View From The Cab

By David Tollefson, Columnist

Many of you readers have heard about Farm Rescue, the group founded by Bill Gross of North Dakota. Bill founded the group in the year 2005, to help farm families who have suffered a variety of issues of health, injury or weather-related disasters to prevent these farm families from getting their crops planted or harvested.

Several years ago, the group sent a soybean planter into Pope County to help two different area farmers get their soybeans planted.

The modern John Deere equipment is supplied by John Deere, at no cost to the farmers. The machinery is operated entirely by volunteers. All the farmer has to do is have the seed at the particular fields. The operators can take turns, so it often gets to be a 24-hour a day effort to get the planting or harvesting done.

Very recently a celebration occurred in the state of Illinois where a farm family, that on March 31, 2023, suffered a catastrophic tornado that pretty much totally destroyed their farmstead and much of their modern John Deere equipment.

The picture is of Pope County’s own Zach Johnson, who drove out to Palestine for the celebration, and is one of the sponsors of Farm Rescue.

Here is one of the accounts of the 1,000th farm family helped by the Farm Rescue group, from Tammie Sloup of FarmWeekNow.com:

On the evening of March 31, the Pifer family of Palestine, Illinois, walked up from their basement, expecting to open the door into their dining room.

Instead, the parents and two young boys were standing outside.

An EF3 tornado ripped apart their two-story home, collapsed their garage on top of their car, knocked a grain bin across the road and tore apart all their sheds on their corn, soybean and wheat farm. Barely anything remained from their fleet of farm machinery.

“Everything started breaking. Glass was shattering. Boards were breaking,” recalled Brad Pifer, adding that he and his father Steve, had all the equipment ready to start planting before the storm hit.

But, with the help of John Deere, farming friends and Farm Rescue, the Pifer’s planting season was saved.

And Farm Rescue returned June 27 with a dozen volunteers, sponsors and others for a special ceremony at the farm.

Not only was the group of volunteers harvesting the remaining 50 acres of Pifer’s winter wheat, Farm Rescue was also recognizing its 1,000th assistance case.

Farm Rescue volunteers donning navy blue polos and dubbed “angels in blue” gathered with John Deere and Nutrien Ag Solutions representatives – both major sponsors – as well as media at the Pifer farm.

Founded in 2005 by Bill Gross, a pilot from North Dakota, Farm Rescue serves as a formal organization of good Samaritans who help farm families suffering from emergencies such as illness and natural disasters.

The organization provides free planting, haying, harvesting and other assistance.

“After all, farmers and ranchers don’t have sick leave,” Gross said.

Earlier this year, Illinois was added to the nonprofit’s eight-state footprint. Farm Rescue has also received support from Illinois Farm Bureau, which recently donated $5,000 to the organization.

Farm Rescue has already helped three farmers in Illinois following the same EF3 tornado, including Farm Bureau members Doug Knoblett (Pifer’s neighbor) and Justin Lycan of nearby Robinson.

Pifer said his John Deere dealer Alliance Tractor contacted him soon after the storm to see what equipment he needed to get a crop out. A couple others also suggested the Pifers reach out to Farm Rescue, which Pifer hadn’t heard of.

Eleven-year volunteer Mark Baumgarten grew up on a small livestock farm in North Dakota but open tractor cabs and allergies were a bad combination for him.

The current Bettendorf, Iowa, resident has no problem driving a combine or planter today with enclosed cabs, and devotes a few weeks each year to volunteering around the country for Farm Rescue.

Baumgarten, who was at the Pifer farm, has volunteered on 55 cases, with emergencies ranging from farmers suffering heart attacks to ATV accidents to broken limbs.

“Farm Rescue’s biggest opportunity is to help somebody in need and it gives us the experience to feel good about what we’re doing. And we get to drive brand new John Deere equipment,” he said with a smile.

When Baumgarten contacts families after Farm Rescue’s help to see how the crops are faring, the responses he’s received have touched his heart.

“The number one thing they say is not about the planting or the crops, but the prayers that we had with the family when we were there because that was a support they really enjoyed.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net