Manitoba Stays on Daylight Time and the Cows Don’t Care

For as long as I remember, changing the clocks twice a year creates confusion, conversation and sometimes a little comedy. Somebody arrives at church an hour early, somebody else comes an hour late, and occasionally someone blames the time change for being late even when I suspect the clock has very little to do with it.
Now Manitoba puts that twice-a-year ritual behind us.
The province is moving to permanent daylight time, which means Manitobans will not turn their clocks back this fall. At first, I wondered why we needed to change something we had managed for so many years. But the more I think about it, the more I see permanent daylight time as another adaptation to how we live and work.
I remember when daylight saving time itself made a noticeable difference in my younger years.
Back in the mid-to-late 1950s, baseball and fastball were a big part of our evenings. Without that extra hour of daylight, an April baseball game sometimes ends around 7:30 or 8 p.m. because we simply cannot see the ball anymore.
There are no big banks of stadium lights waiting for us. When darkness arrives, the game ends.
Daylight saving time changes that. Suddenly, we have another useful hour in the evening and enough daylight to finish the game. To a young fellow wanting to play baseball, that extra daylight seems like a pretty good invention.
I still see value in evening daylight today. Farmers can finish another job, families have more time outdoors, gardeners keep working and, yes, people can play another inning.
But farmers also understand something about daylight better than most people: changing the clock does not change the sun.
The cows do not check their watches. The hogs do not gather around the barn clock and agree to wait another hour for breakfast. Crops do not mature according to Central Daylight Time. And when wheat is dry, and rain is coming, nobody shuts the combine down because the clock reaches supper time.
Agriculture operates according to weather, daylight, animals and the work that needs doing.
That is why I think permanent time makes some practical sense for agriculture.
Livestock producers maintain one consistent feeding and working schedule. Farm employees do not need to adjust their routines twice a year. Trucking appointments, barn systems and office schedules also become more consistent.
Of course, permanent daylight time comes with a trade-off. Manitoba gets some very dark winter mornings. That becomes particularly noticeable for rural families, children waiting for school buses, employees driving to farms and producers starting morning chores.
Good yard lights, equipment lights and reflective clothing become even more important. Manitoba farmers already know how to work in the dark, but permanent daylight time gives us more of it in the morning.
There is also potential confusion when we do business outside Manitoba. Saskatchewan keeps its clocks unchanged year-round, while some neighbouring provinces and U.S. states may observe a different time zone from Manitoba for part of the year.
That means I would set the time zone for appointments, grain deliveries, livestock pickups, and online meetings. Nine o’clock in Manitoba may not mean nine o’clock somewhere else.
Farmers should also check older barn controllers, computers, machinery monitors and automated systems. Some devices automatically expect the traditional fall clock change. A machine that thinks Manitoba still changes time could create its own little version of arriving at church an hour early.
I have come around to liking the idea.
I call it a permanent adaptation. We adapt to new machinery, new technology, changing markets, different weather patterns and new ways of communicating. We can adapt to leaving the clocks alone.
And perhaps the best part comes this fall, when I do not walk around the house changing clocks and wondering whether to set them ahead or back.
The sun still rises. The cows still want breakfast. Farmers still work until the job is finished.
And maybe, somewhere, there is enough evening daylight for one more inning. •