Farmers come together to help friend in need

Oct 06, 2016

Dave Young thought his crops wouldn’t get harvested

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

When a Douglas County, Illinois farmer needed help, his friends and neighbors were there to lend helping hands and machinery.

In August, a pry bar hit Dave Young in the face while he worked on a semi-truck. The injuries left the 59-year-old farmer blind in his right eye.

He feared his 230 acres wouldn’t get harvested.

“It feels sort of like letting people down because I’ve done this all my life basically and I have landlords and people that depend on me to harvest their crop,” Young told WCIA 3.

That’s when a group of about 20 farmers, equipped with combines, semis and helpful attitudes decided to help.

“People just said absolutely. We will be there. How can we help and what do we need to bring?” Tyler Harvey, Douglas County Farm Bureau manager, told WCIA 3.

Harvest Heritage: Farmers put own harvest on hold to help their own

The harvest, which some said can take up to three weeks to complete, was finished in one day.

“It just kind of shows how the agricultural community, when an accident unfortunately does happen, we do come together to help one of our own,” Harvey said.

Young said he’s going to use his situation to spread a message of safety.

“All the time we think about wearing safety equipment using power tools, but hand tools can hurt just as bad,” he told the Associated Press.

"One little slip and I'm paying for it."

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