Paul Beingessner was a candidate in the Canadian Wheat Board elections in 2008. (Save My CWB)

A farm accident in southern Saskatchewan has claimed the life of Paul Beingessner, known as a passionate advocate for farmers having a voice in grain transportation.

Beingessner, 55, died Thursday at his home near Truax, 83 kilometres southwest of Regina.

According to the RCMP, he had been attempting to repair a haybine when he got pulled into the equipment.

Beingessner was one of a group of farmers who established the first shortline railway in the province — called Southern Rails Co-operative — when the major railways were preparing to abandon rail lines that farmers used.

He was a third-generation grain and livestock farmer who also wrote a weekly farm column and opinion pieces for several publications.

Former politician Judy Bradley, who was the minister of highways and transportation in the Roy Romanow government, remembered Beingessner as a man politicians listened to.

"He was always well-researched with the information he came with and he was always very respectful," she said. "He listened to other views also. But he had a tremendous passion and you did want to listen to him. It was about agriculture but it was also about rural communities, it was about rural life. I just had a lot of respect for him."