A farm in the Kleefeld area succeeded this week in getting Manitoba Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler to come for a visit during harvest. Korey Peters of Herbsigwill Farms at Randolph explains how it all came about.

"It started on Twitter where there was a farmer in Saskatchewan who put out a call for the Ag Minister or anybody in politics to come to take a ride on their combine. I commented on it and

Korey Peters (left) and Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichlerit kind of got picked up from there. The Ag Minister's administrative assistant, whom I know through the Young Farmers of Manitoba committee, gave me a call and asked if we would mind having him come out for a combine ride and a grain cart ride and a ride on the semi and a tour of the farm. I said yes so he came out this week in an evening and it was a lot of fun."

Peters says it was a good opportunity for him to talk to the Minister about trade issues like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NAFTA. He adds Eichler is a good listener and has farmers' best interests at heart.

"He definitely has the farmers in mind. He's pretty active talking to us. I've met him a couple of times at different conferences and he's always very open to talking about anything related to agriculture so it was really nice to catch up with him a little bit."

Peters adds Eichler really enjoyed being on the farm.

"He misses just being on the farm at times so it was great to just walk over our farmyard, explain how things work in our system and catch up."