I've never seen anything like this."

At 16 minutes past two they were off - a 20 acre field under the tremendous harness, the unified machinery of 11 combines - cutting, threshing and shelling the whole field of corn in minutes, 26 minutes actually to do the whole field - one half going and the other half coming back and that includes time for one mechanical failure - a record for Belize for sure and a sight to behold - so much machinery, so much work done

Alexander Perez, Director, Belize Camping Experience
"It gives me goose bumps to put all of those machines but without seeing it."

John Carr, Farm Owner
"This is one of those magic moments of my 35 years living in Belize to see so many people coming together with the same idea."

And at the end of it - golden corn just short of one hundred thousand pounds, poured into trucks - at the rate of about 50 sacks per acre - meaning about one thousand sacks of corn:

John Carr, Farm Owner
"1000 bags of corn is a lot of tortillas buddy."(laughs)

And these Belize City kids got to sit in the front seat and witness a modern mechanical marvel plus sit in the command center - of a piece of agricultural equipment that costs about 200 hundred thousand dollars - all while under ice in the glass cabin.

Jules Vasquez
"Why did you all consider it so important?"

George Plett, Farmer
"It's like a fun day for us and also especially the kids on the south side."

Jules Vasquez
"What you think about the whole experience that in 15 minutes this whole field clear out?"

Derek - Gabourel Lane
"I say that is impossible."

Jules Vasquez
"How you feel when you are inside of that big thing?"

Derek - Gabourel Lane
"It feel like tickle."

Joel - New Road
"It feels like you were in a plane."

Maria - Raccoon Street Extension
"At first I was afraid because I am afraid of everything I don't know about but it felt really good."

Leroy Smith - Pink's Alley
"It feels like a jet."

Jules Vasquez
"You think someday you could drive one of those?"

Leroy Smith - Pink's Alley
"Yes sir, when I become a farmer."

Otto Penner - Farmer
"I like babies and I like children and what I hate to see is children who are astray - if they don't know how to make their living and I like to show them that there is a chance that they could do different things. I know they enjoyed it, so I enjoy it too."

Alexander Perez, Director, Belize Camping Experience
"Today when we saw those machines moving - that tell you that when people come together and all those differences are put apart we can do great things and that is a message to send in the country of Belize. We have so many ethnic groups that when we come together we can send the message loud and specifically for our city in Belize and we need to reach those kids before violence do."

George Plett, Farmer
"Violence in the City also affects because business people and everybody worked together."

David Thiessen
"If Belize City and all the world could learn that farming is the thing - everybody needs the products to eat, that's one big thing and the other one is that I love it - I like to be out in the fields with the combines and tractors and all that needs to be done in the field."

It is a noble idea, an interesting social experiment, all that…but at the end fo the day it is about the corn - that's the creation of wealth from the earth - which is probably the most important lesson thought on this day:

Alexander Perez, Director, Belize Camping Experience
"First the kids didn't understand how we were going to plant 20 acres. When they saw the machines going they kind of got emotional. Then we brought the kids again 3 times; this is their 4th time and they still didn't understand how this 20 acres was going to be moved in 20 minutes."

Otto Penner - Farmer
"I like to show people that from where the money comes - it comes from out the ground right. We have seen it, we have plant it - everything right here was black before anything came out. It came out green and after that we got a good crop right."

And so from this field, what dreams may come we don't know.

According to a release from the Belize Camping Experience - which will get the revenue from the sales of the corn - they don't know how much profit they will get until the corn is sold.

But, they will have to pay their expenses first and that's because they did not receive enough donations to cover the expenses of seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and other inputs. Whatever is left will go back into the work they do with the children of Belize City.

Of course, that's not the end of their efforts, the group now goes to San Carlos on Thursday for the second harvest on a field there.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize