Grit with Grace

The Identity Trap: What You Do is Not Who You Are

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:56:52 GMT

I will never forget how helpless I felt on Jan. 24 when I watched my son stumble across the wrestling mat. He took two major blows to the head during a match – a sound I could hear from the top of the gym bleachers. As he struggled to orient himself, I felt like I was going to throw up.

In a matter of seconds, he was on his back convulsing with trainers at his side trying to take off his shoulder brace so he could breathe. Sweat poured off his body in a way no workout ever could have done.

I held my hand over my mouth and wailed, watching nearly 13 years of hard work, sacrifice and commitment get carried off the mat on a stretcher. I knew in my heart that this was not a “shake it off” moment as they raced him to the emergency room by ambulance.

By God’s grace, the X-ray of his neck was clear. He never lost consciousness. He answered his questions correctly. Minus the uncomfortable neck brace, within an hour, our son seemed a little drowsy, but normal. We were able to leave Loyola Hospital in Chicago later that day and made it home through the snow that night. With time and rest, he was expected to make a full recovery, but it just wasn’t enough time for his brain to heal to allow him to wrestle in his senior year state series starting a couple of days later.

As a parent, this was a pretty excruciating moment because for thousands of days, I watched this kid commit his whole heart to this sport – a three-time state qualifier who overcame a hip avulsion fracture suffered during his sophomore year during the state tournament, a car accident at the end of his junior season and a torn labrum in his shoulder just weeks after his senior season began. It seemed like all of that was enough. And yet the disappointment was not over.

If I can be honest, I’m angry. Not at anyone in particular, but I’m just angry at the way it played out for him. There is nothing worse than watching your kid hurt and not be able to fix it.

The following weekend of regionals was hard to sit through, though we absolutely wanted the best for his teammates. At church the next day, some friends we hadn’t seen in a while came up and talked to our son. I overheard him say, “Wrestling is something I do, it’s not who I am.”

Parallel Paths: From the Mat to the Ranch

Fast forward a few days to the Top Producer Summit where I listened to a powerful panel. Leaders of top companies in agriculture weighed in on a variety of thought-provoking topics, but one message stood out to me.

“All too often, we confuse what we do with who we are,” said Lamar Steiger with The 808 Ranch. “As farmers and ranchers, we are our job. It’s our identity. That was my problem as a young man.”

Steiger grew up on a dairy. High interest rates in the late 1970s made farming particularly challenging. When he was in his 20s, their family lost the dairy. After working so hard to make that operation work, Steiger took this as a deep personal failure.

“There was nothing I could do to save the dairy because outside forces were at hand. But it’s so hard for farmers and ranchers to separate that,” he said. “Looking back, I had depression for quite a while after that, but we didn’t talk about that then.”

When he was in his mid-30s, Steiger attempted suicide.

“I had to be removed totally from my working life and start completely over,” he shared. “I learned the hard way how to separate my identity from my role.”

Steiger said it wasn’t pretty, but he is grateful for how this time of his life changed him.

“When you come to the end of yourself, you look for something bigger and better. That’s worked out really good for me,” he said. “Being a rancher is cool to me, but it’s not who I am. I’m Lamar. I try my best and I fail. We have great successes and then we have some things that just don’t work out. But it’s not all my responsibility.”

There’s something so humbling about another person vulnerably sharing their story. We can learn so much from each other. All it takes is a willingness to share your story. Left unshared, our stories may only change us. But by sharing, we can help each other find our way through the very real burdens of life.

A Truth Worth Holding Onto

It’s easy to confuse your identity with what you do because it becomes such a big part of our lives. As another Shike kid closes one chapter and gets ready to start the next, I find myself confusing who I am with my role as a mom. I’m not sure what life looks like without Saturday wrestling tournaments and late nights posting photos of our wrestlers.

As I sat there at Top Producer Summit, I kept hearing my son’s voice in my head saying, “Wrestling is something I do, it’s not who I am.”

He’s only 17 and has a lot of life to live, but I’m grateful he recognizes this truth. I know there will be times when he will be tempted to measure his worth by his performance. But I believe when we get honest and share these stories, we can help one another avoid the mistake of confusing what we do with who we are.

Long Road: Kansas Family Rebuilds and Revives Dairy After 2019 Tornado Wiped Out Family Farm

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 21:37:02 GMT

It’s a day Rob and Lisa Leach will never forget.

“May 28th, 6:43pm,” says Rob, remembering the day their lives took a dramatic turn. “That’s when it hit us.”

May 28, 2019 is the day the Leach’s entire farm was wiped out by an EF4 tornado .

“It was noisy, but it was just like nonstop wind,” Rob told Farm Journal just days after the tornado hit in 2019. “It was just the most incredible wind you ever can imagine.”

The Aftermath

The twister that hit their Linwood, Kan. farm was a monster at a mile wide, carrying 170 mile per hour winds.

“We’ve got a lot outbuildings, we have our shop, freestall barn, calf barn holding pins, grain bins, garages, silos: it’s all gone,” Rob said in May 2019.

Two days after the tornado ripped through their farm, Farm Journal’s video crew was on the scene and captured the aftermath. Metal in trees, the milking parlor and barns flattened. The structures were gone, but what was even more painful was the fact the Leach family lost part of their herd.

“When we came up the hill, out of our basement, we expected the worst , and we immediately found what we had cattle meeting us, we had cattle in our yard, cattle walking all over the place and also dead cows,” said Rob.

The winds were so powerful, some cows were carried more than half a mile away.

“The one that was the farthest away, we didn’t find for 24 hours, and she was the most valuable cow on the farm,” said Rob. “She was down in a ditch and couldn’t get up.”

Will We Ever Dairy Again?

Taylor Leach, Rob and Lisa’s daughter who is also part of the Farm Journal family, reflected on the tornado recently. But when we talked to her just days after the tornado hit, she was still in disbelief.

“Trash everywhere, nails everywhere, wires everywhere,” she told us. “If we ever have cattle here again, I don’t even know how we’re going to be able to clean up all of the wire and nails out in the pasture,” said Taylor.

The raw reaction was fresh, as the Leach family had scrambled to immediately get the surviving cows to help.

“We could only get 20 out of here the first night,” says Rob, who says roads were blocked by down trees. “Those are the ones that were hurt the worst.”

The next morning, Rob says what was left of their 125 head herd, were also hauled out. Volunteers, some who had never touched a cow, helped lead the cows, halter free, to the road.

“We have so many friends,” says Lisa. “I mean, they’re very good friends, that took them to roughly 14,15 farms at one time.”

As ones with minor injuries went to farms, the animals were scattered throughout the area and sent to anyone who had space. The furthest location was a farm in Colorado. The cows wounded the most, were rescued and taken in by a local farm.

“Vets that worked all night long on cows that were cut up,” says Rob.

“And they never charged us,” remembers Lisa.

“No, we never got any bills for any medical work. And they said, ‘well, we’ll just have to charge you for drugs.’ And then some drug company donated drugs, so we didn’t have to pay for that. So, we were very fortunate,” adds Rob.

We Will Rebuild

From a tattered farm two years ago, with pieces scattered for miles, the scene looks much different today.

“We’ve brought home about 60 cows or so,” says Lisa.

“So, we’ve got at least that many still farmed out,” adds Rob.

As rebuilding is still taking place in Linwood, major headway has also happened thanks to countless volunteers.

“There were literally hundreds of people, volunteers, that came,” says Lisa. “I would say we averaged 100 people a day for over three weeks.”

An army of volunteers who came, many without even being asked, all who helped pick up the pieces left by the 2019 tornado.

“We had several massive cleanups that summer that we cleared as much debris out of the fields as we could,” says Lisa.

“I think we walked about 200 to 300 acres, just shoulder to shoulder, walking in the fields and picking up debris,” Rob says.

It’s those efforts that slowly cleaned up shredded structures and debris once scattered across their farm. But it wasn’t something that happened quickly. Every nail. Every piece of metal. All of it had to be picked up.

“We sold 350,000 pounds of scrap metal in this in the summer of 2020,” says Rob.

They say the effort to mend the damage and pick up all the pieces not lasted for more than a year.

“We drained seven ponds, because they were just completely filled with steel, barn, tin, lumber,” says Rob.

But from the rubble, rose new life and a new look for the Leach family.

“We started with a commodity barn. It was kind of the catch all,” says Rob.

One structure replaced at a time, with foundation poured for the next, in an effort to replace 11 barns battered by the storm.

“COVID-19 didn’t help our cause at all,” explains Rob. “After COVID-19, it was kind of a strange phenomenon. People were building stuff all over the place, the price of materials went through the roof and you couldn’t get a crew to do anything.”

Much of this work was done with their own hands, with three new blue barns planted on the same dirt their old barns were on.

The Effort to Milk Again

The final barn was built on December 21, 2020, and one that Rob, along with 17 friends and family, constructed themselves. It marked the final piece in a two-year orchestrated effort to finally start milking again.

“We’ve been approved by the co-op to start milking again,” says Lisa. “We’ve got a trucker lined up that’s going to haul the milk for us. And we we’ve got six cows that we’re milking right now.”

All the work, the hours, the constant efforts to rebuild; it was all to accomplish one thing: be able to milk again. And that day finally came for Lisa in June, a moment she captured on camera as the first milk truck drove away.

A New Era

As the milk truck left, it signaled a new era for the Leach family. Rob and Lisa now travel the same path from the house to the barn they took before the tornado hit, to milk the cows today.

“This is our passion,” says Rob. “This is what we do for fun. This is all we’ve ever done for fun. We like to show cows, that’s kind of our thing.”

“I wasn’t ready to quit,” says Lisa.

As Lisa says calling it quits never crossed their minds, she also didn’t want to give up on our cows.

“Honestly, we had some of the best cows we had ever had,” says Rob.

“We had some really good cows, and that’s probably the only reason we came back,” adds Lisa.

And a comeback it was. The same year the tornado hit, the Leach’s youngest daughter, Sophie, took home Grand Champion at the Kansas State Fair with their Holstein named Lin-Crest Bradnick Tess, a cow that still bared the scar after surviving the tornado that left a gash in her neck just months before.

The family also won the “Jersey Jug” at Louisville with their Jersey Juju, another survivor, and one shown by the woman who rescued Juju and 20 other cows the night the tornado hit.

“We’ve had some good days in the show ring since the tornado,” says Rob.

“Some phenomenal days,” says Lisa.

“So, we were very lucky,” adds Rob.

Stronger than the Storm

As the Leach family cherishes what they’ve accomplished in two short years, they say their family farm was restored for their three girls.

“I mean, they love it, too,” says Rob. “We’re doing it for them. This is their passion.”

And as a family, they continue to defeat any doubts, while beating the odds.

“I think the only doubt was, whether or not we could milk again,” says Lisa.

“We just weren’t sure, you know, if we were going to be able to rebuild,” says Rob.

“Every now and then, you really need to go back and look at the pictures just to remind yourself how far you’ve come,” adds Lisa. “And how many people have helped you get there.”

A lifetime of passion, with the people who knew it wasn’t Rob and Lisa’s time to call it quits.

“Getting all these buildings built back, when it took us a lifetime to build what we had,” says Rob. “So to get back here within two years, is amazing.”

As even two years later, the leaches continue to prove they’re truly stronger than the storm.

Farmers and ranchers continue to show grit with grace while battling various challenges farm and ranch families face. Read more “Grit with Grace” stories here .

How Social Media Sensation NY Farm Girls Defied Odds to Expose the Truth About Farming

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:28:05 GMT

The NY Farm Girls have become a social media sensation. With nearly 645,000 followers on TikTok , along with more than 171,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook , the NY Farm Girls are taking all of social media by storm.

“Social media can reach millions of people by the touch of a button,” says Claudia Leubner. “It’s been really cool we’re able to reach this many eyes in the world to try to share dairy farmers are not evil people.”

NY Farm Girls consists of three sisters: Evelyn and Claudia Leubner, who are both in their early 20s, and their sister Jojo Leubner, who’s still in high school. In addition to the social media piece of the business, the girls are seeing significant growth on YouTube with 87,000 subscribers. Their goal is to simply share life on the farm.

“We are a fourth-generation dairy farm. It’s a partnership between my dad, his sister, his brother and our two cousins, and we’re over 100 years old now, says Evelyn.

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With a mix of dairy cattle, row crops, hay and an agritourism pumpkin farm, life on this New York farm is in constant motion. The busy schedule creates long hours of work, but it’s also allowed each of the girls to uncover their niche.

“I’ve always loved working with animals,” says Evelyn. “I actually went to SUNY Cobleskill for animal science, because of my love for animals, and I honestly thought I would never come back to the farm.”

While Evelyn didn’t plan on returning home, she lived in Georgia after college. That’s until she realized home is exactly where she wanted to be.

“I’m pretty much doing her checks, vaccinations help with the preg checks on Mondays,” says Evelyn. “Pretty much everything cows and some calves stuff, I’m your girl.”

Being born into the Leubner family means you’re also born into life on the farm. Each of the girls started on calf feeding duty since elementary school. From an early age, those farm chores also gave them a taste for what they did and did not want to do.

“After I fed calves for that long, I realized it’s not really something that I was too passionate about,” says Claudia.

Instead, Claudia found a better fit on the row crop side of the family business. After attending the University of Nebraska, Claudia came back with an even deeper love for grains.

‘I’m helping with planting season harvest season, everything in between. It’s been really fun to start to learn about our crop operation” she adds.

And Jojo? Well, as a high schooler, she still works on the farm part-time.

“She goes to school during the day, comes home and does chores every night,” says Evelyn. “She doesn’t really know what she wants to do yet, with her future, but she doesn’t have to yet.”

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While the sisters work together on the farm, it’s their collaboration on social media that’s helping plant new seeds of opportunity for their business.

“When you come up to upstate New York, you’re going to see a lot of lakes and hills,” says Evelyn. “All of our fields are full of rocks, but it’s just really beautiful up here. We’re definitely a lot more than New York City.”

Do you want to read more stories of inspiration? Find the entire list of “Grit with Grace” stories that showcase the heart of rural America.

The three sisters are working daily to showcase New York agriculture, with a focus on dairy. Each of the girls will be the first to tell you that they couldn’t do it alone, and social media has actually drawn them even closer.

“Having this relationship together and doing things like this, and we’ve always just become much bigger, stronger bonds together,” says Claudia.

“And we’re really good at holding each other accountable. Like if Claudia is slacking on something or I’m slacking on something, we let each other know and we don’t get offended anymore,” says Evelyn, with a smile.

“Not anymore,” Claudia jokes back.

The bond the NY Farm Girls trio has built came despite the harsh reality of social media.

“Sometimes it’s not even the extremists. It’s also other farmers or people you know in real life that are the ones that are sending negative comments to you,” Claudia says. “You kind of just have to brush it off, because we have an end goal in mind,”

“You kind of have to learn to ignore it,” adds Evelyn. “In the beginning when we started, we really took the comments to heart and impacted our mental health and kind of almost made us not want to do social media anymore.”

Even as they battled the comments and negativity that comes with social media, the sisters refused to quit, as their motivation was seeing constant social media posts plagued with misinformation.

“It’s a huge passion of ours to teach consumers about agriculture, because they’re the ones buying our products; we want them to trust us,” says Claudia.

“All those touchy subjects people don’t really want to talk about, we dive into all of that,” Evelyn adds.

Reaching the “Moveable Middle”

With a variety of skills and personalities, the girls no longer focus reaching those who are anti-dairy. Instead, they target what they call the “moveable middle.”

“We know these people don’t know where their food is coming from. They think it’s coming from the grocery store,” says Claudia. “So we want to be able to target them and share exactly where their milk is coming from that they’re buying.”

What they’re doing is working.

“I just did a post the other day on Facebook about how there’s no antibiotics in milk, ever. And it reached almost 500,000 people because of how many people shared that post,” says Evelyn.

Her post was part of an ongoing effort during the entire month of June, which is also known as June Dairy Month. To play off the dairy theme, the girls decided to do a series of videos busting dairy myths.

“When you hop online and you see the negative connotations with artificial insemination or antibiotics, you’re obviously going to believe that because at the surface level, it might seem bad to you. But once you go to the source and see how it’s actually done, you can feel a lot better about where your food is coming,” says Claudia.

While the NY Farm Girls brand has grown since they started on social media, the motivation hasn’t wavered.

“We just want to reach as many people as we can and teach them about agriculture,” says Evelyn. “It just really comes down to that.”

Meet NY Farm Girls’ Dad

Each one of the NY Farm Girls is very visible on social media, but a less familiar face on the farm is one that has been a constant stream of support behind the scenes.

“My dad is a great teacher and very patient. You need a lot of patience with me,” jokes Claudia. “He’s always been very supportive of what we want to do on the farm, in our business and everything.”

Maybe the reason their dad has been such a great teacher over the years is because farming is what Tim Leubner knew he was meant to do.

“I never left. I just loved it ever since I was a little kid,” says Tim. “I couldn’t wait to get out of school and go farm.”

While Tim was hesitant when the girls first launched into social media, his tone has evolved over the years. He has seen the power of social media, and the benefits of showing real life on the farm. But in the beginning, that hesitation was rooted in concern. As for a father, his biggest worry is always the safety of his three girls.

In years past, they were getting threats constantly [on social media],” says Tim. “It was like that for about a year or so, and there people were really going after them. That was kind of scary.”

From animal activists to other social media users, the threats have calmed down and the situation has improved.

Tim’s concerns have also subsided and now his addiction to the farm could be turning into a new addiction for social media.

“I constantly am making little videos here and there, and then I’ll send it to Claudia or Evelyn, and they’ll make a video. We’ll come up with different ideas that might work, and I have mostly good ideas,” Tim shares, with a smile.

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How NY Farm Girls Brand Continues to Grow

NY Farm Girls is a business that continues to grow. The girls even launched their own clothing line recently, adding another chapter to the story of the brand.

As Tim watched the NY Farm Girls business grow, he’s proud of the fact his daughters are strong and independent. The girls’ drive and determination didn’t happen by chance, they’re traits that are a product of how Evelyn, Claudia and Jojo were raised.

“Don’t ever tell like a kid they can’t do something,” says Tim. “Always tell them it’s possible and just give them confidence and let them go.”

In their 20s and late teens, the determination and confidence is paying off as the NY Farm Girls continue to gain followers and fans. The side business is also helping these fourth-generation farmers secure a future for their dairy farm.

“We had no idea it would take off like this,” says Evelyn. “We started it just to share pictures of cows and calves and maybe teach a little bit about farming. And it took us a while to grow.”

“We obviously didn’t think that it was going to get this big,” adds Claudia. “We are so thankful we’re able to reach the amount of people we do, because at the end of the day, it’s not really about your follower count or how many likes you get. It’s that you are getting that information out there.”

Closing in on 1 million followers and fans across all sites is no easy feat, it’s the product of hard work that’s required constant grit and grace.

Texas Tornado Destroys Ag Shop, But Doesn’t Stop FFA Members From Helping Community

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 16:31:02 GMT

A line of storms snaked through north and central Texas on Monday, resulting in several tornadoes along the Interstate 35 corridor. About 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, an F3 tornado touched down outside of Jacksboro at 3:45 p.m., ripping buildings to shreds, including the local high school, elementary school and ag shop.

“I felt so helpless,” says Kevin Thomas, ag teacher at Jacksboro Independent School District.

