Neighbors helped harvest 1,400 acres of corn in North Dakota
A group of farmers near Antler, N.D. stepped in to help another farm family.
Combines, trucks, and around 75 people from 10 nearby communities helped the Fyllesvold family harvest about 1,400 acres of corn after fellow grower Randy Fyllesvold died in a car accident last month.
“I didn’t want to put the burden on Larry, (Randy’s) father-in-law, and I told Larry don’t worry about the corn, we’ll just get it off,” Andy Gates, a farmer who helped organize the community effort, told KFYR.
In a statement to KFYR, Randy’s widow Kharra said her husband would’ve been proud of his fellow growers.
“For your kindness, for your strength, and for the love you showed our family,” her statement says.
Growers in North Dakota weren’t the only ones lending support to farm families.
Earlier in November in Buffalo, Minn., a group of producers associated with Farm Rescue helped harvest 200 acres of corn for a recovering farmer.
For Keith Lindig, one of the volunteer farmers, helping others is part of a larger calling.
“I listened to a church sermon years ago when I was a kid and it stuck with me: ‘There’s no better gift than the gift of giving,’” he told The Minnesota Star Tribune.
In addition to the combines used to harvest the corn, other community members stepped up with trucks and trailers to haul the corn to an ethanol plant in Atwater.
Farms.com has covered multiple instances of farmers helping one another over the years.
In 2022, for example, farmers in Hanna City, Ill., helped harvest 640 acres of Kevin Sipp’s crops as he battled colon cancer.
And in 2021, farmers in Illinois and Indiana took time away from their own operations to support other growers.
Like in Warsaw, Ind., where farmers brought three combines and four semis to Robert Frantz’s farm to harvest 120 acres of soybeans.