Illinois farmers rally around a friend in need

Sep 21, 2017

Farmers halted their own harvests to help another farmer

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

A farmer from Macon County, Illinois doesn’t have to worry about whether his 650-acres of corn and soybeans will get harvested, thanks to friends and family.

Dan Stahl, a 55-year-old producer from Niantic, IL, recently underwent heart bypass surgery. As he’s recovering, Stahl realized he wouldn’t be able to harvest his crops.

Stahl originally planned to hire help but the community stepped in to assist.

More than 20 people came to Dan’s farm yesterday with 10 combines, 10 auger carts and about 20 trucks ready to haul his grain to a local elevator.

For farmers, lending a hand to a grower in need is no big deal.

“It is what communities do when there is a need there – people give up a day or two and help a neighboring farmer to get his harvest out because that is his livelihood,” Steve Stahl, Dan’s cousin, told the Herald&Review on Wednesday.

Growers are also willing to donate their time and machinery because they understand that, if they need help, the community would respond the same way.

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“There’s always a story of somebody that goes through some kind of hardship … that the local farmers around them … come out to help when the time comes,” Ed Leonard, one of Dan’s neighbors, told WAND17 yesterday. “They would do it for us.”

Dan is thankful for such a tight knit circle of friends and family who helped.

“I appreciate all my great friends and neighbors and everybody at the church,” he told the Herald&Review. “They’ve all done a lot.”

Dan plans to be ready to go when next planting season comes around, he told the local newspaper.

Top photo: Ed Leonard helps harvest Dan Stahl's corn and soybean crops/Herald&Review

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.