Thomas had left school to pick up his truck and trailer at his farm about 12 miles away when the tornado hit.

“I knew it hit my ag shop and there was nothing I could do,” he says. “Two co-teachers and 20 students were in the ag shop practicing for judging contests. All I could do was pray that nothing happened to them. Yes, they were capable, but my nature is to take care of things and when I couldn’t ...”

The Jacksboro High School’s ag shop was torn apart in the tornado that produced 150-mph winds, says ag teacher Kevin Thomas. Video by Kevin Thomas.

Braced for Impact

The tornado ripped off the roof the ag shop and the high school gym. The elementary school also took a major hit with 200 kids inside waiting for buses to arrive.
It’s a miracle no one was seriously injured or killed, Thomas says. Survey teams have confirmed 10 tornadoes hit the area, which might increase as the National Weather Service continues to investigate damage.

“We just didn’t have much warning,” Thomas says. “It developed quickly and was on us so fast.”

Despite the devastation this town of 4,000 experienced, Thomas says he’s grateful. All of his students that stayed after school to practice for FFA contests were safe and none of the elementary school kids or their families were hurt.

A look inside the high school gym at Jacksboro after the tornado struck. Video provided by Kevin Thomas.

The school district has relatively new buildings specially designed and geared for tornadoes, he says.

“Every building has tornado hallways built along concrete structures with emergency gates that slide in place like a bunker. We do drills to prepare us for moments like this,” Thomas adds.

Unfortunately, the ag shop wasn’t quite as equipped, and his co-teachers had to hunker down in the bathrooms with all their students. Once the storm passed and Thomas made it back to the school around 4:15 p.m., his FFA students jumped in his truck, and they headed out into their community to help people one house at a time. They passed out waters and Gatorades and comforted elderly members of their community standing outside their homes in shock.

“There were no emergency workers in sight. We had to drag trees out of roadways and there were power lines down everywhere,” he says. “I brought in my skid steer and helped move trees off houses, living rooms, etc. I just wanted to help give people a little peace of mind. We just talked and worked alongside each other and our FFA kids helped every step of the way.”

(Farm Journal)

FFA members pitch in and help with clean-up after the tornado. Photo by Kevin Thomas.

A Desire to Help

To his knowledge, this is the first tornado to hit their community, or at least since he moved there in the mid-1980s.

“We’ve been through some really rough times as a community, but never a storm like this. With all the turmoil in the world, food and fuel prices, politics, I just looked up yesterday and saw good in people,” Thomas says. “No judgment. Nothing but a desire to help. When things get tough, we lay our differences aside and focus on one mission, one goal. It was about being a good human and helping your neighbor.”

A drone’s view of the damage at Jacksboro Independent School District. Video provided by Kevin Thomas.

The cost of the damage is still unknown. The school farm is wiped out. A week ago, Jacksboro FFA would have lost all the kids’ show pigs for Houston.

“We are starting a new season this week focusing on career development events,” he says. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like if this would have happened last week.

You can’t help but think there’s a man upstairs after driving through the community and seeing all the damage. How did we all make it out of this with hardly a scratch?”

More from Farm Journal’s PORK:

Is ‘Tornado Alley’ Expanding East?

The Day Derecho Hit Our Farm

Derecho Forces Evacuation of 25,000 Pigs After Winds Rip Barns Apart

Champion Steer Sells For $1 Million in Houston

The Night the Fire Took the Farm

Speechless: The Call That Saved One Hog Producer’s Farm

Our Derecho Story: The Trees Saved Our Pigs

Trapped by Raging Wildfires in December, Kansas Ranchers Share Staggering Story of Survival

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:45:39 GMT

The serene setting in western Kansas is one that serves as an escape from the hustle of city life. Desolate with more prairie than people, Paradise, Kan., provides the perfect destination for raising cattle. And it’s where Ken Stielow’s family, owner of Bar S Ranch, has called home since the late 1800s.

“This quarter right behind me was homesteaded in 1900 by my granddad,” says Stielow. “My great-granddad homesteaded a mile west in the late 1880s.”

At night, the skies can be painted with picture-perfect sunsets, at times allowing you to forget about the challenges that come with life. And those challenges are prevalent, as ranching in Paradise isn’t for the faint of heart.

“We’ll have some little prairie fires that start, and you get them put out in maybe a mile. But nothing of this magnitude. I’ve never been anything like it,” says Stielow.

Stielow’s family witnessed destruction for miles upon miles in December. Wildfires that were fueled by uncontrollable winds made Paradise look far from a dream destination.

“It looks like a desert or moonscape now, as somebody described it,” he says. “It’s kind of hard look at, really.”

What can be lush landscape with the right conditions is now charred and scarred, after a wildfire raged across the fields just seven weeks ago.

“It was December 15. It was a Wednesday,” recalls Stephanie Dickerson, Ken’s daughter. “The night before, there had been a whole bunch of schools canceled, and we knew that there was going to be wind.”

Stephanie, along with her husband, David, live and ranch on the family homestead. Winds come with the territory in western Kansas, so wind warnings aren’t unusual. However, on December 15, she says the wind was of a different magnitude.

“It wasn’t tornado weather. It wasn’t hail weather. It was just, you could just sense that there was something different,” she explains.

Despite wind warnings, even those were not enough to prepare area residents for what was about to hit. What they believe were downed power lines sparked a fire that changed their lives .

“About 2:30 in the afternoon, our neighbors to the north and west of us, Craig and Joleen Lawson, called us. They said, ‘Hey, there’s a fire.’ And they said, ‘It is headed towards our house. Could you guys bring a couple of trucks and trailers over and help us evacuate our horses?’”

With that, the Dickersons took off, not knowing exactly where the fire was or how fast it was moving. David and their son in one truck and trailer. Stephanie and their son’s college roommate were in another truck following closely behind.

“Literally, you could only maybe see 20 to 30 yards ahead of you. It was just blowing that bad, and the dust and everything was terrible,” Stephanie says. “We got over to their house, pull into their driveway, and Craig meets us there. He’s like, ‘The fire is already here.’”

Raging Wildfires

Seeing the fire on the horizon, the Dickersons jumped back in their trucks to head back to their ranch when one truck and trailer flipped over from the high winds with David and their son inside.

“The truck that I was driving did not blow over,” Stephanie says. “So at that point, they ran back and jumped in with me. And we couldn’t necessarily see the flames. But we can felt the heat, so you knew that it was close.”

Knowing they had to escape the path of the fire, they drove back north. But they didn’t get even 100 yards north, and the fire was already crossing the highway. So, they turned around.

“Craig called and said, ‘Hey, Joleen is still in the house,’” says Stephanie. “He said, ‘You guys go and grab her.’”

So they did, but when they got there, barns and other parts of the farm were up in flames.

“David and I go into the house, we grab Joleen, and of course she’s frantic. She’s trying to put stuff in a bag, and we grab her and tell her we have to go,” says Stephanie.

What they didn’t know at the time, is the wildfires were so furious, they tore through a 25-mile path in about 18 minutes.

“It was blowing so hard, the fire would have been jumping half a mile to a mile at a time,” says David.

Trapped

At that point, they were trapped.

“We go to leave, and the fire trucks meet us at the end of their driveway, and we said we were going to go west. They said, ‘You can’t go west, there’s another fire coming over the top of this fire.’”

The Dickersons then followed the tanker truck and two rural fire trucks into a green, winter wheat field that the firefighters knew would provide the least amount of fuel for the fire.

“And this is all volunteer firemen at this point,” Stephanie says. “It is our local neighbor, people that we have known our entire lives.”

A Plan to Survive

And with that, those volunteer firefighters came up with a plan to try to survive.

“They told us, ‘We’re going to sit here, and we’re going to wait it out. And the tankers are going to pour water over the top of us when the fire gets close,’” Stephanie recalls.

She says with a limited amount of water left in the tank, they didn’t turn the water on until the fire was closing in.

“We’re sitting in the middle of the wheat field. And when the fire came over, [my son] Grady’s best friend, Tyler, was on the back of the fire truck,” says Stephanie, as she cries remembering how it all transpired that day. “He was the one that was outside and sprayed all the trucks with water.”

Video Stephanie captured on her phone shows just how close they were to not surviving that day. A thin ring of brown and green around the trucks is the only thing that wasn’t black in the entire field.

House on Fire

Thankful to be alive, the Dickersons didn’t know if their own ranch and livestock were caught in the flames . So, after the flames passed they headed toward home.

“We got about a mile and a half, two miles from our house and I could see that the house was on fire. Our show barn was on fire. Everything at our house was on fire,” she says.

“There were nine structures there, and I think there’s two left,” says David.

They lost nearly all their personal belongings, except the clothes on their backs. And their family lost livestock, other structures on the ranch and 40-miles worth of fence. And 200 head of cattle, all gone.

“We had one group of cattle that we had brought into a pasture, a winter pasture with a lot of grass, and that had cows with embryo calves on it. And we were to put embryos in the next morning, we had an appointment. And I think there were about 50 pairs in that pasture, and none of them survived,” says Stielow.

After the Flames

But what happened hours after Bar S Ranch was devastated by the fires is where this story gets better.

“Well, in the next three days, we shipped most of our cows to other locations,” says Stielow. “You really don’t know what kind of friends you have until something like this happens.”

Six hundred head of cattle that survived were immediately taken in by friends up to 450 miles away.

“We’ve had physical donations from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, the Dakotas and Colorado,” says Stephanie. “Not to mention monetary donations that I bet we’ve gotten from almost all 50 states. It’s pretty overwhelming.”

“It’s probably, as much as anything, letting you know that there’s still really good people left in the world,” says David.

Overcome with gratitude, the Stielows and Dickersons saw relief come from people they know personally, while other donations poured in from people they’ve never met.

“You see behind me the pile of hay? There was just a constant stream of hay trucks bringing hay people had donated. It was kind of overwhelming. It really was,” says Stielow, taken back by the generosity.

A convoy of hay was trucked in from hundreds of miles away to help area ranchers who lost pastures and their own hay.

“I had a friend tell me this last weekend that we were so lucky, because the people that all showed up and people have sent donations. She said a lot of people don’t see how much you affect other people’s lives until your funeral. And they said, basically, you got to attend your funeral. But you’re still alive to tell about it. And for that, I will forever be grateful.”

While it’ll be at least three years before their ranch gets back to full capacity, this family is thankful that from the ashes rose relief that will continue to restore hope.

Here’s How You Can Help

As the Kanas Livestock Association continues to work to deploy resources, as LMA says there are four collection and distribution points for supply donations of hay, stockwater tanks, fencing supplies and more. Those designated collection points include:

Rooks County
Heartland Regional Stockyards
907 NW 3rd St, Plainville, KS
785-688-4080

Russell County
Russell Livestock
720 S. Fossil, Russell, KS
785-483-1455

Russell County Fairgrounds
702 Fairway Dr. Russell
Marcia Geir: 785-483-3157

Lane County
3 E Rd 120, Dighton, KS
Erik Steffens: 620-397-1687

The Strength of a Mom: How One Young Woman Battled Cancer Through COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:34:01 GMT

A serene setting on this Missouri farm is where Kristen Clenney is living her dream.

“I was about 8 years old, and I declared, ‘Dad, I want to be a vet,’” she remembers.

Her dad, Tom Wright, says Kristen was even younger than that when he knew animals were her calling.

“Oh, it was probably when she was 3,” he says. “She always helped me in the turkeys. She was the one daughter who the animals didn’t bother her. She always liked the animals.”

Now a veterinarian in the neighboring town of Eldon, Mo., her career desires have been steadfast.

“I never changed my course at all; everything I did throughout high school and college directed me towards my goal of becoming a vet,” she adds.

A graduate of the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, she thought a large animal practice was her calling. But that changed when Kristen and her husband John had a chance to move back to her family’s farm.

“And as we move back home, we had just started our family. We had a son, and definitely my role on the farm changed, as well as my career, where I was a smaller animal veterinarian and having more controlled hours worked a lot better for our family,” she says.

(Farm Journal)

Family first, Kristen is now a mom who just went through the fight of her life.

“In January 2020, I randomly felt a lump in my neck that I knew was something odd,” says Kristen. “As soon as I felt it, I knew it wasn’t right.”

The next few weeks, were a whirlwind of doctor’s appointments, biopsies and ultrasounds.

“Unfortunately I found out that I did have thyroid cancer.”

Coping with the news, Kristen underwent surgery within five days.

“We were under the impression my tumor was small, they caught it early. I’d have one surgery, and that would be the end of it,” she says.

But it wasn’t so simple.

“We got the bad news that although my tumor was small, it was rather mighty so to speak, and it had spread. And I would be needing a second surgery as well as radiation therapy.”

(Farm Journal)

The radiation crippled her ability to be around anyone, or anything, including her husband, son and animals. And she said that battle is when she almost hit a breaking point.

“Initially, they said they were going to take your whole thyroid, and I was on board for that,” she says. “But then the doctor changed his mind and said, ‘We’re going to do half your thyroid, they’ve come out with new recommendations.’ I said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this,’ because what I originally felt was a lymph node. So I knew it had spread. I just knew it had.”

The one surgery turned into two. Radiation to try to get it all happened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To hear that news, it kind of knocked the wind out of my sails,” she says. “And I thought, ‘Why didn’t I fight harder?’”

“I think she’s always seen animals heal, and that was one of Kristen’s problems,” says Kristen’s dad. “She understood the medical part of it. Animals and humans aren’t a lot different. She knew what was happening.”

The medical battle came with a mountain of obstacles, as Kristen—the one who’s usually doing the healing—couldn’t do the healing herself.

(Farm Journal)

“That was the first time John broke down through it all, because he knew he was losing his job due to the pandemic and he felt he was letting me down. Our whole world just felt like it was crashing around us,” she says.

At a time when the country was shutting down, Kristen was shutting down too.

“There were days I wanted to give up,” says Kristen.

The battle to keep fighting was one that took place both mentally and physically.

“I found out I was reacting really badly to my medication and my kidneys were shutting down, and that’s why I felt so terrible,” says Kristen.

She was too weak to even do simple things on the farm, at the vet clinic and at home.

“I read something midway through my journey when I really struggling. It said, ‘It takes the same energy to be strong or to be miserable. It’s your choice.’ After reading that, I made a conscious decision that every day I was going to choose to be strong. Because I needed to be strong, not only for myself, but for my husband, for my son for my family.”

(Farm Journal)

She’s a wife and mom and now a cancer survivor.

“I feel very fortunate. Not everybody gets to see that after their journey,” she says.

And it was a yearlong journey that took grit and grace.

“I know that through the love of my family and my faith, I can get through anything,” she says. “And really, it is not giving up. it was a complete mindset.”

A scar on her neck that could symbolize pain is now something Kristen wears with pride.

“When I look at that scar, I remember all I’ve overcome,” she says. “I remember to be grateful for each day because life changes immediately sometimes and to just continue to be strong no matter what life throws at you. Just keep going.”

The Power of Love and Faith: How a Journey to Help Foster Kids Heal On the Farm Led One to Their Forever Home

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:30:45 GMT

Tyler and Amanda Radke’s story started in college.

“We met on the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Meat Judging team , judging ribeyes, so it only makes sense we kind of took ownership of that side of the beef industry, too,” says Amanda Radke, a mom and a fifth generation rancher from Mitchell, South Dakota.

Bonding over beef and cattle from the start, it’s only fitting that the cattle business is still their calling today.

“We sell bulls private treaty to area ranchers,” says Tyler Radke, of Nolz Limousin and Radke Cattle Company . “We sell about 35 to 40 limousine bulls, and we have a fall female sale, as well, with select show heifers and a couple of steers. We sell those private treaty, as well, to people that come and look and local families as well.

The Radkes also own and operate Radke Cattle Company. Life on the ranch is busy, but Amanda stays busy even off the ranch. Not only do they run a direct-to-consumer beef business, but Amanda is a motivational speaker , children’s book author and a boutique owner.

Listen as Radke shares her story with AgriTalk’s Chip Flory:

Struggles with Infertility

Growing businesses seems to come naturally for the Radkes, but where they struggled was trying to start a family.

“When we first got married, we actually went through a really hard time of infertility and not being able to start a family,” says Amanda. “I really struggled with just feeling like a failure.”

Struggling through the emotions of trying to have a child, the Radkes are now blessed with three.

“Scarlett was born June 3, 2014, Thorne was born June 4, 2016 and Croix was born May 22, 2018,” she says. “So, we had three kids born two years apart, exactly, and life was pretty busy.”

Tyler’s Calling

Tyler and Amanda’s hearts were opened to the idea of adoption as they initially waded through the uncertainty of whether they would be able to have children of their own. One day, after their third child was born, Tyler felt a calling.

“Apparently, I didn’t think we had enough going on,” says Tyler. “I honestly don’t know what I saw that made me think of it.”

“He just said, ‘We need to do foster care.’ And my reaction was very negative, because we were maxed out,” Amanda recalls.

Amanda was on the road constantly giving speeches and doing other travel for her job, all while juggling life with three kids and the family’s growing businesses.

“And so I instantly said, ‘No, you’re crazy. I’m drowning right now,’” remembers Amanda.

A Change of Heart

That day, Amanda headed to the airport for a work trip, and on the plane, her heart was changed.

“But again, God had a different plan, because I got on a plane, and the movie on the plane that day was ‘ Instant Family ’, which is a movie about foster care. And so I’m sitting on the plane bawling like a baby.”

She left on the work trip thinking Tyler’s idea was crazy, but that moment instantly changed her mind.

“He’s the steady, even keeled member of our relationship. I mean, he keeps the family going, and I have crazy, wild ideas that go take us off on other journeys and adventures,” Amanda says with a smile. “So for him to have that thought, I truly don’t think it even would have happened had it not been for god giving him that nudge to say, ‘Get this ball rolling.’”

So, that’s exactly what Tyler and Amanda did.

“We call the office and we just want information on how do we get involved and they said, ‘You’re in luck, the Mitchell training started last week, you guys can jump in,’” says Amanda.

The Start of their Journey to Foster

That happened in April, and by August, Amanda was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend when an unexpected call came.

“It was the state, and they had two kids and they needed them emergency placement for that weekend, “ she says. “And I said, ‘I don’t even have our license.’ And they said, ‘Yes, we just threw it in the mail.’”

(Farm Journal)

When Tyler and Amanda told their friends and families their wild idea and decision to foster, they admit not everyone was as receptive to the idea, especially her parents.

“They were scared,” says Amanda. “They were worried about our own kids and the effect that have on them. And just they knew we were a young couple, working full-time jobs, trying to build this farm, we’re trying to be in the seed stock business. We were very maxed out as far as time goes. So, I think in their minds, they’re like, ‘You don’t have time to do this.’”

She says the conversations that followed weren’t easy, as their strong system of support questioned the decision they had just made.

“At one point, I told my dad, ‘Take it up with Jesus, because this isn’t even us. We don’t even know what we’re doing either. So, we can’t even really fully explain it.’ But all it took was that meeting those first two kids, and they got it,” says Amanda.

She says in the last two years with the pandemic, they’ve welcomed a dozen children into their home to foster.

“I just truly believe that there can be a lot of healing done on the farm,” says Amanda.

From healing to growth, she’s even witnessed growth with their three children.

“They became like little agvocates, because they’re teaching these kids about the farm,” says Amanda. “And we just kind of step back and let them do their thing. So, they’re giving them the tour, and they’re teaching them how to pick grass and feed calves through the fence.”

