N.D. group harvests crops for sick farmers

A nonprofit group that works with sick and injured farmers is helping them harvest crops this fall for the first time.

The organization, Farm Rescue, seeded about 8,000 acres last spring for 14 injured or ill farmers in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. This fall, it is harvesting more than 5,000 acres of wheat and beans for at least six farmers in the Dakotas, said Bill Gross, a pilot and North Dakota native who started the group.

Applications are still being accepted from farmers who might need help with their harvest, he said.

Farm Rescue, which began by helping farmers plant crops in the spring of 2006, relies on 80 corporate sponsors, grants, volunteer workers, and donated money and equipment. It offers help in the fields, not cash, and farmers and ranchers must meet certain farm size and gross sales guidelines to qualify.

Brad and Janet Staudinger, who farm in southwestern North Dakota, are among the families getting harvest help this fall. Brad Staudinger is recovering from severe injuries to his hand after it was caught in a combine belt, his wife said.

Volunteers, friends and neighbors have helped the Staudingers harvest several hundred acres of spring wheat.

"We were fortunate. It did help to have Farm Rescue here," Janet Staudinger said. "They wanted to do even more, but we got rained out."

Farm Rescue has a budget this year of about $100,000. Gross, who lives in Seattle but owns a farm in North Dakota, said the organization got national television exposure last week on NBC's "Today" show.

"We got more than 100 e-mails after the 'Today' show segment," Gross said. "We got, immediately that day, several online donations _ 15 or 20."

The money will go toward next year's work, Gross said. The group is looking for sponsors so it can expand beyond the Upper Midwest.

Any money raised by Farm Rescue in a state stays there, Gross said. He is confident sponsors will be found to launch services in other farming states.

"I knew the program would be successful. I knew it would work because it was needed," Gross said Tuesday. "But I didn't know that it would grow as quickly or be as well-received as it has.

"I didn't expect it to this extent, but I'm very pleased that it is," he said. "It's working _ it's helping farmers, and that's what it's for."

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On the Net:

http://www.farmrescue.org