Paying it forward with an ag donation

Jun 15, 2020

A New Yorker donated to the Kansas Farm Bureau after a Kansas farmer donated to New York

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

An act of kindness from a retired Kansas farmer has resulted in his state’s Farm Bureau receiving its own gift.

A resident of New York made a donation to the Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) Foundation after seeing stories about Dennis Ruhnke, a 72-year-old farmer from Doniphan County, Kan.

In March, Ruhnke donated his last N95 mask to New York to help a doctor or nurse on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The farmer’s donation included a handwritten note Governor Andrew Cuomo read aloud during one of his daily COVID-19 updates in April.

The New York donor, whose identity or donation amount hasn’t been revealed, made the gesture in Dennis and his wife Sharon (Ruhnke’s) name.

“We’re all in this together and I want to ‘pay it forward’ by donating to (the) KFB Foundation in honor of Dennis and Sharon, and I’m hoping you can let them know,” reads a handwritten letter on the Kansas Farm Bureau’s Facebook page. “We’re all going through tough times, but farmers always have tough times – and we need our farmers now more than ever – so I hope this helps someone a little.”

Users have shared the post 163 times hoping the Rukhnes would come across it. Sharon did two days ago.

“We need farmers. Just as much as nurses and doctors,” she wrote on Facebook. “Thank you for remembering us.”

Farms.com has reached out to the Kansas Farm Bureau for comment.

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.