Another Call–This Time, About a 7-Month-Old Baby

Fostering has been far from easy for the family, but as the Radkes can attest, life often reveals other plans. That was the case in 2020. As the world shut down and so did Amanda’s work travel, she was questioning what was next.

“And a week later, we got a call for a seven-month-old baby. And I was like, ‘Oh, now I see why my schedule is cleared, because we have a whole different adventure to go on,” she remembers.

That baby became part of the family during that time.

(Farm Journal)

“We had that baby all of 2020 and got to do all of her milestones with her and love on her,” says Amanda. “And on her first birthday, we found out she was leaving. My heart broke into a million pieces because that was my baby.”

The Radkes knew they’d only have her temporarily, but they were attached and the entire family was crushed.

(Farm Journal)

The Final Call for a Forever Home

Tyler and Amanda had to hold it together for their three children. So, that’s what they did, and life continued to go on, just as it did before. But a few weeks later, another call came.

“And that’s where Alex came in,” says Tyler. “He had been in some foster homes before, coming and going, and now he was available for adoption. Wherever he went was basically going to be his next home.”

They sent Amanda a picture of Alex. He had blond hair and blue eyes, just like their other three kids.

“And I about fell over because I said, ‘He looks like our son.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I know. That’s why I called you.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I need to talk to Tyler.’”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amanda Radke | Author, Speaker, Rancher (@amandaradke)

At that time, it was a very harsh calving season. Tyler was also busy with cattle shows and sales, so their businesses were extremely busy. The decision to adopt wasn’t taken lightly.

“We’d learned from the dozen kids that the dynamics changed significantly, if it’s a-seven-month-old, or we’ve had an 11-year-old, and it changes the family dynamic,” says Amanda.

The risks. The what ifs. The unknowns. The entire family had already experienced it with a dozen children, but temporarily. Yet, they agreed to meet Alex, and ultimately, become his forever home.

“Four days later, he had packed up his bags and moved to our house for good,” says Amanda.

Alex’s Adoption Day

Adoption day came October 5, 2021. The wild adventure and continuous chaos at the farm is where Alex seems to fit right in.

“Within that first year, he knew all the equipment in the field, he could rattle it off and had tons of farm knowledge. It was just crazy how he soaked it up like a sponge,” she says.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amanda Radke | Author, Speaker, Rancher (@amandaradke)

Alex is a four-year old who has braved more in his little life than many will have to do in their entire lifetime.

“We always called him our superhero cowboy because when he came, he loved superheroes, but one night, very early on, I tucked him into bed, and he said, ‘Mama, can I be a cowboy?” And I said, ‘Cowboy? You already are buddy,’ and not because he lives on a farm now and we have cows, but because of how brave he is to change homes and to trust us,” says Amanda.

The trust has grown not only with Tyler and Amanda, but also their other three children. Scarlett, their oldest, stepped into the role of mama bear to not just Alex, but to all the kids the family has fostered the past few years.

“I taught them to be safe on the farm, not to go under the tractor. Don’t go into the pen, especially if there’s a crabby mama,” says Scarlett.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amanda Radke | Author, Speaker, Rancher (@amandaradke)

And as they only girl, Scarlett can hold her own, especially when the boys become rowdy.

“I tell them I’m going to wrangle them up with my pink rope,” she says with a big smile.

Creating a Farm Sanctuary to Help Kids Heal

From fostering to now adoption, the Radke’s heart of service and selflessness have helped create a farm sanctuary that has helped children heal.

“Their lives have been pretty tumultuous, really,” says Tyler.

“I think giving them that space has helped,” adds Amanda.

“Well, depending on what you’re doing for that day, but for the most part, space,” adds Tyler as he smiles.

Tyler says he may never know what sparked his crazy idea to foster that day a few years back, but he just knew how lucky his kids were to grow up on a farm.

“I just wanted to share that with other kids that maybe had tougher luck than ours did, because they deserve the same,” Tyler says.

Fostering Because the Kids Are Worth Fighting For

Amanda says they’ve seen firsthand how the need for more foster parents across the U.S. is tremendous.

“There are more than 400,000 kids in the U.S. foster system today that are waiting for a forever mom and dad. And then there’s even more of them that are going to be temporarily in foster care before they can be reunified [with their family],” she says. “And so if there’s even a calling remotely on your heart to step into this really hard space, don’t ignore it, because the kids are worth fighting for.”

The Radkes have three goals: provide peace with a place to heal, experience a family full of love and introduce them to a household strong in faith. A recipe that’s filled with grit and grace.

“We always tell people, there’s always room for one more at the dinner table,” she says. “It’s been hard, but at the same time, we’ve been able to just roll with the punches and take on a little bit extra. When you think you’re maxed out, there’s always a little extra space to help someone.”

Amanda says even if you don’t want to start the process to become a foster parent , there are other ways you can support foster families who are in need of supplies and other donations as they continue their foster journey.

Grit with Grace

You can watch more touching and inspiring stories from across rural America in Grit with Grace.

At 36, Brooke Taylor Has Battled Cancer Twice, Now She's Working To Spread Joy To Others

Fri, 23 Dec 2022 18:56:09 GMT

At 36 years old, Brooke Taylor has many chapters to her life.

“After I graduated from Oklahoma State twice, I went on a circuit of working in the food and agricultural industry,” says Taylor, who now resides in Gore, Okla. “I started in Oklahoma City working in for commodity organization before taking the switch over to the agency side, working then in Oklahoma City, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Wisconsin before returning to Oklahoma.”

Taylor’s post-graduation chapter kept her constantly on the road. And six years ago, she says she woke up one day with the realization that life just wasn’t for her.

“If only there was a way to do what I do now working for large and international ag and food organizations, but in rural Oklahoma, and that would be the life, and somehow we made that happen,” she says.

She launched a company, Rural Gone Urban, in rural Oklahoma at a time when she had no internet at home. The business blossomed into a dream come true. That dream got even better in 2018 when Taylor found out she was pregnant.

“It was the cherry on top of all of the things that I’d ever wanted. I was living in Oklahoma, I had this job working with really big, important agricultural brands, while creating a family. I didn’t think anything could get any better,” she says.

Taylor describes her pregnancy as very normal.

“I did notice there was a spot in my breasts that kept getting a little larger, and I brought it up to my medical team, multiple times. They said, ‘No, this is just part of being a new mom. This is what your body does,’” she remembers.

But for Taylor, something was still wrong.

The Diagnosis

Maybe it was her maternal instinct already kicking in, but Taylor was right.

“And so my 38-week appointment, I literally ripped my shirt off in that doctor’s appointment, and I said, ‘I’m not leaving until you feel this,’” she says. “And I watched the color drain from her face.”

Her doctor referred her to a breast health specialist, and within 15 minutes of leaving her 38-week appointment, she received a call from the specialist’s office to schedule an appointment the next day.

“That next Monday, he called me at 8 a.m., and he said, ‘I’m sorry, kiddo. It’s cancer,’” Taylor remembers.

The diagnosis? A very aggressive type of breast cancer that primarily affects women under 40.

“And by 2 p.m., I found out the child I was carrying was a girl, and she entered the world via c section so we could get that [treatment] party started,” she says.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by brooke clay taylor (@ruralgoneurban)

A baby girl named after her great grandmother who was a dairy farmer in Indiana.

“So, Elsie James Taylor is the reason that I’m still here today,” says Taylor.

A New Mom Undergoing Cancer Treatment

Just days after giving birth, Taylor says she was treated to the entire breast cancer buffet.

“I had four different types of chemo. During that time, I had an infection they had to clean out. I had two cases of shingles,” says Taylor.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by brooke clay taylor (@ruralgoneurban)

She was undergoing the treatments all while still working and transitioning into life as a new mom.

“After that, I chased it with a double mastectomy. I chased it with five weeks of radiation during a pandemic. I had a preventative hysterectomy, and oophorectomy, which means before my daughter was a year old, I said, ‘Here are all my reproductive organs, please don’t come back.’ I had reconstruction surgery, and then I was good,” she says.

Positive News After Treatment

The news after the intense treatment? It was positive. Her body had a complete response to chemo. No cancer was left.

She lived life for about a year in complete remission. Her follow-up appointments and scans after she finished treatment showed the cancer was gone.

“And then Christmas this last year, I was driving home from my parents’ house, and my family had been sick all week,” she says.

It was also during that drive a year ago that she felt a swollen lymph node on her neck.

“My husband said don’t overthink it. So, I didn’t,” she says.

Taylor started on antibiotics, just thinking it was from the same illness that had been running through the family. But then weeks later, she saw photos of herself and knew that something just wasn’t right.

“So, I called my doctors and I went in I said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, something’s broken.’”

The Cancer Was Back

Once again, her instincts were right.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by brooke clay taylor (@ruralgoneurban)

Stage four cancer. It was heartbreaking news that she shared on her Instagram.

“It was back. It was mad. It was so mad. I got the results. The pet scan on the anniversary of the day my dad had passed away from cancer. So, really just twist over the knife on that one. I learned that the breast cancer had returned—it was in my neck and clavicle, my ribs, my spine, and then most of my pelvis,” says Taylor.

The cancer was everywhere. As the news sunk in, Elsie James was still just two.

“You’ve given me a metastatic diagnosis, which means end game. It’s what it means statistically. No one really makes it out that if you have metastatic triple negative breast cancer, and the average lifespan after that diagnosis is 13 months, which is this March for me,” says Taylor.

With the diagnosis came other news. A cancer-fighting medicine that had been in trials for 10 years had just been approved by FDA.

“Because I had responded well to a platinum-based chemo, because I am a BRCA1gene mutant carrier, I checked the boxes for this medicine. And it’s working for me,” she says.

It’s not been smooth sailing. That medicine that’s helping her fight cancer, also caused Taylor to undergo nearly 20 blood transfusions this past summer.

“And I’ve had clear scans. I’ve looked at the scans, I’ve seen the March scan, and then the scan in June and the scan in September. And while my doctors won’t say that it’s gone, it’s not there,” she says.

The Reality of Living With Cancer

Taylor says it’s a miracle she’s here, but the reality of beating two aggressive forms of breast cancer is something that doesn’t go away.

“I went to a girls’ dinner this past week and we were talking about teachers and who else you might have for pre-k or first grade,” she says. “And all I could think about was, we’re all just there talking like it’s okay and it’s normal, and I might not even meet those teachers. It’s just, it’s just my reality.”

Her reality of not knowing if she’ll be here to see her daughter’s milestones are her reality today.

“I would be lying to you if I told you that it’s not hard,” say Taylor.

Leaving a Legacy Larger Than Cancer Through the Rural Gone Urban Foundation

Yet, it’s not stopping her from doing what she’s always done. Taylor’s cancer battle is one she shares on social media, documenting the ups and the downs of fighting cancer twice.

And as a young wife and mom, she also wants to leave a legacy that’s bigger than cancer.

“And so I had this idea of what if I created something while I was still here, that way I could control its roots and its foundation. And then whenever I graduate to heaven, that people continue that living legacy for me,” says Taylor.

That’s how the Rural Gone Urban Foundation transpired.

“It came out of thin air really, and it’s the best thing that’s happened from this year,” says Taylor.

The mission? Investing in strong women doing brave things with three pillars of support. All the pillars reflect Taylor’s life and heart in some way.

“So the first pillar of the foundation is investing in B and C students, because gosh, they work hard to they’re probably the entrepreneurs of the world that we need,” says Taylor.

The second is investing in small business owners, which stems from her second season of life…

“When I launched my small business, I was living in an apartment in a horse barn. I had no internet. I had no infrastructure. I was reading irs.gov on Friday nights to figure out what was going on. And I had lived a career in very large corporate environments, but doing it on my own was a whole different ballgame,” she says.

And the third pillar is supporting others battling cancer.

“I just haven’t come up with a better name than love bombs for cancer fighters,” says Taylor.

Taylor says worrying about bills, childcare or things around the house is a lot for cancer fighters, especially ones who don’t have a huge network of support. So, the foundation will not only award women with financial grants, but also do the little things to help cancer fighters however they can.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by brooke clay taylor (@ruralgoneurban)

Taylor first announced the foundation on Instagram, an effort to leave a legacy of giving.

“We raised almost $25,000 in like 48 hours,” she says. “That’s grassroots; that’s like $5, $10, $50 donations. It’s wild.”

In less than a year, the foundation has raised close to $50,000, all thanks to generous donors and the foundation’s board.

“On behalf of the board, not just me, we want to gift entrepreneurs who are already doing the hard work and let them know we see you, we value you and we want you to succeed,” she says.

The Foundation Will Start Spreading Joy in 2023

The board has already overcome the paperwork and others hurdles of starting a foundation board, and in 2023, the Rural Gone Urban Foundation will start to spread that joy to others.

“I am the chair of the scholarship committee, so I’m pulling that committee together, right now. We’re going to open the application process, and this spring, and we’re going to give away $15,000, this spring semester,” she says.

Then, Taylor says the foundation will also get to work on the love bombs.

“March is triple negative breast cancer awareness month, which is the type of cancer I was diagnosed with, so it’s important that we start launching in March,” she says.

Taylor’s Memory Building Trips with Family

Taylor says while the foundation supports others, she’s been able to take Elsie on a few memory building trips of their own this year, including one to New York.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by brooke clay taylor (@ruralgoneurban)

“We went to a Mets game. She ran on the field. We saw the Lion King,” she says.

During that trip, they also made a special visit to a jewelry store and picked out bracelets together.

“Someday, whether I’m here or not here, she will open gifts that we picked out together on the day she graduates high school, the day she graduates from college, on her wedding day and the day she becomes a mom,” says Taylor.

One item Elsie was drawn to was a delicate bracelet with a lady bug.

“At that time, all I can think about is what about when this story becomes full circle and she is has her first baby. What if I’m not there? It’s just a ladybug. But if that’s all I can do, I mean, I’m going to do it,” says Taylor with tears.

Taylor may be a mom now, but she knows what it’s like to go through monumental moments in life without a parent.

“As a child who lost a father to cancer, those are the days where I was surrounded by the most people, and I kept looking around to see if he was there. I’ve never told anyone that,” she says. “And I was 6 when he died.”

As Taylor looks to the future, she’s not only thinking about her only family. In a season of giving, Taylor is working to make a difference year-round.

“This has been the most humbling year of my life,” she says. “Through tears, in my weakest moment of saying, ‘My daughter’s not going to remember me,’ to breathing foundation that people also believe in.”

And she says instead of living life like every day could be her last, she’s simply living life to the fullest every day she can.

“It’s not up to someone how what the outcome looks like, but it is up to us how we live through it; how we identify the silver linings,” says Taylor.

Taylor says her faith has grown even stronger since her initial diagnosis three years ago, and while she’s not scared to graduate to heaven, she’s not ready just yet.

“The thing I’ve struggled with is, how can I ask for me to be a miracle when maybe the miracle is that I’m here right now, anyway,” says Taylor.

Taylor’s mission isn’t finished yet. She says she’ll continue to work to raise money for her Foundation. If you’d like to help support her efforts and donate, visit the Foundation’s website .

From the Flames: A Lesson in Thanksgiving from a Man Who Survived a Raging Oklahoma Wildfire

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 21:20:43 GMT

Driving back to rural Dewey County, in western Oklahoma, floods Terry Burleson with memories and images from 3.5 years ago.

“How I escaped this wilderness on fire was by the grace of God,” Terry says.

Among the web of canyons and charred cedars, Terry survived. A miracle, left behind after nearly 300,000 acres burned in April of 2018. It started as a quick trip in the side-by-side to scout locations for a turkey hunt the following morning. Terry and two family members were rolling through the pasture when they saw the smoke.

“It seemed to be a long way off and we weren’t taking on any smoke,” he says. “So, it just felt like it was 10, 15 or 20 miles away.”

But in minutes, the fire was on top of them. It was being pushed by 50 mile per hour winds and now a wall of flames was racing across the landscape. Their road back was blocked and so they ran.

“From that point is where we, for whatever reason, decided to split up,” remembers Terry. “I don’t know why even to this day.”

Terry, not expecting to ever get out, was in loafers as he tried to sprint through the canyons. Somewhere during his sprint, Terry lost his phone. The other two men, via fence lines and dirt roads, found a way to safety. Terry ran for his life, up hillsides and down canyons. He ran until he couldn’t,

“My mind was telling me the fire was going to jump and at any moment I was going to be sandwiched,” Terry says. “I kind of gave up and I laid down to die.”

As he listened to the fire howling around him, he found peace.

(Farm Journal)

“I talked to my wife once, right when we got out of the Ranger,” remembers Terry. “I talked to her and told her we were out on foot; we were in it, and it doesn’t look good.”

He lay at the bottom of the canyon, as cedars exploded around him.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t scared and maybe that’s a God thing, too,” Terry says.

As the heat rolled over him, the burning drove Terry to his feet. He was gasping through the smoke as he climbed out of the canyon and eventually broke the tree line onto flat ground. A small road created the perfect fire line.

“The way that road angles and the way the wind was blowing the same direction, that’s the only thing that allowed that fire to backburn past me,” Terry says.

It wasn’t long before the flames came roaring back to life. This time it was on his side of the road.

“That grass was about waist high,” Terry says. “So, you can imagine the flames were probably 10 feet and created just a big wall.”

Terry worked his way from one safe spot to another, laying as flat to the ground as could, beneath the smoke. Eventually, he was forced back across the road and into the ashes. He was safe as the fire once again raged past him.

Several hours went by and as night began to settle in Terry got to his feet, disoriented, hurting and lost. By chance or by providence he turned left down that road.

“Something told me to go left,” Terry says. “I was very fortunate because when I turn the corner, I saw a water trough and a windmill.”

Water! Terry wet his face, but he didn’t drink. He says given his situation he was worried it might make him sick. Then he laid down, out of the smoke on the cool concrete ring. That’s where he stayed until daylight.

(Farm Journal)

Meanwhile, his family feared the worst. They were kept away from the area by authorities and the raging fire.

“Knowing what the wind was doing, seeing the fire and watching it on the news we were just holding out for hope, begging God that he survives and praying all through the night,” recalls Mark Price, a family member. “You can’t sleep, and everyone was worried, nervous, scared and frustrated.”

When daylight broke, Price rallied the others from the family.

“I said it’s time to go,” said Price. “We’ve got to go find him.”

That morning, a few hundred yards at a time, Terry followed the trail across the pasture to a dirt road and then started toward the western Oklahoma town of Camargo.

“When I got across this cattle guard that’s when I saw a pickup coming,” Terry says.

He sank to the ground, and the men offered him water. Five minutes later his family arrived.

(Farm Journal)

“When we pulled up to that cattle guard, I saw him sitting in the road and I threw it in park, jumped out, jumped up in the air and screamed, ‘He’s alive, he’s alive, thank God he’s alive,’” Price says. “Then I thought, I’ve got to call his wife. So I grabbed the phone and I called her. I said, we found him. He’s alive. Then I hung up.”

Price laughs he probably didn’t share enough information, which worried family at the time.

“I got in trouble for that, and they said, you know, you didn’t really give us a lot of information,” Price says.

Local ambulance director Katrina Bryant was the first to arrive.

(Farm Journal)

“Truthfully, [Terry] was in good shape,” Bryant remembers. “I was expecting to be doing a body recovery, and the way that fire was burning, we probably wouldn’t have found a body. We probably would have found ashes.”

She says the entire emergency team knew he was missing and seeing him alive lifted spirits.

“When they found him, the talk on the radio chatter was just renewed life,” Bryant says.

Terry spent 21 days in the hospital, suffering third-degree burns on his arms and parts of his torso. His head and face had first-degree burns.

Exactly how and why he survived is a question Terry has grown to live with.

“You’ll hear God’s in control and so either he is, or he isn’t. It’s one of the two. It can’t be both,” Terry says.

“I know if the same thing happened to me, he wouldn’t stop until he found me. And you know, that’s just it’s a story of brotherhood, a story of friendship,” said Price.

“I try not to get emotional about it,” Terry says, surveying the place once more. “To come back and see it is all still a little bit surreal.”

From fire and ashes to walking among the living, Terry counts it a miracle. He remains thankful for every step along the way.

"It's Not Hollywood At All": How Veeder Ranch Battled Historic Blizzards, Found Hope in the Middle of the Storm

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 05:19:30 GMT

Once you reach the far western portion of North Dakota, the rugged ways of ranching on the cusp of the Badlands can be challenging, no matter the time of year.

“No calf out there is older than 2 weeks old,” says Chad Scofield, a rancher in Watford City, N. D. “Most of them have been born in the last six to seven days.”

This year, calving in the middle of a blizzard came with a battle that was unlike anything many North Dakota ranchers had ever seen.

“We were told it was coming,” says Gene Veeder, who owns Veeder Ranch and ranches along with his son-in-law Chad. “I guess the magnitude of it just kind of was a slap in the face.”

Veeder Ranch is a family operation that’s relied on this land for more than a century.

“Having that long, hard blizzard for a couple of days, and then another one, I don’t remember that ever happening like that in April,” says Veeder.

The family portion of the ranch is still intact, as Chad is married to Gene’s daughter, Jessie. They all live on the family ranch, raising the next generation.

“We didn’t know when I was growing up here in the 90s whether it was going to be a possibility for me to raise a family out here, honestly,” says Jessie Veeder Scofield. “It was a totally different economic time.”

Jessie’s husband, Chad, has worked on the ranch for several years, but has only been full time for a few years. Now that their family is fully immersed in the ranch life, Jessie is grateful.

“Every day we come to the work we’re doing in the family, that we have here, from a place of gratitude,” she adds.

McKenzie County, N. D., is unique with the median age in the community hovering around 35.

“It is because of the economy, because there are jobs here and the oil activity, especially, brought that to McKenzie County. It brought a lot of fourth and fifth generations back to the family ranches, and that’s been incredible,” she says.

Battling the Blizzard

Carrying on those traditions here, is what Jessie strives to do, even when Mother Nature pushes livelihoods to the limits.

An area stricken with dire drought conditions, the blizzard warnings stirred up emotions the week before Easter.

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“It’s like gratefulness and fear all sort of balled into one,” says Jessie. “I think everyone in McKenzie County and in western North Dakota was feeling that, because we haven’t seen snow like this for years.”

Both hope and fear entered the picture as the forecasts became closer and closer to reality. Then, just before Easter Sunday, the Veeders saw a blizzard of a lifetime.

“I think it lasted three full days, and it was bad. Like right here where we’re standing, we would have been standing in about 3 feet of snow,” says Chad.

Record-Breaking Snow

As snow piled up, even trying to wade through the snow to get to their tractors was a feat. Typically, the Veeders would enter their pastures on horseback, but the conditions were too extreme this time.

“Just walking from the house to the barn here on the first storm, where we’re standing right now, I had snow to my waist. I was almost panicky because I had to get to this building to get to the tractor to get out,” says Veeder.

“The snow was so deep coming across this road, that I was pushing it with the front of the tractor, not even the bucket, just the actual front of the tractor was pushing it,” Chad adds.

With blinding conditions and snow that was measured in feet, not inches, the first storm was bad enough. Then, just days later, another storm hit, this time as the Veeders were at the height of calving.

“That was hard for us, because we knew that we were going to have calves out there. We did the best we could to give them shelter and get bedding down for them, but if they were born in the night during the weather, we just couldn’t save them,” says Veeder.

Already exhausted from the first storm, the Veeders did everything they could to prepare for the second.

“What we did is we put them in our lowest, most protected areas and had lots of hay and stuff for them to lay on and got them out of the wind,” says Veeder.

Losses from the Storm

Even though the Veeders did everything they could to help protect their livestock, the blinding conditions were followed by ice, as the back-to-back blizzards were intense. The Veeders only had about 20 minutes after a calf was born to save it.

“They were just wet and cold and couldn’t get dry,” says Chad. “And the cows were all confused about who was the mom for each calf, and it was just kind of pandemonium.”

“My brother was here, too, so Chad, my brother and I were in the two tractors out there, and we had multiple calves in the tractor trying to get them warmed up,” says Gene.

Gene’s brother came back from Texas just to help during the storms, and even with extra help, it was a battle to save the calves.

“We were out in the tractors, looking for calves,” explains Chad. “I think we picked up four or five of them. And then a couple of them were able to get back with their moms, and now we are left with three bottle calves still.”

With the brutal conditions, some of the newborn calves didn’t survive the storm.

“We’re still probably going to be calculating the losses,” says Jessie. “It was certainly more than we wanted to lose, but gosh, we could have lost more.”

Ranchers across North Dakota found calves that were lost in snowbanks after the snow melted from the storm, and the losses are hard for even this seasoned rancher to weather.

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“It doesn’t have anything to do with dollars,” says Veeder. “I get a lump in my throat telling you about it. These cows that you raise, you kind of get a bond with them. And then you see them go through all that, and their (calf) just dies in a snowbank in 15 minutes.”

Sacrifices to Save Lives

Veeder Ranch lost around 10 calves, but it’s the lives they saved that the family celebrates.

“We had every family member in our entryway with a heated floor, and we were scrubbing those calves down, getting them dried off and getting them fed and trying to pick them up,” says Jessie.

Jessie’s two girls, along with her sister and her two kids, did everything they could to save each precious life on the ranch.

“One bottle calf, the girls named her Strawberry, and now she’s in the barn doing really well. So you feel kind of victorious with all of those little victories that you get in the process of being kind of desperate,” says Jessie.”

While ranchers will continue to battle the thoughts of what else they could have done to save their livestock, there are many calves that lived because of the sacrifices the Veeders and other ranchers made during the April blizzards. And signs of life are spread all across area ranches, in more ways than one.

“You have to just be in the moment, do what you can and be able to look past it into a more positive situation and know that it’s coming and believe that it’s coming,” says Jessie.

Relief in the Form of Moisture

Better days are exactly what’s ahead. An area that had faced a harsh drought for two consecutive years, saw moisture that was not just needed but crucial this year.

“We were in such incredible drought,” says Gene. “We were getting our business taken from us with a drought. We’re talking about this blizzard, but I felt worse about the drought than I do this blizzard, honestly, I do. It was a hopeless feeling.”

While the blizzard robbed them of some new life, it also brought blessings in the form of moisture.

“It means not having to sell the cattle for us,” says Jessie. “(Having moisture) to grow the grass that didn’t grow back in the fall means we’ll be able to keep our herd. It’s huge.”

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The moisture from the blizzard was extreme, but it saved their herd. Some of the animals they were already forced to sell due to dire drought conditions. Relief is just one of many emotions running rampant as the weeks of brutal weather have made ranchers here tired, both physically and mentally.

“I worked hard enough that my body feels like 90 years old,” says Veeder with a smile. “But never once do I complain because my dad worked way harder. And my grandpa worked way harder.”

Heavy Dose of Grit and Grace

For ranchers across the Plains, weathering the extremes is simply what you do.

“Both my grandparents homesteaded in this area. I don’t know how they did it. I can’t imagine so,” says Veeder. “The Yellowstone thing, there’s not enough dollars in livestock today to live that kind of lifestyle. You have to love it. You have to love getting up every morning looking at your cattle and having my grandkids come in and appreciate it and my kids appreciate these. It’s not Hollywood at all.”

Ranching may not be glamorous like pictured in popular movies or television series, but it creates lessons that last a lifetime, and it requires a heavy dose of grit and grace.

“We had a lot to be grateful for in this situation,” says Jessie. “We have family around us, we have a lot of help, we had the right equipment, we had the moisture. For me grit is just being able to see past it, you know, see past the hard time and into the next step. And the next step is going to be better, we’re going to do this, we’re going to have a plan.”

Virginia Farmer Was Stranded After His Tractor Ran Over Him; What Happened Next Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:17:14 GMT

Winding across a hilly, gravel road in Crockett, Virginia, is where you’ll find Allen Dix every day of the week except Sunday.

“This is part of my 75-mile mail route that I travel six days a week,” he says.

As a USPS rural mail carrier, it’s a route he knows by memory, and one he traveled just like any other mail day in early March.

Part of his daily routine as a mail carrier, it’s that same road where John Moody is also a regular.

“Well, I’ve lived here on this farm almost my whole life. This was my grandparents’ farm,” says Moody, who raises cattle in the remote area of Virginia.

For 31 years, John worked for the county USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), even serving as the county executive director, but now retired, owning cattle for more than 40 years means John never slowed down. And on March 4th, the day just after John had turned 70 years old, his day started as it normally would as he loaded up to feed his cattle.

“I had a hay bale here on the front, and I had a hay bale on the back,” John remembers.

With bales in tow, John stopped to open the gate to feed his cows, the same way he’s done for decades.

“I just pulled off the side road and pulled off in the ditch and let it idle over there, and then I go across the road, open the gate and come back and get on tractor,” says John. “Well, I did that, and I wasn’t paying any attention, but when I turned around and started back toward the tractor, I looked up, and here came the tractor.”

The Accident

His first instinct was to try to jump on to the tractor to stop it, but as he did, John slipped off.

“My right leg got caught under the back tire, and it just pulled me under,” he remembers.

(Farm Journal)

The Rural Route Rescue

By that time it was mid-morning, when the rural road isn’t traveled much. So John knew the best chance of someone rescuing him was to lie in the ditch.

“I kept thinking well, sooner or later the mailman would come, and I laid there about an hour,” he remembers.

And sure enough, Dix, who travels the road daily, pulled up right on time.

“But as I got closer, I noticed the tractor was across the road and it was into the fence, and the tractor was still running,” remembers Dix.

The route and frequent stops are ones Dix knows by heart. And as he pulled off to the side of the road, he quickly realized something wasn’t right.

“I actually found John in the ditch right here along the edge of the road,” he says. “I was kind of approaching him rather cautiously. And, I said, ‘John, are you okay?’ And he said, ‘No, actually, the tractor ran over me.’”

And that’s when Dix immediately called 911.

“911, do you have an emergency,” asked the 911 operator.

“Yes, I’m on Zion Church Road,” you can hear Dix say on the call.

“Is he out of the roadway,” the operator then asked.

“Yes. I’m a mail carrier and I want to stay here with him until someone gets here,” answered Dix.

But after he hung up, John had a call he needed to make.

“John doesn’t have cell phone. He’s old school. So, I gave him my cell phone,” says Dix.

“He called the rescue squad, and I called my wife,” John remembers with tears in his eyes.

“The first thing he said was, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m working.’ And he said, ‘Could you meet me at the hospital?’ And then I had to sit down,” remembers Debbie Moody, John’s wife. “And I said, ‘What’s happened?’ He said, ‘Well, my tractor ran over me.’ And then I really started to panic.”

She says Dix then took the phone back and explained what had happened as Debbie says she was still in shock.

“When John told me his tractor ran over him, of course. I imagined the worst,” she says.

With Dix still there, the ambulance arrived and rushed John to a local hospital, but it was there the staff realized John’s injuries were too severe.

“They sent me to Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina, and they flew me down there by a helicopter and they took me to the trauma center, and then they operated the next day on my leg,” he says.

Repairing a hole where gravel had burrowed into his skin, John also had three pins placed where the tractor fractured his pelvis. And it was during surgery the severeness of John’s accident also sunk in.

“The surgeon said, ‘You know, he shouldn’t be alive,’” Debbie remembers. “And I cried. I knew it was bad. But when she put it in those words, I cried and said a little prayer.”

John spent a total of 15 days at the hospital with rehab continuing when he got home. Debbie was a natural at being a nurse, but she was also John’s biggest cheerleader as he worked to walk again.

“It was hard on him because he would be tired and sometimes frustrated,” she says. “But he did very well and pushed hard and did what he had to do.”

Steady Stream of Support

As the recovery process was just starting, it was when the Moody’s returned home they saw support and help from family and friends.

“When we came home one of my neighbors they’d built a ramp for me,” says John. “Another one had brought a hospital bed for me, and I was in that hospital bed for about three months that we set up in the living room.”

And the generosity didn’t stop, as the kindness seemed to keep pouring in.

“I had one neighbor that came and fed my cattle for the rest of the winter, and then I had another one come in vaccinate all my calves,” John remembers.

But it wasn’t just those neighbors who continued to check on John. You see, Dix didn’t just rescue John on March 4th. Right after Dix found John in the ditch, he jumped right in to mend what needed fixed on the farm, as he waited with John for help to arrive.

“I was able to move the tractor off of the fence, get it back to the barn was able to mend the fence,” says Dix.”

Even then, Dix says his job still wasn’t finished.

“And he needed some personal things from the house. I went to his house and got those. After all that was finished, I finished my mail route.”

And for Dix, that’s just what you do.

“We take care of each other out here. We look after each other,” he says.

Rural Route Hero

But from finding John and calling 911, to then repairing the fence and gathering items John needed for his hospital stay, what Dix did on March 4, 2021 extended far beyond his day job, something for which he was recognized recently.

“They actually surprised me with the presentation at the post office. I had absolutely no idea that it was going on,” says Dix.

That surprise and presentation wasn’t just for any award, but the USPS’ Hero Award.

“I’m a little uncomfortable with the ‘hero’ title, because, John and Debbie are the heroes for surviving the accident, her giving him care through this whole thing. And it’s been an emotional six months for them, and for me, too.”

(Farm Journal)

A Humble Hero

With his name now engraved at the USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C., Dix still doesn’t like being called a hero. But to John and Debbie, a hero is exactly what he is.

“Allen is truly a hero. He will always be a hero to the Moody family, because of his quick thinking,” says Debbie. “In this area, people do take care of each other and look after each other, and that was just second nature to him.”

“He saved me from a lot of suffering getting there when he did, or I don’t know when somebody would have got there that day,” says John.

While Dix typically delivers mail, that day, Allen Dix proved to be a rural route hero by delivering an unforgettable rescue. As John and Allen share a new bond, it’s one of which John will be forever thankful.

(Farm Journal)

A New Chapter

As for John, his recovery has been a year in the making.

“I had been thinking about cutting back on my cattle; a third this year, a third next year, and then a third next year and going out of the cow-calf operation and then buying calves in the spring and selling them in the fall,” explains John. “Well, while laid there I thought well, this might be a good time just sell all them. So that’s what I did once I got better.”

However, the accident wasn’t the end of John’s story, as John recently started a new chapter. Nearly a year after John survived the tractor accident and sold off all his cattle knowing he couldn’t care for them at the time, he just purchased 19 head of cattle to graze again. As the cattle returned to the farm in March 2022, it’s affirmation that when you have enough heart and passion, it’s a way of life that not even tragedy can take away.

It's Been One Year Since Farmers and a 3-Year Old Remarkably Rescued A Father, Son Trapped in a Well

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:17:07 GMT

One year ago, we shared the story, “Remarkable Rescue: Five Farmers Save Father and 6-Year-Old Son After Falling 70 Feet into a Well.” Since the story aired, we’ve received comments and messages from viewers and readers about how the touching story made them more “Well Aware.”

The evening of Monday, May 10, 2021 was a day just like any other for the Leseberg family in Rock Port, Mo. Brandon Leseberg, a Missouri farmer and cattle producer, was working cows while his sons, Louie and Everett, played. As Brandon was closing the gate to head home, his sons stopped for a drink out of the water spigot nearby, just as they had done many times before.

As Brandon was still closing the gate to the pasture, he noticed Louie, who was just standing a few feet away seconds before, was nowhere to be seen.

“I asked Everett, ‘Where’s Louie? What was wrong?’ and he said Louie fell in the hole. And he pointed down, to a tiny hole through the board,” says Brandon.

What Brandon didn’t realize is the board that was nailed across the well to cover it up had rotted out in the middle over time. And as Louie was taking a drink, the board gave in, and 6-year-old Louie fell 70 feet straight down into frigid water at the bottom of the well.

“I bet that was only just a matter of a few seconds after he fell,” remembers Brandon. “I didn’t think. I just ran over to that hole that looked not much bigger than a basketball, and I didn’t see anything, and I couldn’t hear anything for a couple more seconds. And then I heard a splash and some gasping. And there was no thinking; I jumped.”

Brandon knew Louie could barely swim. And with the sounds of his son drowning, Brandon said time wasn’t an option. So, without thinking twice, he just jumped in.

“I went through the same hole Louie was in,” says Brandon. “I remember that I just jumped through that hole in the board, and I obviously made it a lot bigger. But you know, you don’t think. I was just looking for the fastest way down there.”

Without the board still covering the well, Brandon couldn’t see in before he jumped. And so as Brandon was freefalling, he says about halfway down something told him to reach out.

“Turns out there was a pipe [on the side of the well],” says Brandon. “After I jumped down and my eyes adjusted a bit in the dark well, it felt like it was quite a ways down. But when I looked up, I was able to grab ahold of the pipe that goes down to the well motor and stop my descent.”

Able to catch himself from falling on top of Louie in the bottom of the well, Brandon said he would fall, and then reach out to grab the pipe in order to help stop his fall. He did that three times, all while Louie was still screaming for help. As Brandon reached Louie, he reached for his son, while bracing himself against the well just above the water.

“I still had ahold of that pipe, and I just braced both my back and my feet up there and then grabbed Louie and put him on my chest, because the water – we never took the temp on it – I’m sure it was close to 50 degrees if not colder, and he was already shivering,” says Brandon.

Calls for Help

After Brandon reached the bottom and picked up Louie, he realized there was no way he could climb back up.

“Once I was down there, Louie had enough confidence in me, he said, ‘Alright, Dad, you can pull us out now.’ And I told him no, because the last 20 feet or so was so slick on the pipe, I knew I couldn’t hold onto it. It just like ziplined into the water.”

“He said, ‘Dad, how are we going to get out?’ I said, ‘Your brother Everett is going to have to save us.’ And so he goes, ‘How’s he going to do that?’ I said, ‘He’s going to have to run to the road.’”

From 70 feet down in the dark well, Brandon yelled up to his 3-year-old son standing up top.

“I just told Everett he was going to have to be a big boy and run out and stand by the mailbox until somebody drove by. And be a big boy for us, I told him. You’re going to have to save us,” says Brandon.

With strict instructions to stay out of the road, that’s exactly what 3-year-old Everett did.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

“I saw him standing along the road, and we just couldn’t figure out why he was standing there,” remembers Christi McKenney, a neighbor who happened to drive by while Everett was standing by the mailbox. “So, we stopped. And he was saying, ‘My daddy’s in a hole.’”

As Christi and her husband, Mark, reached the farm, they thought the hole to which Everett was referring was in the cow pasture. But then she noticed the 4-wheeler was still running.

“And I said, ‘Okay, show me where he’s at.’ And he pointed down in that well. And then I yelled at Mark.

“I just jumped out of the pickup and called 911,” says Mark McKenny.

The Call to 911

The 911 call obtained by Farm Journal reveals the initial words spelled out during that call.

“911, where’s your emergency?” says the 911 operator. “This is Mark McKenney. I need some help. A guy fell in the well, and a boy is in the well,” answers Mark.

As the 911 operator asks Mark for the address, she also asked questions about possible injuries and details of the fall.

“How far did they fall?” asks the operator. “I don’t know, probably 40 to 50 (feet),” replies Mark. “Are they complaining of any injuries?” asks the operator. “I don’t know. They just said they needed help. He went down to get his boy out of the well,” answers Mark.

More Calls for Help

As the 911 operator asked more questions, Mark instructed his wife Christi to call their neighbor for help.

“I was so emotional, I can’t even remember what I said,” says Christi. “I didn’t even know if he could even get out of it what I was trying to tell him.”

That neighbor was Dan Athen, a farmer who lives just up the road from the Leseberg farm.

“When she first called, she was pretty distraught,” Dan recalls. “And what I got out of it was Brandon fell. I didn’t know what or where. And then she finally said ‘south of your house.’ So, I knew it was Brandon Leseberg. And then she got out that he fell into the well.”

Thinking it was just Brandon in the well, he thought fast after he hung up the phone.

“I knew how deep my well was, which is about 140-feet deep,” says Dan. “And so I thought to grab a barn rope; I didn’t even know how long it was.”

As Dan pulled up to the well, the 911 call captured his first words.

“Brandon, Dan Athen. We’re going to try to send a rope down to you,” Dan yelled.

“Then Brandon said, ‘OK, we’re going to send Louie up first,’” says Dan. “That’s the first that I knew that his son was in the well.”

Dan says with those words, his heart sank. Dan, a father, too, had his teenage son by his side. And, he says, to discover a 6-year-old was stranded at the bottom of the well was shocking and heartbreaking.

The Remarkable Rescue

Without wasting any time, Dan and Mark sent the rope down to get Louie first, but Dan still didn’t know just how far down they were, or if his rope was long enough to rescue the father and son.

“The rope Dan brought was like 85-feet long,” says Mark, a detail they didn’t know until after they measured it days later. “And we used about every bit of that rope to get him out of there.”

But as the men pulled the 6-year-old up, Louie was heavier than Dan thought he would be.

“All of a sudden, something broke free, and it got lighter,” says Dan. “Well, when he got up here, he had wires wrapped around his arm. And I think it was just pulling the pump up and dragging it up on the side of the well, too.”

At that time, Eric Duncan, who works on the Leseberg family farm, and Jacob McKenney, a family friend, also showed up to help.

“We finished pulling them up, and I had ahold of the rope right above his hands. And I just sat Louie on my knee while we took the wires off him,” says Eric. “I knew I still had a bunch of hoodies left in my pickup. So, I just picked him up, took him to the pickup, wrapped him up and turned the heater on as high as I could.”

Less than 9 minutes after the 911 call was made by Mark, Louie was out. And those initial reactions were also caught on the 911 call.

“You’re out, buddy. You’re out, you’re out,” you can hear on the 911 call. “We’ll get you in the pickup, and we’ll get you warmed up.”

With Brandon still at the bottom of the well, the five farmers knew he would be too heavy to pull him up with just the rope, as they did with Louie. So, thinking quickly, they used what was left of the old windmill surrounding the well as a hoist.

“We just started pulling and hollered down to Brandon to ask him if he was able to help pull himself up on the pipe. And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Are you ready to go?’ And he said, ‘Let’s go.’ And we started pulling,” says Dan.

Brandon says after he reached the top after the guys finished pulling him up, he collapsed from bracing himself against the walls of the well for so long.

“I was a little more exhausted than I thought from the adrenaline,” says Brandon. “That’s what keeps you going in a situation like that.”

Unexplainable Outcome

As Brandon looked around and saw emergency vehicles starting to enter the farm, he realized it was those five farmers who rescued him, as well as his son, Louie, before the ambulance had even reached the farm.

The series of events Brandon says didn’t happen by chance, as he remembers what he and Louie did while their 3-year-old son and brother ran to get help.

“What do we do? Did we pray a lot?” Brandon asks Louie, as Louie shook his head yes. “You asked me who was going to save us? Who saved us?” Brandon asks. “God,” answers Louie. “And were there angels all around us? Had to be,” says Brandon.

“Well, I think the hero here is probably Everett,” says Dan. “Sending him out to the highway to stop somebody for help. What would be going through a dad’s mind as you have your son in the well. How am you going to get help out of there? And what a trooper to go out there to the road for help. He’s the hero here. Not us. We’re just neighbors to help any time anyone needs anything.”

The five farmers performed one dramatic rescue after a fall of fate.

“I can remember being in the bottom of the well and Louie said, ‘Dad, are you crying?’ I said, ‘No. This is my happy laugh. It’s all I can remember,’” Brandon says as he tears up.

As Bandon relives the fall, he says it wasn’t a coincidence he and Louie both survived with only a few scratches. It wasn’t by chance the two fell more than 70 feet into a cold, dark well with no major injuries. And it wasn’t by luck that 3-year-old Everett, who doesn’t always speak the best, listened and found the words to tell Christi and Mark what had happened, all while Christi and Mark happened to be driving by and saw something out of place and knew to stop.

“Literally, we had about 2 feet, looking back now, or even a foot and a half, to clear everything where it was just a freefall,” says Brandon. “And you know, we both did that. So, there’s too many good things that happened that day that you can’t mark that as luck or coincidence.”

(Farm Journal)

Before the farmers hoisted Brandon up, he snapped this picture. His cellphone had been with him the entire time, but that deep into a well, he had no service to call for help. He captured the picture to remember that day and just how far those two boys fell. The small circle of light is the the top of the well. Brandon says he wanted to document the miraculous outcome, which is one not even those who witnessed it can still explain.

“How they’re alive is amazing,” says Jacob.

“You hear about people falling in the well, but you don’t ever hear about that outcome. It’s just, I don’t know, one in a million to be alive,” says Eric.

“We have angels looking after us,” says Brandon. “God was up there. There must be something special he wants to do with these boys is all I know.”

(Farm Journal)

Being “Well Aware”

This Father’s Day weekend, the story shows the lengths of a father’s love, one that proved to be a powerful and unbreakable that May Day.

Even before Brandon and Louie had left the hospital from being checked for any unknown injuries after the fall, Brandon had already called to get a concrete cap put on the well. And Brandon says he and the boys now count windmills on their drives, making sure they’re “well aware.” And the main reason Brandon agreed to share his story was in hopes it would help prompt others to cap their wells with concrete, and ultimately, possibly save another life.

Couple Takes Off On Trip From Nebraska To Alaska In A 1977 IH Tractor To Raise Money For Kids

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:16:55 GMT

Driving from Nebraska to Alaska isn’t a quick trip, but for Dick and Carolee Ourada, the trip will take nearly 60 days. That’s because the Ouradas are making the 3,910 mile trip in a tractor as a way to raise money for kids.

Dick is a retired farmer, and Carolee is a recently retired nurse. The couple is venturing back to Alaska after falling in love with the state decades ago. What’s normally a more than 50-hour drive from Holyoke, Colo., to Fairbanks, Alaska, will take them two months this time. The couple started in western Nebraska this week.

Why would anyone want to make the trip in a tractor? The drive across the western U.S., Canada and the Alaska Highway isn’t easy, and some would even call it grueling in a motor vehicle. The answer to that has a story that dates back to the 1970s when Dick started farming.

“To tell you the truth, I traded some shock absorbers from my small mechanic shop for a bred gilt and took her home, because I thought the kids would learn something from the experience of the piglets,” explains Dick. “And we built it into about a 3,000-head hog producing farm.”

Their family farm also grew sugarbeets, corn and wheat. As Dick battled through the farm financial crisis of the 1980s and the hog herd contraction many producers faced in the 1990s, the farm changed. He and his late wife then ventured into vegetable production.

“In order to stay afloat, we put in a small vegetable farm, which nobody did out here in farm country, but we did it anyway,” he says. “And it was very successful. We had 25 acres every year, and did sweet corn, tomatoes, seedless watermelons, which were new at that time, and peppers.”

Dick lost his first wife in 1996. After that, Dick’s world took a dark turn, as he said he didn’t want to farm anymore.

“I just didn’t want to be here anymore,” says Dick. “So, I sold the farm.”

Finding Purpose Again

In 2001, Dick found purpose again when he met Carolee. The two traveled to Alaska for the summer, as she was a traveling nurse, and they both fell in love with the state.

Fast forward a couple decades, and the couple purchased land and are refurbishing an Alaskan home. But as they searched for a tractor to use on their Alaskan land, they found that tractors aren’t only expensive, but hard to find in the state. So, they decided to buy one near their northeast Colorado house and shop, and drive it to Alaska from there.

The two found a tractor in Iowa that seemed to fit the bill for the job: a 1977 International Harvester 574 that they purchased for around $3,500 sight unseen.

“When this came along, we knew couldn’t go out on the highway; it wasn’t in that good of shape. It had been outside for a while, and it was pretty rusty. We had to do a lot of work,” says Dick.

After purchasing the tractor in February, the couple, along with some help from family and friends, spent five months fixing up the tractor that they named “Aggie.”

“We adapted cab from an Allis Chalmers xt170,” says Dick.

Instead of hauling the tractor to Alaska, which Dick and Carolee say would have been quicker, easier and cheaper, they’re driving the tractor there. The tractor has no air conditioning and can go a maximum speed of only 20 mph on the highway.

One challenge for their tractor trip is the immediate heat. As they head out this week, forecasts show 106-degree temperatures. However, Dick and Carolee don’t seem to mind it one bit, because this is more than just a trip.

“We’re not really looking at the challenges because we know we can deal with whatever comes,”
says Carolee.

Raising Money for a Reason

The couple has a plan to stop at pre-determined Case IH dealerships along the way, all in an effort to raise money.

“Carolee said, ‘What would we do with the money?’ And I said, ‘Well, this might be a good place to put it,’” says Dick.

The Ouradas are raising money for the Colorado Children’s Hospital Foundation, a hospital that saved Dick’s daughter’s life 58 years ago this week.

“She just refused to eat, and the doctors here spent three days trying to figure something out,” remembers Dick. “They told us put her in the car and go to Denver. Don’t stop or anything. Just go to Denver.”

At the time, there wasn’t a quicker way to get her there, so Dick and his late wife did just that.

“We dropped her off dying,” says Dick.

They couldn’t stay with their daughter in the nursery, so they left her in the hospital expecting the worst. By the next morning, their daughter had made a miraculous comeback.

“And it turned out that they had run into the same problem with premature babies that would refuse to eat,” says Dick. “And so they had done a lot of research to figure out why, and they came up with a special nipple, and she had taken to it immediately.”

The life-saving move may seem simple, but Dick says that to him, the Denver Children’s Hospital did something he will never forget.

“We owe the hospital a lot,” says Dick. “This is kind of a way to help pay that back.”

The idea also sparked meaning for Carolee, whose family had also experienced the life-saving services the Denver Children’s Hospital provide.

“My nephew was born with multiple congenital heart defects,” she says. “And through the years, they’ve researched and come up with new ways to help him. He’s in his upper 30s today and living a normal, productive life. But when they first took him up there, they weren’t even sure he was going to survive the first procedure.”

Both Dick and Carolee feel indebted to the hospital, so they set a goal of raising $100,000 as they make the 3,910 mile trip.

“There are so many kids out there that need the resources and the research that children’s hospital does,” points out Carolee.

The Ouradas admit they’re a long way from their goal as they start off on their two-month long trip. But with compassion, drive and awareness, they hope generosity will continue to sprout along their route and across the country.

To donate, the Ouradas have set up a website , along with a Facebook page . Carolee says they will continue to update the page throughout the trip.

4-H Steer Sells 39 Times to Honor 18-Year-Old's Life

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 19:24:03 GMT

Daniel Spitzer had three loves in his life: Jesus, family/friends and cowboying. But his sister likes to joke that his true love was his horse, Lena.

“He just lived life to the fullest every day. He didn’t care what others thought of him. If he liked it, he went with it,” says Hannah Lonker of Pratt, Kan.

When a tragic ATV accident took Spitzer’s life on July 4, the entire community mourned one of their best gone too soon at the age of 18. He showed cattle at the Pratt County Fair and was active in 4-H horse, leadership and citizenship projects, too. He had been working with his steer all summer in preparation for his last county fair steer show.

(Farm Journal)

It only made sense to honor Spitzer’s life by walking his steer into the sale ring during the Pratt County Fair 4-H Livestock Auction. What happened that day was nothing short of amazing, Lonker says.

Hands kept flying into the air while his younger sisters Haley and Samantha Spitzer walked their brother’s steer around the sale ring. His steer sold 39 times, bringing in more than $62,000.

“I honestly don’t have any other words to describe it. My family and I are completely blown away from the amount of support for Daniel’s Legacy,” Lonker says.

(Farm Journal)

The $62,000 will serve as the foundation for Daniel’s Legacy , a mentoring support fund for youth in Daniel Spitzer’s memory, explain his parents, Brian and Loretta. They are setting up the program to help cover costs for youth to be able to attend camps, conventions, clinics, meetings and more. The program isn’t limited to Pratt County or even Kansas, his parents point out. They plan to build Daniel’s Legacy into a nationwide program, helping a variety of kids.

“The Pratt County community pulls together whenever there is a need. This summer has been a prime example of that. We are a small town that takes care of its own. I wish everyone could experience the love and support from small town Pratt, Kan.,” Lonker says.

(Farm Journal)

Spitzer was well-liked by his peers, the Pratt Tribune reports. Fellow 4-Hers bid on Daniel’s steer, too, spending the money they had just earned by selling their own animals in the premium auction.

As his family moves forward, nursing broken hearts and crushed dreams, Lonker says they couldn’t make it without their faith.

“My family and I have faith and hope we get to see Daniel again. That’s what has kept us going, along with family and friends and our community who have prayed and supported us through this extremely hard time,” she says. “My family and I are cowboys, we’re tough as nails. We hurt, but we know that together we can get through this and one day we can see Daniel again.”

(Farm Journal)

He was the best brother, Lonker says, and an example for others. She hopes their loss can be a reminder to others about priorities and the importance of community.

“He definitely was one of a kind,” she adds. “He never knew a stranger.”

Learn more about Daniel’s Legacy on Facebook .

Read More:

Community Rallies to Support 4-H Family, Buys Pig for $102,000

No, Showing Livestock Isn’t Always Supposed to Be Fun

By Her Own Hand: A Farm Girl’s Miraculous Journey from Death to Hope

Growing Deep Roots

San Antonio Barrow Show Winner Captures Hearts and Breaks Records

How Tosh Farms Is Equipping an Unlikely Source of Employees In the Sow Barn

From the Streets to the Swine Barn

Survival At All Costs: Rancher Escapes Hay Baler Tomb

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 21:14:05 GMT

As fast as silk slides from a pocket, Doug Bichler slipped within inches of eternity. When the North Dakota cattleman was savagely contorted by a hay baler and trapped by the machinery for almost an hour, his survival chances dwindled to the likelihood of snow in summer.

Alone on a farm, with a cell phone maddeningly perched beyond his grasp on a tractor tire, and a pain level threatening to reach insufferable levels, Bichler was wedged in a vise of belts and rollers, his voice alternating between unrequited cries for help and pleas to God.

“I reached a point where I had no options left,” he recalls. “Anything. Anything to get out and back to my wife. I decided I’d pull my arm out.”

Five years after Bichler’s survival and escape from the baler, his recovery is a tale of remarkable resilience, punctuated by deep concern for the safety of others: “I feel blessed to still be alive, and now I take the opportunity to tell my story, even if it only helps a single person.”

Alone

Ten miles east of the Missouri River, in the southcentral pocket of North Dakota, Bichler’s Emmons County operation sits in the heart of topographical change, between rugged hills and buttes to the west, and grassland and farmland to the east. Sweeping. Grand. God’s country.

(Farm Journal)

Going into June 2017, Bichler, 37, was in a sweet spot, holding strong to youth while maintaining a successful ranching business— Bichler Simmentals . His wife, Maria, was eight months pregnant with the couple’s firstborn, and life was equal parts excitement and expectation. Top of the mountain.

Until late June.

June 26, a Monday of promise, provided Bichler with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-80s—made-to-order conditions for hay season and the first baling of an alfalfa field.

Bichler was positioned directly in front of a converted toolshed, preparing the baler for its intended use that evening. The toolshed, once the milk house connected to the farm’s old dairy barn, blocked Bichler’s view of his home to the rear. Simply, the 2012-model baler was positioned in a blind spot in relation to Bichler’s home.

Exiting the tractor, dressed in a long-sleeved T-shirt, old jeans, and work shoes—Bichler proceeded to pull net wrap from the baler, a standard maintenance job. Polyethylene hay bale wrap sometimes tears, sticks to belts, or attracts itself, ultimately creating a clog requiring manual removal.

From a bird’s-eye view, the only anomaly associated with Bichler’s actions or attire was a pair of work gloves. Almost any other day of summer would have found Bichler barehanded, but on June 26, he chose the superior grip of leather—a significant player in the unfolding turmoil.

As Bichler began baler maintenance, Maria walked over from the house and met her husband with the conversational fare of family and marriage, replaying the day’s movements and forecasting the week’s likelihoods. Dusk approaching and Bichler nearing completion of maintenance, Maria returned to the house to wait for Bichler to join her for supper, but she soon tired—an increasingly frequent pattern as her pregnancy neared delivery.

With Maria out of sight and earshot, and only 15 to 20 minutes from completion of baler work, Bichler, once again, was alone.

Into the Tomb

While Bichler removed net wrap from the innards of the baler, the tractor engine was shut down. He patiently extracted the ribbons and clumps of wrap—save one solitary bit. “There was one piece that had kind of melted to a belt and was stubborn. I figured once the belt kicked back on and spun, it would wear and fall off on its own, which is exactly what happened.”

(Farm Journal)

Finished with wrap removal, Bichler moved to the next item on the baler checklist—oiling the machine. However, he neglected a major step in the routine—unlocking the door mechanism. “There is a mechanism on the baler to lock the door open, so it can’t shut on you. I had the door-lock on while I was working. When I got done removing net wrap, I forgot to unlock the door-lock mechanism to allow the door to close.”

“I then started the tractor because I wanted to oil all the chains on the baler. That was the last thing on the to-do list. I started the tractor and engaged the PTO because it’s easiest to oil chains as they spin.”

Bichler oiled the chains with the tractor engine running, returned the oil to storage, and then unlocked the door mechanism, preparing to close the baler door, turn off the tractor, and shut down.

Minutes away from the safety of his house, Bichler’s eyes caught movement as the last straggler of wrap—the intransigent clinger—dislodged from the baler belt in a freak convergence of timing. Instinctively reacting to the bait, Bichler’s right hand shot out to grab the falling clump of plastic. Instantly, the 5’10”, 170-pound North Dakota cattleman was sucked into a tomb.

Macabre Tangle

Bichler was hurtled along a ghastly ride by the baler belts. “When I reached for the chunk of net wrap, the leather gloves I was wearing acted just like a grip. To this day, I think if I was barehanded, the belt probably wouldn’t have pulled me in.”

(Farm Journal)

Wrapped over rollers, a series of belts move in a vertical trajectory within the baler. Bichler was pulled into the motion: “It was too fast to describe,” he says. “I was pulled up and around the baler. How? To this day, I don’t know, but it happened. I went up off the ground and crashed back down, and I passed out.”

Regaining consciousness within seconds, Bichler awoke to find himself in a macabre tangle. Standing at extension on his tiptoes—one shoe on and one shoe ripped off in the initial fray—his right arm was held inside the baler up to bicep level, with his hand in the grip of two moving metal rollers and belts. Further complicating the contortion, Bichler’s shirt was cinched tightly around his neck, creating a garrote effect.

“The shirt had torn off me, but the material had gathered around my neck and was choking me. I managed to get my head out of the shirt, and as soon as I did, the baler sucked it in. Literally, I never saw the shirt again.”

Looking at his arm, Bichler took in the sight of shredded flesh and knew from the get-go: His limb was gone. “I don’t want anyone to ever have to see what I saw.”

Whisper to a Scream

Mind racing, body surging with adrenaline, Bichler took stock of his survival chances.

Maria had gone to the house, and Bichler was out of sight. With the tractor running, Maria would never hear a cry for help. Further, Bichler had no means of cell phone salvation. During bailer maintenance, while shuffling between talking with Maria and answering a text, he placed his phone on a tractor tire. Several feet or a million miles away, the cell phone was a non-factor.

(Farm Journal)

Counterintuitively, Bichler’s blood loss was minimal. Charged by friction of movement, the belts produced ample heat to cauterize Bichler’s wounds as his flesh tore open. “I couldn’t feel anything except intense tingling like when your hand is asleep. It was as if my mind can’t afford to think about pain.”

Weighing his options, Bichler was aware of the most probable outcome: “Nobody was missing me. I knew I could be trapped all night. I knew I would die.”

Several of Bichler’s dogs walked over at first sight of the commotion, but didn’t raise alarm and lost interest, bedding down within proximity of the toolshed. Cell phone beyond grasp, dogs intermittently glancing curiously at the predicament, and location view cloaked by the barn, Bichler began alternating between screams and prayers. “I had faith I would be alright, but I also had thoughts of finality. I was preparing my mind and praying at the same time. I’d yell for Maria until I got tired, and then I’d pray for a while, and then I’d yell again.”

During his entrapment, Bichler maintained a vigil of prayer—all against the backdrop din of a tractor idling and baler rumbling. It was a maddening wedge, feet from a cell phone and yards from home, yet inches from death.

Almost an hour after first reaching into the machine with a gloved hand, Bichler felt a slight extra pull from the baler belts. “It was like my arm was going in a few degrees deeper. Could I have been pulled in further? I don’t know, but I felt the sensation and didn’t want to find out.”

Bichler reached a point of reckoning—survival at any cost: “I decided to pull my own arm out of the baler.”

Escape

Nothing to lose but life. From Bichler’s perspective, his limb was a loss—either by hospital amputation or baler extraction. “I was no longer worried about my arm, but even though the tissue was ripped apart, I didn’t know if I’d be able to pull it out.”

(Farm Journal)

Collecting all his strength, Bichler strained downward with his entire body—come what may. No dice. He reared up and repeated the maneuver a second time, but the baler belt maintained its hold.

Once again, a third go, Bichler lurched away from the baler, thrusting for his life. “I pulled as hard as I possibly could and my arm came out. I have no idea how it came out of that machine, but I was free.”

First Concern

Upon Bichler’s escape, despite a shredded arm with no function, his first concern was for Maria—eight months pregnant. He could not allow her to see the gore. Bichler climbed into the tractor to turn it off, walked to the house, and grabbed a sweatshirt from the car. He then wrapped the arm and entered the house to call an ambulance.

“I went inside, called for my wife, went downstairs, and dialed 911. My mind was racing, but we were in the process of remodeling the house, and I wanted to go to the utility room in case I got blood on the floor. It was the most irrelevant thought process, but my ideas were muddled at the time.”

Answering Bichler’s voice, Maria woke, admittedly groggy, from a nap and walked downstairs, eyeing a drop of blood on the floor. In the immediacy of the moment, she had no reason to connect the blood to trauma. Bloody nose?

(Farm Journal)

In a calm, tempered tone, arm covered and damage hidden, Bichler offered an explanation. “Maria, I’ve had an accident. I’m going to lose my arm, but I’m going to be OK.”

“Maria looked like I said something nonsensical,” Bichler adds. “I wouldn’t let her see my arm. She tried to look and I just said, ‘It’s gone. It’s all going to be OK.’ I was on the phone with paramedics the moment she came downstairs, and she took over the call. Help was on the way.”

One Person is Enough

Several months after the tumultuous loss of his non-dominant right arm and a grueling physical ordeal, Bichler fought a second battle—a cage match against himself. He was a first-time father in the realm of a no-sleep existence with an agriculture business to run, all while learning the new physical rules of ranch labor for a one-armed cattleman.

“That was the worst time right there,” Bichler describes. “We had a new baby daughter, but I couldn’t contribute and it was hard. I had family and friends all around—an amazing group of people—but reality had set in and I felt defeated.”

Bichler made a conscious decision to avoid the pitfalls of isolation and leaned even harder on supporters. “When you are in a compromised state, sometimes you just need someone to listen, and if it’s not a physical injury, it can be any problem. I’ve now got buddies around me, in North Dakota, across the country—even in Australia—that visit with me and I also check on them.”

(Farm Journal)

Five years after the accident, following multiple surgeries, Bichler battles nerve pain that impedes the use of a prosthetic. “I don’t know where this will go as far as my healing. All I know is that I’m so blessed, and if I’m one-handed for life, I’m content.”

“Injuries are part of agriculture because we push so hard and that’s the nature of what we do to make ends meet,” Bichler continues. “We get tired and take shortcuts. If I had just gotten out of the tractor and unlocked the door so it could close, I’d still have my arm. I greased the chains with the baler running because my family has always done it that way and it’s easier, but that is bad reasoning. Turn your equipment off. Don’t make excuses.”

Bichler rests on a certainty: He should have died in the baler. “God spared me that day for a reason and I share this story with a bigger purpose. If I tell my story and help just one person avoid injury, then that one person is enough.”

To read more stories from Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com — 662-592-1106), see:

Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.

Bagging the Tomato King: The Insane Hunt for Agriculture’s Wildest Con Man

How a Texas Farmer Killed Agriculture’s Debt Dragon

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

The Arrowhead whisperer: Stunning Indian Artifact Collection Found on Farmland

Where’s the Beef: Con Artist Turns Texas Cattle Industry Into $100M Playground

Fleecing the Farm: How a Fake Crop Fueled a Bizarre $25 Million Ag Scam

Skeleton In the Walls: Mysterious Arkansas Farmhouse Hides Civil War History

US Farming Loses the King of Combines

Ghost in the House: A Forgotten American Farming Tragedy

Rat Hunting with the Dogs of War, Farming’s Greatest Show on Legs

Misfit Tractors a Money Saver for Arkansas Farmer

Government Cameras Hidden on Private Property? Welcome to Open Fields

Farmland Detective Finds Youngest Civil War Soldier’s Grave?

Descent Into Hell: Farmer Escapes Corn Tomb Death

Evil Grain: The Wild Tale of History’s Biggest Crop Insurance Scam

Grizzly Hell: USDA Worker Survives Epic Bear Attack

Farmer Refuses to Roll, Rips Lid Off IRS Behavior

Killing Hogzilla: Hunting a Monster Wild Pig

Shattered Taboo: Death of a Farm and Resurrection of a Farmer

Frozen Dinosaur: Farmer Finds Huge Alligator Snapping Turtle Under Ice

Breaking Bad: Chasing the Wildest Con Artist in Farming History

In the Blood: Hunting Deer Antlers with a Legendary Shed Whisperer

Corn Maverick: Cracking the Mystery of 60-Inch Rows

Against All Odds: Farmer Survives Epic Ordeal

Agriculture’s Darkest Fraud Hidden Under Dirt and Lies

Nebraska Cattle Producers Create Convoy of Relief as Kansas Rancher Says Wildfire Recovery Will Take Years

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 19:26:22 GMT

On December 15, 2021, Western Kansas ranchers faced the extreme . With winds clocking in north of 100 miles per hour , warnings of wildfires came fast.

“It unfolded pretty fast,” says Clinton Laflin, a rancher and Kansas State livestock extension agent, Russell County, kansas “I was home for about five minutes. And then the skies started getting really dark. It was extremely smoky. My landlord, Ken Stielo [Bar S Ranch], came over and said, ‘We need to get out of here right now. ‘”

But with livestock in danger, Laflin returned to the ranch with the owners of Bar S Ranch.

“We came back out and got those cows moved, but right after that, that wind speed changed direction on us and our fire started coming straight at us. And I was very nervous that we were going to get pinned in. And so we booked it in my truck,” he says.

At that point, Laflin had only one of two working trucks on the ranch, as the winds and fires had flipped over the others.

“With the 105 mile an hour winds that we had and fires were really raging everywhere, and so that’s pretty scary,” he remembers.

But was even scarier was with raging winds that changed directions, how those caught in the fires had to escape.

“I had to jump down an electric line pole and a couple of live wires to get out,” he says.

Laflin says the high winds forced over power lines, and with Western Kansas already dry, it sparked the wildfires in minutes.

“We haven’t had any measurable rainfall for over 60 days,” he says. “And so the dry conditions of our forage and high winds plus electricity have a pretty good mix for fire.”

Still cautious of flareups the days after, Lalin says area ranchers are assessing the damage.

“We’ve had more than 40,000 acres of pasture burned up and multiple homes. And, and farmsteads during that time as well,” he says.

And he says the fires were costly as he estimates losses will be well into the millions.

“It’s a staggering thing that we’re going to have to take some time to kind of recover from,” says Laflin.

From fencing to hay supplies, even homes, barns and livestock, he says the Russell and Paradise, Kansas areas are in ashes.

“We’re looking at losses in registered cattle,” says Laflin. “They have a lot of value, genetically to myself and my landlords, and just cattle in general. For many of our other neighbors and producers, they are looking at losses in fencing, we’re looking at losses in, in pasture ground and being able to convert that from a grass to a protein source that we can use.”

At this point, he says ranchers in the area are working to find supplies… and in desperate need of rain.

“We’ve lost we’ve lost lives of cattle and other livestock, we’ve lost our homes, we’ve lost barns, we’ve lost grass, we’ve lost vehicles. And we’ve and we’ve lost, we’ve lost our livelihoods in a lot of ways. And so it’s going to take years to recover that,” he says.

As Western Kansas ranchers face a recovery that could take years.

Neighboring Ranchers Send Help

As ranchers work to rebuild, they face a total loss in many cases. But the agriculture community is already showing what makes rural America so great, as help has been rushing in. Matt McCune shared a video that shows a convoy of hay flooding into Kansas, as Nebraska ranchers stepped into help.

Shout out to Nebraska! HUGE convoy of hay just came through! Thank you guys! #fourcountyfire #agtwitter https://t.co/VB8t7El2Q8
— Matt McCune (@ksufearless) December 22, 2021

The following memo was sent to Nebraska Cattlemen earlier this week, as more coordinated efforts are now coming together to provide assistance to an area in need.

Last week, wildfires in several Kansas counties prompted our neighbors in Kansas to begin coordinating donations of feed, fencing supplies, and cash for affected ranchers. The bulk of the acres burned are within the counties of Russell, Osborne, Rooks, and Ellis. Ranchers in the hardest hit areas lost fence, livestock, and feed resources. Ranch homes and outbuildings also were among the losses.

Heartland Regional Stockyards at Plainville, KS serves as a collection and distribution point for hay and supplies. Contact the auction market at (785) 688-4080, Landon Schneider at (785) 259-3234 or Brandon Hamel at (785) 434-6280. Russell Livestock also is taking hay donations. Stock water tanks are a need, as well. An additional drop-off point is the Russell County Fairgrounds. Call extension agent Marcia Geir at (785) 483-3157 with questions.

A supply donation site for those impacted by fire in southwestern Lane County and surrounding counties has been set up at 3 E Rd 120, Dighton, KS. To coordinate a drop-off, call Erik Steffens at (620) 397-1687.

Cash donations can be made through the Kansas Livestock Foundation (KLF), KLA’s charitable arm, by clicking here or sending a check, with “wildfire relief” written in the memo line, to:

6031 S.W. 37th

Topeka, KS 66614.

Here’s How You Can Help

Final Sale and Fitting Tribute for 35-Year-Old Who Died Suddenly During Minnesota Cattle Show

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 20:16:09 GMT

Chad Schmit was a man with a mission. At 35-years-old, he had a passion for the farm, with a knack for helping youth.

“He always had young kids out here and was trying to get more kids involved into the cattle area for showing and promoting it,” says Earl Schmit, Chad’s father who lives in Plainview, Minn.

Chad was a herdsman for a local dairy, while also raising his own beef cattle. People who knew Chad say showing cattle was his true love.

“A lot of people say you don’t learn, you learn from your elders, but Inlearned a lot of cattle stuff and showing stuff from my younger brother,” says Jeremy Schmit, who’s Chad’s brother.

Jeremy says his brother was someone people were just drawn to.

“My mom always called him her little social butterfly,” says Jeremey.

Nate Eversman, the local veterinarian, knew Chad both professionally and personally. He says any time he came across Chad, whether at the dairy or around town, Chad always loved talking about cattle.

“Chad had his own work to do. But if anybody asked him to do something, he’d find the time to do it. He was just a one-of-a-kind of guy,” says Eversman.

Anyone who knew Chad say he had a memorable laugh, and it was his chuckle that was his trademark. That laugh was a staple at the Minnesota Beef Expo each year.

“The Beef Expo was one thing Chad really looked forward to every year,” says Jeremy “It was like a vacation for him.”

And in October, as Chad was setting up for the Expo and getting the cattle ready for the show, Jeremey says others around Chad at the time say nothing was out of the norm.

“I had texted him earlier in the day asking him if he got everything and if I needed to pick anything up in Rochester for adhesives or fitting materials. He said he already got it all, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll see you either tomorrow or tonight when I get up there,’” remembers Jeremy.

But later that day, Jeremey had a text from a family friend, asking Jeremy to call him.

“He said, ‘Call me. I need to talk to you right away. Something happened to Chad,” says Jeremy. “So I call Matt and I’m like, ‘Well what’s going on? And Matt told me Chad collapsed, and the ambulance just pulled into the cattle barn. He told me they’re working on him.”

Without much information about what had happened, and not knowing where the ambulance was taking Chad, he started driving toward the Expo, and called their parents.

“To find out that he had passed before we got up there made the ride a lot harder,” remembers Earl.

The paramedics worked on Chad for nearly an hour, but with no heartbeat, they couldn’t revive him.

“One thing that we just took kind of as solace is he passed away doing what he loved. The beef expo was very youth exhibitor centric, and he died doing what he loved and not having to suffer in pain,” says Jeremy.

The Minnesota Beef Expo was where Chad felt at home, and it was those at Expo who wanted to do something to honor Chad.

“Tom and Joan Waldron made some calls to collect money and then to buy the heifer at the sale and then give her back so we could take her home. And I said, ‘No, that’s not what Chad would want.”

Instead, Jeremey knew exactly what Chad would have wanted. And over the next 24 hours, the Expo went on as usual, with a team of people helping get Chad’s heifer ready for the spotlight, and it was Jeremy who would then show Chad’s heifer in the ring.

“The show organizers were kind of worried about me showing and concerned if I’d be able to handle it,” says Jeremey. “But I just got myself composed well enough to know that Chad would want me to show her and got through the sale.”

The Final Sale

And Jeremey did just that. He didn’t just make it through the sale, Chad’s heifer won Grand Champion during the 20th Annual Minnesota Beef Expo in October. And it was during the sale the Expo paid tribute to Chad in the most fitting way.

“The only thing constant in life has changed,” the announcer said as he started the sale. “Chad loved the youth. He loved breeding cattle and loved coming to the Minnesota Beef Expo.”

After that, everyone in the sale had a moment of silence to honor Chad.

“Let’s let the Schmidt family know that we’re behind them 110%. Let’s give them a big hand of encouragement,” the sale announcers continued.

The sale started with a $5,000 bid, but as the sale took off, it was clear the Grand Champion Shorthorn was part of something special.

“Sold! $10,500,” yelled the auctioneer.

And what happened next, was something that wasn’t planned in weeks or months. Less than 24 hours after Chad had died of what they think was a heart attack, the sale came with a twist.

“And this even gets better, folks,” announced the Expo lead.

The Minnesota Shorthorn Association, along with friends of Chad, pulled together the money to buy Chad’s heifer at the sale, only to give her away.

As the announcer said Leighton Hugoson’s name, Leighton didn’t know what was going on. All he knew was that heifer is one the 14-year-old from Minnesota had his sights set on to take home from the start of Expo.

“There was just something about her,” says Hugoson, remembering when he saw her at the show. “I liked the way she looked and how she set up and everything. And I felt like she had a special place in my heart, but I couldn’t quite figure out why.”

As Leighton scaled the fence and entered the ring, what he didn’t know was Jeremey had just searched through the applications of the Minnesota Youth Beef Experience Program (MYBEP) to find a youth that hadn’t been selected this year. And even though Leighton was heartbroken just seconds before when he got outbid on Chad’s heifer, Leighton would be the one taking her home.

“I’m with her every day for at least an hour. And she is just a favorite. She’s so funny,” says Leighton.

Leighton wasn’t just any kid. When Jeremey was searching through the applications and ultimately picked Leighton’s name, he didn’t know Leighton is the grandson of man from whom Chad purchased his first shorthorn.

“It was kind of a full circle coming together. We started our herd from his grandparents and now he gets to start his beef herd from us. It just basically brings everything full circle,” adds Jeremy. “So it was kind of an uplifting moment there knowing where the heifer was going. “

Destiny

What may be even more profound is that Chad had named his heifer “Destiny.”

“When you’re feeling down, she knows you’re feeling down,” says Leighton. “Like if you’re sad or something because she knows and she’ll come over to you and she’ll put her head on you.”

As the sale ended in October, the show organizers got choked up as the moment was overwhelming.

“This is great. This is fantastic. Like I said, Chad, I know you’re smiling down.”

What happened in October during the Minnesota Beef Expo is still fresh, but it’s helping give the Schmit family some peace.

“It was just a really humbling and unexpected just how within 24 hours what started out with a few phone calls, turned into this” says Jeremy.

“A special thanks for all the cattle people,” says Earl. “It’s a great community, basically a large family when one’s hurt, everyone comes in to help out.”

Chad died doing what he loved, surrounded by those who loved him.

“I don’t know if Chad really understood or realized how appreciated and loved he was within the beef community,” says Jeremy. “And I pray he is watching down over the weekend after he had passed to see how respected and loved he was. Because I don’t think he really knew how much people in our industry loved and appreciated him.”

“He was the type that would like to be remembered that he was trying to make the world a better place,” says Earl.

A story that came full circle, is one the Schmit’s will also cherish, as Chad’s family and friends work to put a scholarship fund together and keep Chad’s memory alive.

Rural Route Hero: USPS Mail Carrier Rescues Cattle Producer After Near-Death Tractor Accident

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 17:17:03 GMT

(Farm Journal)

Part of his daily routine as a mail carrier, it’s that same road where John Moody is also a regular.

