Growers took the time to assist other farmers with harvests
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Farmers from different communities recently took the time to help fellow producers with harvest after their families experienced losses.
In Burritt Township, Ill., about 10 farmers helped Casey Lolling finish his harvest on Nov. 9 after he lost his father, Gary, four days earlier at the age of 70.
“Some of my friends grouped together and decided to help us out with finishing up our fall harvest,” Lolling told WTVO.
Gary Lolling was a veteran of the United States Army and involved in the local community through farming and faith organizations.
Other farmers pausing their own harvests to help the Lolling family is a sign of the kind of person Gary was, Casey said.
“They did that on their own, and that’s just more of a reflection of who my dad was, because he was always willing to help people, even if he had a mountain of work himself,” he said. “He would drop anything to go help someone else…”
Producers in Warsaw, Ind., also helped another farmer after a family tragedy.
Local farmers brought three combines and four semis to 83-year-old Robert Frantz’s farm on Nov. 8 to harvest 120 acres of soybeans after his wife of 63 years, Ruth, passed away.
Farmer Ed Boggs organized the volunteer effort. Ralph and Mark Montel, Sam Brown and Mike Wertenberger, Chase Hand and Boggs’ son, Thomas, helped out too.
“I’ve known the family forever,” Ed told InkFreeNews. “We are just doing what God wants us to do. It feels good to help.”
The Frantz farm is a Hoosier Homestead farm, meaning the same family has owned it for more than 100 years.