Farm Rescue
Assists Area Farmers
The seeding of this year’s small
grains is underway in the area by local farmers. For three area farmers who have
been having medical problems, the concern about how they were going to get the
2008 crop in the ground has not been a problem or concern as the folks from
Farm Rescue took care of all of that. “Helping Family Farmers in Crisis” is the
motto of Farm Rescue. The Farm Rescue volunteer group wrapped up seeding 300
acres of wheat and 100 acres of oats for Ed Scherr,
rural Hazelton, 500 acres of wheat for Jack Horner
near Burnstad and 700 acres of wheat for Tom Glatt, rural Napoleon.
All three of these individuals
suffered medical conditions which through doctors
orders would not have allowed them to seed this year’s crop. Scherr, 51, had a heart valve repaired and while doctoring
contracted pneumonia and had blood clots in each lung. He spent two weeks in the
hospital in February and doctors told him not to do any physical work for 100
days. Since then Scherr has been assisted with day to
day farm operations by his brother Dewayne and Mike Kertzmann.
In August of 2007, Jack Horner, 45, had two rods placed in his lower back for
an injury he suffered some time ago which restricted him for six weeks. And if
that wasn’t enough, he had his left hip replaced with a titanium hip. Jack was
under orders to do no lifting from Aug. 24 ąFeb.
1, 2008. Jack’s wife Becky took care of the day to day
farm chores feeding the 70 cows on the farm.
Tom Glatt,
46, had his aortic value replaced the last week in March and he too is on doctors orders to take it easy. Glatt’s
neighbors Albert and Ron Schumacher have been feeding Glatt’s
75 steers.
Thus comes
Farm Rescue. Farm Rescue’s mission is to provide assistance to farm families
who have experienced a major illness, injury or a natural disaster. And all
three locals reluctantly applied for the help and now that their crops are seeded
are very glad they did. “It’s wonderful not to have to worry about getting
seeded,” said Ed Scherr. “It’s a big help,” said Tom Glatt of Farm Rescue. While Horner said, “I’m very
grateful.”
A volunteer crew moved from Ed Scherr’s near Hazelton into Horner’s crop land Friday at
about 3:00 and finished seeding Saturday before moving to Tom Glatts where they wrapped up seeding with two rigs on
Sunday.
Farm Rescue founder is Bill
Gross of Cleveland, ND. Gross, who is a 747 airline pilot for UPS flies the
globe and while flying he came upon the idea of helping family farmers. He
believes in helping farmers in need and he takes much of his vacation in April
and May to assist with the program. Gross said, “This all started when I
realized there was a need. There are fewer family farms than there were years
ago and the number of children on those farms has also decreased, which makes
it more difficult for neighbors to help one another during times of need.”
Farm Rescue is in it’s third planting season as a nonprofit
organization which is operated primarily by volunteers. From the board of
directors to the 9 retired farmers running the equipment, volunteers are the
key to the success of the program as are the generous donations from businesses
and individuals says Gross. The volunteer board of directors consists of Bill
Gross as president, Gerald Horner treasurer, Dawson, Wynn Rasmussen secretary,
Reuben Liechty, Jeremy Wilson and Tom Silbernagel, a
Napoleon native.
Bill Krumwiede,
Voltair, was working at Horners
on Friday. Krumwiede, a volunteer operator since the
origin of Farm Rescue runs the big equipment. He is a retired Basin Electric
employee who said, “It’s a good feeling to know that you can help someone.”
Smokey Wright, a retired
Department of Defense employee, is in his second year. Smokey became involved
with Farm Rescue after visiting the FR booth at the Minot Ag Show. Wright said,
“You get to meet a lot of good people and get to see the country as well as see
beautiful North Dakota.”
Starting his first year as an
equipment operator volunteer is Lowell Rothman of Washburn. Rothmann
retired from education in 2001 and from farming. He said, “So far it’s been
very enjoyable knowing you are helping people in need.”
In the first year of existence,
crop year 2006, Farm Rescue assisted 10 farm families. In 2007 the program grew
and assisted 14 families with planting and seven with harvesting. This year
Gross says plans call to assist 26 farmers with seeding and they will also
assist with harvesting of farmers in need in the fall. As of Sunday, April 20
when they finished up at Tom Glatt’s, seven farms
have been seeded.
Farm Rescue started the 2008
campaign near Watford City and has been moving east since April 7 and they plan
to wrap up seeding June 1 north of Grand Forks. They assist farmers in western
Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota and eastern Minnesota. This year they are
using two 9620 John Deere 4-wheel drive tractors and two 1890 John Deere
no-till planters (which cover 42-ft. at a pass). The equipment is donated by
the group’s biggest program sponsor, RDO Equipment. The 1-ton trucks used by
the crews are donated by Stan Pucklich Chevrolet and
there are over 100 other major sponsors who all make this program possible. A
recent local sponsor is Farmers Union Oil Company of Napoleon and Wishek and
South Central Grain is also a sponsor. Gross said donations made to Farm Rescue
help cover the cost of fuel moving from farm to farm, insurance, hotels,
publicity, vehicles and tools.
Gross says,
the donations from businesses and individuals fund the operations. “No money or
financial help is given to the individual farm families,” said Gross. “We just
move in and take care of the seeding or harvesting.”
Farm Rescue will seed up to
1,000 acres for a farmer in need. They will seed wheat, soybeans, sunflowers,
oats and canola. The farm families receiving the assistance need to supply the
fuel, seed and fertilizer and all other costs are taken care of. This spring
Gross said they had 50-applicants requesting assistance and through the
selection process 26 farmers will receive help. The screening process is
intense as the group looks at an applicant’s finances and medical records and
makes sure the operation is a viable one. After the selection process, plans are
set in motion. “We pick a route to help the maximum number of people, and not
necessarily the severest cases,” says Bill Gross.
Scherr, Horner and Glatt are all very
grateful for Farm Rescues efforts and now that they have their spring grains in
the ground they are much like all other area farmers in hoping for some much
needed moisture.
For more information on Farm
Rescue, go to www.farmrescue.org or call
Reprinted with permission of Napoleon Homestead. April 23, 2008