“Well, I’ve lived here on this farm almost my whole life. This was my grandparents’ farm,” says Moody, who raises cattle in the remote area of Virginia.

For 31 years, John worked for the county USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), even serving as the county executive director, but now retired, owning cattle for more than 40 years means John never slowed down. And on March 4th, the day just after John had turned 70 years old, his day started as it normally would as he loaded up to feed his cattle.

“I had a hay bale here on the front, and I had a hay bale on the back,” John remembers.

With bales in tow, John stopped to open the gate to feed his cows, the same way he’s done for decades.

“I just pulled off the side road and pulled off in the ditch and let it idle over there, and then I go across the road, open the gate and come back and get on tractor,” says John. “Well, I did that, and I wasn’t paying any attention, but when I turned around and started back toward the tractor, I looked up, and here came the tractor.”

His first instinct was to try to jump on to the tractor to stop it, but as he did, John slipped off.

“My right leg got caught under the back tire, and it just pulled me under,” he remembers.

(Farm Journal)

The tractor, with the two hay bales still in tow, ran straight over John, crushing his lower body.

“Luckily, when it ran over me, when it got to my hips, it just turned to the side and went on off into the fence,” John says.

After the tractor charged across him and landed in the fence, John couldn’t move. And John says just seconds after it happened, he was in shock.

“I thought I was paralyzed,” says John. “I couldn’t move either one of my legs.”

But hearing the cattle clamoring for the gate still wide open, still unable to walk, in true farmer fashion, it was more than survival on John’s mind.

“So, I crawled over and got the gate shut,” says John. “And I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can pull myself up and get on the tractor.’ So, I pulled myself up on the gate. But I couldn’t take a step or nothing. So, I just laid back down.”

By that time it was mid-morning, when the rural road isn’t traveled much. So John knew the best chance of someone rescuing him was to lie in the ditch.

“I kept thinking well, sooner or later the mailman would come, and I laid there about an hour,” he remembers.

And sure enough, Dix, who travels the road daily, pulled up right on time.

“But as I got closer, I noticed the tractor was across the road and it was into the fence, and the tractor was still running,” remembers Dix.

The route and frequent stops are ones Dix knows by heart. And as he pulled off to the side of the road, he quickly realized something wasn’t right.

“I actually found John in the ditch right here along the edge of the road,” he says. “I was kind of approaching him rather cautiously. And, I said, ‘John, are you okay?’ And he said, ‘No, actually, the tractor ran over me.’”

And that’s when Dix immediately called 911.

“911, do you have an emergency,” asked the 911 operator.

“Yes, I’m on Zion Church Road,” you can hear Dix say on the call.

“Is he out of the roadway,” the operator then asked.

“Yes. I’m a mail carrier and I want to stay here with him until someone gets here,” answered Dix.

But after he hung up, John had a call he needed to make.

“John doesn’t have cell phone. He’s old school. So, I gave him my cell phone,” says Dix.

“He called the rescue squad, and I called my wife,” John remembers with tears in his eyes.

“The first thing he said was, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m working.’ And he said, ‘Could you meet me at the hospital?’ And then I had to sit down,” remembers Debbie Moody, John’s wife. “And I said, ‘What’s happened?’ He said, ‘Well, my tractor ran over me.’ And then I really started to panic.”

She says Dix then took the phone back and explained what had happened as Debbie says she was still in shock.

“When John told me his tractor ran over him, of course. I imagined the worst,” she says.

With Dix still there, the ambulance arrived and rushed John to a local hospital, but it was there the staff realized John’s injuries were too severe.

“They sent me to Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina, and they flew me down there by a helicopter and they took me to the trauma center, and then they operated the next day on my leg,” he says.

Repairing a hole where gravel had burrowed into his skin, John also had three pins placed where the tractor fractured his pelvis. And it was during surgery the severeness of John’s accident also sunk in.

“The surgeon said, ‘You know, he shouldn’t be alive,’” Debbie remembers. “And I cried. I knew it was bad. But when she put it in those words, I cried and said a little prayer.”

John spent a total of 15 days at the hospital with rehab continuing when he got home. Debbie was a natural at being a nurse, but she was also John’s biggest cheerleader as he worked to walk again.

“It was hard on him because he would be tired and sometimes frustrated,” she says. “But he did very well and pushed hard and did what he had to do.”

As the recovery process was just starting, it was when the Moody’s returned home they saw support and help from family and friends.

“When we came home one of my neighbors they’d built a ramp for me,” says John. “Another one had brought a hospital bed for me, and I was in that hospital bed for about three months that we set up in the living room.”

And the generosity didn’t stop, as the kindness seemed to keep pouring in.

“I had one neighbor that came and fed my cattle for the rest of the winter, and then I had another one come in vaccinate all my calves,” John remembers.

But it wasn’t just those neighbors who continued to check on John. You see, Dix didn’t just rescue John on March 4th. Right after Dix found John in the ditch, he jumped right in to mend what needed fixed on the farm, as he waited with John for help to arrive.

“Then another neighbor had come and they fixed the fence for the tractor run into the fence so the cattle couldn’t get out,” says John.

Dix, a rural mail carrier who found John, fixed the fence and did so much more on that day.

“I was able to move the tractor off of the fence, get it back to the barn and then was able to mend the fence,” says Dix. “And he needed some personal things from the house. I went to his house and got those. After all that was finished, I finished my mail route.”

And for Dix, that’s just what you do.

“We take care of each other out here. We look after each other,” he says.

But from finding John and calling 911, to then repairing the fence and gathering items John needed for his hospital stay, what Dix did on March 4, 2021 extended far beyond his day job, something for which he was recognized recently.

“They actually surprised me with the presentation at the post office. I had absolutely no idea that it was going on,” says Dix.

That surprise and presentation wasn’t just for any award, but the USPS’ Hero Award.

“I’m a little uncomfortable with the ‘hero’ title, because, John and Debbie are the heroes for surviving the accident, her giving him care through this whole thing. And it’s been an emotional six months for them, and for me, too.”

(Farm Journal)

With his name now engraved at the USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C., Dix still doesn’t like being called a hero. But to John and Debbie, a hero is exactly what he is.

“Allen is truly a hero. He will always be a hero to the Moody family, because of his quick thinking,” says Debbie. “In this area, people do take care of each other and look after each other, and that was just second nature to him.”

“He saved me from a lot of suffering getting there when he did, or I don’t know when somebody would have got there that day,” says John.

While Dix typically delivers mail, that day, Allen Dix delivered an unforgettable rescue. As John and Allen share a new bond, it’s one of which John will be forever thankful. A miracle to be alive, John says this Thanksgiving he’s grateful for his life, his family and now their rural route hero.

An Inside Look At How One Veteran Turned First-Generation Farmer Finds The Proven Grit To Succeed

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 20:36:35 GMT

For first-generation farmer James (Jim) Yenter , life on the farm wasn’t the path he originally decided to take.

“I’m doing some things that I love to do,” says Yenter who now farms in Marengo, Iowa.

Now a farmer, his passion that started as a young boy from the city. He didn’t grow up in rural Iowa, but spending summers on a farm with his grandfather and uncle instilled a love for the land and profession.

“I like the freedom of it,” he says. “I guess back then it was no cell phones and if something screwed up, you had to figure it out on your own.”

Not large enough to support another family, farming isn’t something that happened right away. When Jim graduated and went to college, he actually left the dream of being a farmer behind. Instead, he joined the National Guard.

For a decade, Yenter served his country. With a dedication to service, he even conducted a tour in Afghanistan.

While the life of service was something he dedicated 10 years of his life to doing, after the10-year mark, he and his wife had a major decision to make.

“Well, we’re either going to stay in another 10 years and get that retirement, or it’s time to get out now, and my wife was like, ‘well, what do you want to do if you get out?’ I said ‘I want to farm.’”

And that’s just what he and his wife did. His desire to farm full-time turned into a profession. While he was already renting his grandfather’s old farm, the commitment reached a new level.

“It was that moment we made the cognizant effort and we were all in,” says Yenter. “It was extra motivation. I had to succeed. You know, technically I still haven’t succeeded.”

With a desire to succeed, Yenter knew in order to achieve the success he wanted, he needed to grow.

“I farm my grandpa’s 80 acres, and it was probably six or seven years before we got more farm ground after that,” he adds. “I let my farming practices speak for themselves and the landlords hopefully come to me.”

In order to make it work, today he’s growing non-GMO soybeans and waxy corn.

“We just try to do little things that keep adding up in order to make smaller acres pay for themselves.”

He’s also selling his cattle up the value chain, diving into the freezer beef and direct-to-consumer market. And it was that part of the first-generation business that got a boost during the pandemic in 2020.

“Our biggest increase that year was customers increasing their orders,” he says. “We had a lot of people that bought quarters that went up to a half. And we actually sold four whole beef this year where that’s the most whole animals we’ve ever sold.”

Yenter will be the first to tell you life as a first-generation isn’t easy, but for Yenter, it’s a life that’s satisfying.

“I’m doing things that God gave me a talent to do,” he says.

And now the U.S. veteran turned first-generation farmer is determined to share those gifts with the next generation.

“The goal is to have something to hand down.”

View the entire “Farming the First Generation” series:

First-Generation Farmer Gavin Spoor Proves Passion Pays Off

Growth in Moderation Helps First-Generation Farmer Jesse Daniels Focus on the Future

Turning Point: How 9/11 Led One Veteran to Build a Beef Business 100% Veteran Owned and Operated

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 21:52:35 GMT

Forty miles north of Kansas City, Mo., is where you’ll usually find Patrick Montgomery. The green pastures and slightly rolling hills are more of a sanctuary for a man who knew nothing about raising cattle a decade ago.

“I kind of had this epiphany of an opportunity to start a beef company in Kansas City that bridged the gap between agriculture and the end consumer,” Montgomery says.

At the time, Montgomery was pursuing an undergrad degree in animal science from the University of Missouri–Columbia, with plans to become a veterinarian.

“Through my studies during my undergrad, I found a different passion in business. So, those two brain babies of my passion for agriculture and business are kind of paired together to create KC Cattle Company ,” he says.

Remembering 9/11

To learn more about Montgomery’s journey to starting KC Cattle Company, it’s important to rewind to his middle school days.

“September 11, 2001, was probably the catalyst,” Montgomery remembers.

On Sept. 11, 2001, he was sitting in his sixth grade class. He vividly remembers that day — even his teacher’s reaction to the news the first plane had hit the Twin Towers.

“I just remember seeing tears stream down her face. I went home, spoke to my dad that evening and I remember him telling me that this was our Pearl Harbor. I made a vow that if I was at a fighting age, and this war was still going on, I would do my part.

Mission to Join the Military

Years later, after Montgomery graduated high school, he fulfilled that promise.

“I actually started out as a ROTC cadet, where I got a full ride to Northwest Missouri State University. Throughout that first year, I kind of figured out the officer career path wasn’t what I really wanted to do,” he says. “I decided the best path for me was to take a pause on school and enlist.”

Montgomery signed a contract to the 75th Ranger Regiment, which was part of the United States Army Special Operations Program. That moment was the beginning of his military journey that lasted five years.

(Farm Journal)

“It was a really busy time to be a member of the Special Operations,” he remembers. “We just started the surge back in Afghanistan and started pulling out of Iraq. So, it was a very busy time; a lot of deployments, a lot of training.”

Internal Battle Down a Dark Path

During his first deployment is when his world quickly changed.

“I had a brother-in-law, he was married to my sister, and they met when I was a freshman in high school,” Montgomery says. He was one of the reasons I chose the career path of the 75th Ranger Regiment. He was about five years ahead of me.”

His brother-in-law, Jeremy, was on his eighth deployment and was located in central Afghanistan. Montgomery was stationed in the southern part of the country, miles apart, but in battle together.

“He ended up getting killed in a firefight in Paktika Province on June 14, 2011, and I was fortunate enough to be able to fly up to Bodrum, to meet his body and be able to bring him home to my sister.”

(Farm Journal)

At the age of 22 that honor was one that also came with his own battle.

“It took me on a pretty dark path afterward,” he says. “I look back on it now with a little more perspective than I did then. You’re 22 years old — a man’s brain is not even close to fully developed. So, I really didn’t have the emotional capacity to work through some of that.”

Montgomery traveled down that dark path for two years and ultimately decided to not re-enlist after 2014. That’s when he pursued a different path, with plans to become a veterinarian.

“They don’t tell you how tough it’s going to be and the fact nobody in the civilian world has the same camaraderie you have when you’re in the military,” he says. “I was fortunate enough to have my wife to kind of keep me on the straight and narrow, but I was back at Mizzou, and you’re like, ‘man, I don’t have any friends, I’m the old guy in the classroom now.’”

The Fight to Find Purpose

His own struggles to find a purpose created a mission to help others find the same.

“There’s a lot of carryover from the military, not only to the agriculture community but also to business,” Montgomery says.

And that’s how KC Cattle Company found footing — veteran owned and veteran operated. He says his time in the military, and starting a business from scratch, exposed many similarities, but it also applied to helping other veterans find their footing.

“The adaptability, the work ethic and all those skills you learn in the military carry over very nicely to the agriculture community, and also the entrepreneurship lifestyle,” he says.

Being able to adapt helped KC Cattle Company not only build a business, but pivot at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic caused so many others to struggle.

“2020 was very good for our business,” he says. “People couldn’t find protein on their grocery store shelves, so they started looking online. There was tremendous growth last year.”

World’s Best Hot Dog Fame

While Montgomery’s business plan has changed over the past five years, sometimes the unplanned events can produce the most pleasant surprises. That was the case in 2019 when the business stumbled across new found fame.

“We had our all-wagyu-beef hot dogs featured on ‘ Food and Wine, digital ’. They proclaimed, ‘they’re the best hot dog in the world.’”

A bold statement, and one that propelled his growth as readers from around the globe set out to see if KC Cattle Company really had a hot dog that tasted like steak.

“It went viral and was the No. 1 article on Apple News, MSN and Yahoo, and it was awesome,” he says. “We gained about 15,000 new customers overnight, but it also almost killed the business as we had only one and a half of us working here at that time.”

As Montgomery faced a business challenge he didn’t foresee, he says his past was what helped him in the present.

“That military work ethic just kind of kicked in,” he says. “It’s like, well, we’re going to figure this out — and so we did. What we gained out of that was a customer base that became very loyal to the brand.”

Around 95% of KC Cattle Company’s business is still online. Their hot dogs are now sold during Kansas City’s professional soccer team games. And the growth hasn’t hit its limit yet.

“We just closed on a property in the northland in Kansas City, and we’re hoping to break ground on a fulfillment center retail spot next year,” he says.

From what Montgomery calls a “boot-straps approach” to packing up the company’s meat products to a team of now seven full-time employees on the farm, he strives to not sacrifice quality for growth with a heart of service and the determination to never forget the path that got him where he is today. A path that all started with 9/11.

”There’s a reason people say ‘hindsight is 20/20,” Montgomery says. “If you just had the right perspective, and kind of use that in your own life to go pursue something amazing, and in the honor of the people who can’t, I think it kind of changes that framework in your brain a little bit.”

Helping Veterans Heal

KC Cattle Company not only helped Montgomery heal, but the cattle business and outdoor seating serves an oasis helping his fellow brothers and sisters in arms do the same.

“I wake up every day, and I feel like I have a perfect purpose,” he says. “I’m able to have a company that’s able to provide for not only me now, but also a few other veterans who believe in the mission we’re doing out here.”

From knowing nothing about raising cattle to building a business rooted in purpose, Montgomery says he lives with no regrets. Instead, his purpose fuels his mission to not just unite consumers with the products he raises, but fellow veterans with their purpose in life.

“I try really hard to be able to help them out, network and kind of soul search to be able to find out that even if KC Cattle Company is not their mission, what is that thing that’s going to make them feel fulfilled,” Montgomery says.

In the face of adversity, Montgomery turned his struggles into success. A man, and now a business, that embodies grit with grace.

One Year After Wildfires Decimated California Rancher's Herd and Legacy, Devastation Fuels Change

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 20:41:58 GMT

Surrounded by cattle and silence, Dave Daley’s serene California setting is scattered with scars.

“It’s really hard for me to go back and see it, because there’s so much history,” says Daley.

As the California cattle rancher strolls this land in the Golden State, some of it has been ranched by his family for six generations. The land is his most precious resource, as in the summer, his cattle graze the area mountain range, living off the wild vegetation.

“I consider myself an environmentalist,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be an either or. I love the wild. I miss it. I go up there and it’s devastating.”

(Farm Journal)

The devastation of which he’s reminded daily with barren land, charred trees and even surviving cattle bearing scars – devastation painted for miles in Butte County, California. What started as a small fire on August 17, 2020, reached the Plumas National Forest, where Daley’s 400 head of cattle were grazing, on September 8th. And the majority of those cattle never made it out.

“The scope of the August Complex in the Bear Fire as it began to explode, it destroyed our cow herd,” he says. “They died tragic deaths. Some on fire, running away, and dying, collapsing wherever. And they were usually around water.”

(Farm Journal)

18 to 20 hours a day, Daley and others tried to navigate the rugged terrain to find any survivors they could, much of the landscape unrecognizable, relying on a deep knowledge of the mountains to search.

“It also destroyed our legacy,” he says. “We’ve been taking cattle to the mountains of the Sierra Nevada since the 1880s, before there was even a National Forest Service. So, it’s both public and private land belongs to the forest service, half of it the other half to see our pacific. And it was big timber, a beautiful ecosystem and it’s gone.”

(Farm Journal)

Nearly a year later, the Dixie Fire currently burning in California forced evacuations in Daley’s home county just this week. Too close to home for a rancher who is still dealing with the aftermath of tragedy last year.

Daley still can’t hide his emotions, as he says the days the fire raced across nearby forests were bottled up in sadness, grief and then anger.

“There are times I feel worse for the cattle that we lost. And clearly, it’s a huge economic impact, right, that’s devastating,” says Daley.

Yet other times, it’s thinking about the future that ignites frustration and grief.

“My granddaughter will never see that forest again the way it was. Neither will anyone else, at least not in my lifetime. I’ve talked with people all over the country, they’ve said, ‘well, it will look good the next year, the grasses come back.’ Until, you’ve seen it, they don’t get the scope. They don’t get the disaster that occurred and how massive it is. And when you kill 150 year old trees, we aren’t going to see it ever again.”

(Farm Journal)

The fire didn’t just torch daily’s livelihood. As Daley will tell you, his family has ranched this area since the 1800s, and out of all the families who ranched this land then, the Daleys are the only ones left.

“There were about 50 ranchers, and we’re the last of those 50 ranchers,” he says. “I know all their names, all their history, they’ve all disappeared. Due to regulation, economy, politics, none of them are in business up here anymore. We’ve survived that long.”

Survival is something it seems is engrained in Daley, even as he battled the sorrow of losing his herd and decades of work.

“But part of the challenge is the cattle have to be adapted to the mountain range to the climate,” he explains. “Its not like we can go buy 400 cows, which is essentially what we lost, and take them up there and turn them loose. They wouldn’t do well. They wouldn’t know where to go.”

Immediately, Daley searched for changes to raising cattle in this area, all of which came at a cost.

“We’re going to deal with it,’ says Daley. “But we’ve had to make some really dramatic adjustments not having a place to take those cows this summer. We’ve made changes. We’re adapting, we’re actually feeding some cows in the summer, which I’ve never done in my 63 years of existence. So, that’s expensive. But you don’t want to lose your genetic base. You just kind of keep going.”

