Threshing event reminds Bergquist of childhood

Sue Roesler
Oct 30, 2026
56 mins ago

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When the threshing machines started in tandem at high noon, a quiet fell over the assembled crowd. Everyone in the field moved quietly to the threshing machine area to watch the horses and wagons picking up hay bundles and delivering the oats to the threshing machines to see them start up, work hard, and spit out grain and straw.

Larry Bergquist, who hosted a threshing event in mid-October on his farm, talks with Randy Olson, right, at the Bergquist farm west of Wing, N.D. Bergquist and Olson go to as many threshing events around the state and in Minnesota as they can.

In the middle of the oat field, Les Bergquist (at right) and Tom Newman drove an old Farmall tractor they rigged up to be a loader to pick up bundles of grain at the Larry and Judy Bergquist threshing event in mid-October west of Wing, N.D.

Workers started up the three threshers, two Case and one International McCormick-Deering, to thrash the oats into grain and straw. Everyone was quiet when the threshers started and moved to watch them work.

Judy Bergquist drove a four-by-four up and down the parking area, running people from their vehicles to wherever they wanted to go at the threshing or to visit with neighbors.

After the event, Judy and Heidi cooked and served pulled pork sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, baked beans, coleslaw salad and pie.

Helpers at Larry Bergquist's threshing event west of Wing push oats into the threshing machines.

Some 15 teams of Percherons or other draft horses – many of them tall and decked-out in silver buckles – pulled their wagons, meandering through the hay field, clicking along, tossing their heads and stopping as the helpers picked up bundles of oats and tossed them in the back. Then they took the oat bundles to the threshers.

At the threshing, Randy and SuAnn Olson (North Dakota State Representative), friends of the Bergquists, brought a team of horses and the wagon from their ranch, Olson Ranch in Baldwin, to the threshing event. The couple brought their two grandkids and friends with them, and the kids waved from the top of the wagon at anyone who walked by.

“This is my husband’s (Randy) team of horses and his wagon. The grandkids and their friend had fun helping fill the hay rack with oat bundles, and now they’re just waiting so they can help pitch them in,” SuAnn said.

Fred Bergquist, at right, worked at getting the threshing machines going, saying the work was a lot harder back in the day than today when people sit in a combine and cut oats.

Cheryl Kavoda, who retired from Farm & Ranch Guide, arrived at the threshing event with her husband, and both enjoyed the event.

Bergquists' granddaughters, Jocelyn and Taylor, drove one of the teams of horses around to pick up oats for the threshers. This photo only was a photo by Jocelyn Jorgenson from a Facebook page.

Workers started the power up on the McCormick-Deering W-40 tractor, which propelled one of the three threshers.

These ranchers were enjoying watching the threshing event.

This horse team operated by a rancher named Larry Frye drives around the hay field. To the one side, Larry Bergquist set up dozens of old tractors.

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Sue Roesler

WING, N.D. – As the sun moved higher in the sky on an unseasonably warm October day, trucks pulling horse trailers with draft horses or hauling farm machines from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, along with vehicles filled with friends, neighbors and farm families, pulled into Larry and Judy Bergquist’s farmstead for a threshing event west of Wing.