(Farm Journal)

Some changes Daley made, like sourcing feed this summer, were temporary, whereas others may be permanent. Grazing 400 cows on what was once luscious land is something Daley doesn’t know if they’ll ever be able to do again. And the scars of this one fire Daley fears will last for generations.

“I don’t think people recognize the intensity of the fire. I’ve been up there. And it’s, it’s not there,” he says. “It’s a different ecosystem. It’s big conifers, fur and pine and big, big trees. It’s not like I’m waiting for grass to grow, there was never that much grass to start with.”

He says the United States Forest Service told him he could take cattle up to the mountains to graze this year if they chose to do so.

“And we wanted to,” he says. “My mom’s 90, I wanted to take cows up for her. There was nothing to go to.”

With fewer cows to feed, his sorrow turned into a passion.

“I’ve made a commitment that it’s what iI need to do. And frankly, I don’t have as many cows take care of right now. So, I’m doing it. I’m putting everything I can into it,” says Daley.

(Farm Journal)

That passion is now Daley’s fight to save what’s left, and using his voice to create change.

“I’ve basically made a commitment that this is really important to me right now. So, I’m working on it at every level I can, through Cal Fire, with Governor Newsom, his staff came to visit the ranch and look at the fire. I’m working with our California Cattle Council, with California Cattlemen’s Association.”

From various leadership roles, to testifying on Capitol Hill, Daily is making known the impact of the North Complex West Zone fire that ravaged millions of acres.

“I’m hopeful that people are starting to pay attention. Unfortunately, it takes tragedy for people pay attention,” says Daley. “I don’t think this is about my cows being killed. Although some people are sympathetic, but when starting to destroy their homes, and they can’t get insurance, and it’s starting to burn towns like Paradise and the Camp fire or Berry Creek in this fire, then they start paying attention.”

(Farm Journal)

Daily wants that attention to turn to a solution, as pinpointing the cause creates a bigger divide. The extreme politics – on both sides- are what he says are the problem, not the solution.

“One of my frustrations is people who want to spend time arguing about what caused it,” he says. They’ll say it’s climate change. Let’s fix it. We didn’t rake the floor enough. Let’s fix it. I’m really tired of people who really aren’t close enough to understand what truly happens. The fires destroyed millions of acres, and you argue about whether it’s climate change or not. Again, it’s one of those moot points since it’s happening. But if you don’t think burning 4 million and acres in California last year is going to impact the climate, you aren’t paying attention.”

With three kids involved in the ranch in various ways today, Daley’s fight for change is selfless.

“Everybody thinks about the glamour piece, that I’m on horseback gathering cows,” he says. “They forget fixing fence, hauling hay, or whatever it happens to be. And so you have to really be born into it and care for it. I know all three of my kids do. They’re there. They’ve got it. It’s deep in their soul. You can feel it when you talk to them.”

(Farm Journal)

Adaptable and resilient. Those are traits needed, and traits that allow area ranchers like Daley to survive in the area, even as he searches for the path to rebuild and keep the Daley family ranching legacy intact.

“I don’t know exactly what that path will be, but I’m not quitting. Neither are my kids. We’re just going to keep going.

Celebrate the Grit and Grace of America’s Farmers

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:02:56 GMT

Need a little inspiration? From facing an F-5 tornado to battling cancer and beyond, these producers share stories of how they’ve overcome big challenges with grit and grace. Click on the link below to enjoy six heartwarming stories of farmers’ and producers’ resilience.

Download the Grit With Grace eBook here.

Remarkable Rescue: Five Farmers Save Father and 6-Year-Old Son After Falling 70 Feet into a Well

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 18:51:42 GMT

“I asked Everett, ‘Where’s Louie? What was wrong?’ and he said Louie fell in the hole. And he pointed down, to a tiny hole through the board,” says Brandon.

What Brandon didn’t realize is the board that was nailed across the well to cover it up had rotted out in the middle over time. And as Louie was taking a drink, the board gave in, and 6-year-old Louie fell 70 feet straight down into frigid water at the bottom of the well.

“I bet that was only just a matter of a few seconds after he fell,” remembers Brandon. “I didn’t think. I just ran over to that hole that looked not much bigger than a basketball, and I didn’t see anything, and I couldn’t hear anything for a couple more seconds. And then I heard a splash and some gasping. And there was no thinking; I jumped.”

Brandon knew Louie could barely swim. And with the sounds of his son drowning, Brandon said time wasn’t an option. So, without thinking twice, he just jumped in.

“I went through the same hole Louie was in,” says Brandon. “I remember that I just jumped through that hole in the board, and I obviously made it a lot bigger. But you know, you don’t think. I was just looking for the fastest way down there.”

Without the board still covering the well, Brandon couldn’t see in before he jumped. And so as Brandon was freefalling, he says about halfway down something told him to reach out.

“Turns out there was a pipe [on the side of the well],” says Brandon. “After I jumped down and my eyes adjusted a bit in the dark well, it felt like it was quite a ways down. But when I looked up, I was able to grab ahold of the pipe that goes down to the well motor and stop my descent.”

Able to catch himself from falling on top of Louie in the bottom of the well, Brandon said he would fall, and then reach out to grab the pipe in order to help stop his fall. He did that three times, all while Louie was still screaming for help. As Brandon reached Louie, he reached for his son, while bracing himself against the well just above the water.

“I still had ahold of that pipe, and I just braced both my back and my feet up there and then grabbed Louie and put him on my chest, because the water – we never took the temp on it – I’m sure it was close to 50 degrees if not colder, and he was already shivering,” says Brandon.

Calls for Help

After Brandon reached the bottom and picked up Louie, he realized there was no way he could climb back up.

“Once I was down there, Louie had enough confidence in me, he said, ‘Alright, Dad, you can pull us out now.’ And I told him no, because the last 20 feet or so was so slick on the pipe, I knew I couldn’t hold onto it. It just like ziplined into the water.”

“He said, ‘Dad, how are we going to get out?’ I said, ‘Your brother Everett is going to have to save us.’ And so he goes, ‘How’s he going to do that?’ I said, ‘He’s going to have to run to the road.’”

From 70 feet down in the dark well, Brandon yelled up to his 3-year-old son standing up top.

“I just told Everett he was going to have to be a big boy and run out and stand by the mailbox until somebody drove by. And be a big boy for us, I told him. You’re going to have to save us,” says Brandon.

With strict instructions to stay out of the road, that’s exactly what 3-year-old Everett did.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

“I saw him standing along the road, and we just couldn’t figure out why he was standing there,” remembers Christi McKenney, a neighbor who happened to drive by while Everett was standing by the mailbox. “So, we stopped. And he was saying, ‘My daddy’s in a hole.’”

As Christi and her husband, Mark, reached the farm, they thought the hole to which Everett was referring was in the cow pasture. But then she noticed the 4-wheeler was still running.

“And I said, ‘Okay, show me where he’s at.’ And he pointed down in that well. And then I yelled at Mark.

“I just jumped out of the pickup and called 911,” says Mark McKenny.

The Call to 911

The 911 call obtained by Farm Journal reveals the initial words spelled out during that call.

“911, where’s your emergency?” says the 911 operator. “This is Mark McKenney. I need some help. A guy fell in the well, and a boy is in the well,” answers Mark.

As the 911 operator asks Mark for the address, she also asked questions about possible injuries and details of the fall.

“How far did they fall?” asks the operator. “I don’t know, probably 40 to 50 (feet),” replies Mark. “Are they complaining of any injuries?” asks the operator. “I don’t know. They just said they needed help. He went down to get his boy out of the well,” answers Mark.

More Calls for Help

As the 911 operator asked more questions, Mark instructed his wife Christi to call their neighbor for help.

“I was so emotional, I can’t even remember what I said,” says Christi. “I didn’t even know if he could even get out of it what I was trying to tell him.”

That neighbor was Dan Athen, a farmer who lives just up the road from the Leseberg farm.

“When she first called, she was pretty distraught,” Dan recalls. “And what I got out of it was Brandon fell. I didn’t know what or where. And then she finally said ‘south of your house.’ So, I knew it was Brandon Leseberg. And then she got out that he fell into the well.”

Thinking it was just Brandon in the well, he thought fast after he hung up the phone.

“I knew how deep my well was, which is about 140-feet deep,” says Dan. “And so I thought to grab a barn rope; I didn’t even know how long it was.”

As Dan pulled up to the well, the 911 call captured his first words.

“Brandon, Dan Athen. We’re going to try to send a rope down to you,” Dan yelled.

“Then Brandon said, ‘OK, we’re going to send Louie up first,’” says Dan. “That’s the first that I knew that his son was in the well.”

Dan says with those words, his heart sank. Dan, a father, too, had his teenage son by his side. And, he says, to discover a 6-year-old was stranded at the bottom of the well was shocking and heartbreaking.

The Remarkable Rescue

Without wasting any time, Dan and Mark sent the rope down to get Louie first, but Dan still didn’t know just how far down they were, or if his rope was long enough to rescue the father and son.

“The rope Dan brought was like 85-feet long,” says Mark, a detail they didn’t know until after they measured it days later. “And we used about every bit of that rope to get him out of there.”

But as the men pulled the 6-year-old up, Louie was heavier than Dan thought he would be.

“All of a sudden, something broke free, and it got lighter,” says Dan. “Well, when he got up here, he had wires wrapped around his arm. And I think it was just pulling the pump up and dragging it up on the side of the well, too.”

At that time, Eric Duncan, who works on the Leseberg family farm, and Jacob McKenney, a family friend, also showed up to help.

“We finished pulling them up, and I had ahold of the rope right above his hands. And I just sat Louie on my knee while we took the wires off him,” says Eric. “I knew I still had a bunch of hoodies left in my pickup. So, I just picked him up, took him to the pickup, wrapped him up and turned the heater on as high as I could.”

Less than 9 minutes after the 911 call was made by Mark, Louie was out. And those initial reactions were also caught on the 911 call.

“You’re out, buddy. You’re out, you’re out,” you can hear on the 911 call. “We’ll get you in the pickup, and we’ll get you warmed up.”

With Brandon still at the bottom of the well, the five farmers knew he would be too heavy to pull him up with just the rope, as they did with Louie. So, thinking quickly, they used what was left of the old windmill surrounding the well as a hoist.

“We just started pulling and hollered down to Brandon to ask him if he was able to help pull himself up on the pipe. And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Are you ready to go?’ And he said, ‘Let’s go.’ And we started pulling,” says Dan.

Brandon says after he reached the top after the guys finished pulling him up, he collapsed from bracing himself against the walls of the well for so long.

“I was a little more exhausted than I thought from the adrenaline,” says Brandon. “That’s what keeps you going in a situation like that.”

Unexplainable Outcome

As Brandon looked around and saw emergency vehicles starting to enter the farm, he realized it was those five farmers who rescued him, as well as his son, Louie, before the ambulance had even reached the farm.

The series of events Brandon says didn’t happen by chance, as he remembers what he and Louie did while their 3-year-old son and brother ran to get help.

“What do we do? Did we pray a lot?” Brandon asks Louie, as Louie shook his head yes. “You asked me who was going to save us? Who saved us?” Brandon asks. “God,” answers Louie. “And were there angels all around us? Had to be,” says Brandon.

“Well, I think the hero here is probably Everett,” says Dan. “Sending him out to the highway to stop somebody for help. What would be going through a dad’s mind as you have your son in the well. How am you going to get help out of there? And what a trooper to go out there to the road for help. He’s the hero here. Not us. We’re just neighbors to help any time anyone needs anything.”

The five farmers performed one dramatic rescue after a fall of fate.

“I can remember being in the bottom of the well and Louie said, ‘Dad, are you crying?’ I said, ‘No. This is my happy laugh. It’s all I can remember,’” Brandon says as he tears up.

As Bandon relives the fall, he says it wasn’t a coincidence he and Louie both survived with only a few scratches. It wasn’t by chance the two fell more than 70 feet into a cold, dark well with no major injuries. And it wasn’t by luck that 3-year-old Everett, who doesn’t always speak the best, listened and found the words to tell Christi and Mark what had happened, all while Christi and Mark happened to be driving by and saw something out of place and knew to stop.

“Literally, we had about 2 feet, looking back now, or even a foot and a half, to clear everything where it was just a freefall,” says Brandon. “And you know, we both did that. So, there’s too many good things that happened that day that you can’t mark that as luck or coincidence.”

(Farm Journal)

The Final Sale: Support Pours in for Texas Trooper Chad Walker Killed on Duty

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 12:45:00 GMT

A livestock show and sale in Limestone County, Texas, turned into much more than a sale last week. Chad Walker – a Texas DPS trooper – was ambushed and shot on the side of the road in a rural part of the state last Friday. The incident shattered the small Texas community just hours before the scheduled livestock sale was to take place.

“The incident happened on Friday late afternoon and the sale was on Saturday at noon,” says Ty deCordova, Limestone County Fair Association president who oversaw the sale.

After the incident occurred, Walker was rushed to Waco and those close to him say they knew he was in for the fight of his life. As medical professionals worked to save Walker, the tragedy struck close to home for the Limestone County Livestock Association.

“He was an awesome father, an awesome friend, an awesome husband,” says deCordova. “Just always happy. He always had that little smile on his face, you know, when he came up to you. He’s good people, and he dedicated his life to civil service and just loved to help folks. If you ever needed him, you could call him. He’d help anybody. He never met a stranger.”

Walker wasn’t just a friend and former classmate of deCordova’s. He was a staple in the area. Most importantly, he was a father to two girls who showed at the fair only a few days before Walker was shot.

“We were sitting there doing the sale order, and it just laid out that we were selling the girls’ rabbits last. It just fell in the sale order that way,” says deCordova.

The Walker family’s rabbits were the final item to sell, and deCordova doesn’t think that happened by chance. As soon as the community started to learn about what the Walker family was going through, the livestock community stepped in to help.

“It was just kind of breathtaking,” he says. “All the support we had. All the people there that donated. It just shows you that in our industry, our livelihood, the ag industry is full of faith and family. It gives you hope, I’ll tell you, it does.”

Still astonished at how the generosity rushed in, he says it was an act full of faith for a family grieving.

“I didn’t know how much it would be; I never dreamed this, for sure,” says deCordova.

As the support started pouring in, he says it almost seemed orchestrated. But it wasn’t. And it all started to happen before the Walkers’ rabbits even sold.

“You sit out there and look out in the crowd, and the people that are there alone, and they donated just over $58,000; it was breathtaking,” he says. “It was pretty humbling.”

A humbling act of generosity that wasn’t finished there. A buyer of a hog donated back the hog and $8,000 to the Walker family. But then it was time to sell the Walkers’ rabbits.

“And then we did sell Charlie’s rabbits, they brought $1,000,” he says. “And then a group of guys put money together and donated another $6,000 on top of that. So, there’s $14,000 and then $58,000.”

After Saturday’s sale, the Limestone County Livestock Association set up an account to accept more donations for the Walker family—an account that has already reached over $40,000 dollars in just a few days. But just as the giving wasn’t finished that Saturday, it continued all week. Thursday, Superior Land Auction and Network kicked off a scheduled sale and raised $11,000 during an event in the Panhandle. In total, well over $100,000 has been raised for the Walker family so far.

“The outpouring of people that didn’t even know him, I tell you, there’s a bigger plan here than we all knew, in my opinion,” says deCordova.

The love spans for miles, for a man many never met, but all who knew Chad Walker say he was a man of faith, honor and sacrifice.

“It’s just what our industry does,” says deCordova. “We back our own, stand behind each other. I just love the community and this industry. There’s no doubt.”

On Wednesday, after days of fighting, Walker died. But those who knew him say he died doing what he always did, and that’s sacrificing, as they were able to keep Walker on life-support until they could harvest and donate his organs.

The Limestone County Livestock Association has a fund set up to continue to help the Walker family.

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County Fair Livestock Sale Pivots Last Minute, Raises Nearly $100,000 for Trooper Shot in Ambush Hours Before

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 10:54:25 GMT

Compassion and generosity. Just hours after tragedy struck, those two traits were on full display as the agriculture community showed its strength. Local Texas Highway Patrol Trooper Chad Walker was ambushed and shot on the side of the road in rural Texas last week, and the local County Fair, which was happening simultaneously, turned the livestock show and sale into a fundraiser for the Walker family, who was one of their own.

Walker, a husband and father to four kids, has ties to the fair. His children show in the fair and the community knew they needed to rally around their own.

But it was the grand finale that came with an emotional conclusion to the sale. Rylee Walker, Chad’s daughter, had a pin of rabbits that brought $7,000 to wrap up the fair.

“Oh my gosh, it was crazy. It went from nothing to $58,000 in less than three hours,” Brandi Getz told KBTX . “That is a big deal.”

The Limestone Country Fair was held last week in Grosebeck, Texas, with 100% of the sale of of a donated hog, and Walker’s daughters rabbits going to the family. With $58,000 in add-ons, a sale attendee told AgWeb the Walker family will get $73,0000.

A Facebook post revealed the 2021 sale brought $360,000 in total, which didn’t include add-ons for the family. But the generosity isn’t finished.The Limestone County Fair Association says it will continue to raise money for the Walker family. The Association set up a fund, and those wanting to donate can access a QR code here .

As of Tuesday, Walker remained in a Waco, Texas, hospital, but on life support. Reports indicate the Texas Trooper no longer has viable brain activity, but continued to be on life support to donate organs. The tragic last chapter comes after the officer had stopped to help what he thought was a stranded vehicle in rural Limestone County. The suspect shot Walker in the head and abdomen.

True Grit: A Tribute to Ranchers Who Weathered the Extremes This Week

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 20:52:20 GMT

The record cold temperatures and extreme weather had a major impact on ranchers across the country, but through it all, the men and women showed what the true definition of a rancher is.

pic.twitter.com/IAbxf5ArqA
— Mary Marsh Heigele (@ksualmondfarmer) February 17, 2021

The work of a rancher often goes untold. Cowboys and cowgirls wearing their work on their sleeves, but not always on their face. It’s hard work that often goes untold, but work you are often born to do.

Cold weather near Broadwater, Nebraska. pic.twitter.com/TdC4O9gcp8
— Paul Burgener (@PaulBurgener) February 18, 2021

Braving the extreme weather, enduring the frigid temperatures this week, putting your livestock before you. It’s a livelihood maybe you chose. Maybe it’s one you were born into, but no matter the path you took to get here, it’s a responsibility you don’t take lightly.

pic.twitter.com/MjY6OGWEts
— amber🌾 (@thegypsysroad) February 17, 2021

This week, you showed the true grit or a rancher. It didn’t matter the time of day, or night. Whether it was 3 in the morning, or 3 in the afternoon, you were there to make sure those newborn calves stayed warm, and in many cases, saving their lives, sometimes, there was nothing more you could do.

Bundled up! Was -6’... warmed to 18’ today here in MO! pic.twitter.com/ipqI1CCaYT
— Janet Crafton Creek (@JanetCrafton) February 17, 2021

It was a constant battle. Breaking ice so your livestock had water, checking on your cows at all hours, placing the priority on them. It’s each of you who put in way more than a 40 hour week, knowing just what had to be done to put your livestock first. Sleep may have been rare and sporadic this week. And the bitter cold that bit through your clothing reminded you just how tough of a career this really is. But you put in the work; work that not just anyone could do.

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