I thought I’d be done combining corn by now, but…

Nothing brings harvest to a halt like a smoking combine! Honestly, I thought I was doing everything possible to prevent a harvest fire. I carry a leaf blower to keep the combine free of chaff and dust, and I carry a big fire extinguisher. But neither was enough to tackle the flames that engulfed my combine last Wednesday.

My wife, Janice, took over running the combine while I drove over to my hog farm to do chores. I was on my way back when I received a frantic phone call from Janice, saying the combine was on fire. Thinking a bearing was probably going out and a little chaff burning, I told her to use the extinguisher. She told me she was calling 911.

Suddenly, my pickup learned how to fly! It didn’t take long to see why Janice wasn’t trying to put out the fire. Smoke and flames were boiling out of the engine beside the cab. I slid in beside the ladder and grabbed the extinguisher and then ran to the engine side. The wind was blowing from this direction, so I could get close enough to spray some powder on the flames. I thought I was gaining on the fire when the powder ran out.

Talking about feeling helpless! Now all Janice and I could do was watch – and use our phones. I used my phone to call the insurance agent. Janice used hers to document the fire.

After a few minutes, I began to wonder why the fire department that is only four miles away in Bradford was not arriving. Because we used a cell phone to call 911, the call went to a different fire department. As time went on, many firemen arrived. The combine was toast by that point, but the corn stalk fire was moving fast. The wind blew the fire away from the standing corn, and the firemen contained the blaze.

I must give Farm Bureau Insurance credit for doing a great job. An adjuster called right away, and when he came out to view the combine, he made sure he did everything possible. He would have done more, but unfortunately I’m a cheap old farmer and didn’t carry as much coverage as I should have. (Did I mention that I took precautions, so I never thought a combine fire would happen to me?) I have already received a settlement check and it hasn’t even been a week!

The outpouring of support has been amazing, too. I posted a picture on Facebook (#felfie of me in front of our charbroiled combine), and Janice posted a video. That video has been viewed about 20,000 times… yes, twenty thousand times!

Offers of help poured in, and neighbors and friends have showed so much concern. The next day I was able to borrow a combine from a good friend, who was done with his harvest. The insurance adjuster gave me the okay to see if the grease seals would hold on my old corn head. There didn’t appear to be any serious damage, so we got my corn head mounted on the borrowed combine and started harvesting corn. This newer machine has been a dream. Janice even let me drive a little! My dog, Tucker, is enjoying the buddy seat. In fact, he’s probably getting a little too comfortable in that seat!

It’s been an emotionally draining week, from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. Sometimes the good Lord just needs to give a person a wakeup call, and remind him about what’s important. We’re so thankful no one was hurt in this fire! All of our equipment can be replaced, and I might even end up with a little nicer combine now. (So many people have given me leads on used combines for sale!) Plus, I’ve been reminded of just how generous and caring people can be here in the Heartland. #Harvest14 will soon be in the books. In the meantime, stay safe my friends!

P.S. Remember to vote today! Rural America’s vote is important to preserve our livelihoods and our freedoms.

This past week we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday! My wife, Janice, conducted research and gathered photos to make a 22-minute video that showcased her parents’ lives – as well as told the story of farming – during the past nine decades.

Honestly, many of those photos from the family album showed the hardships of farm life. Just imagine farming before tractors and electricity! Yet, year after year the Rewerts family kept farming. You can see how everyone in the family pitched in: planting crops, taking care of those crops including pulling weeds by hand, picking ears of corn, storing those ears until they were dry and then shelling corn in July. I remember those hot, dusty days! I also remember cold, winter days when we had to go outside to do chores in snow so deep that it almost went over the barn!

It was fun to journey down Memory Lane. After looking at photos of those old cars and trucks, I’m truly amazed at how those old trucks got the job done. Those first vehicles didn’t have radios either. Speaking of radios, notice how big those first radios were. They took up a great deal of space in a house, so there was no way they would’ve fit in a dash. Of course, there weren’t computers, cell phones, video games or GPS systems then either.

What a contrast between those first tractors without even power steering to today’s tractors that can actually steer themselves! Combines now can harvest the same amount in minutes that was harvested in hours when my mother-in-law was young.

Not only has farm machinery and equipment changed, but even the crops have changed. Honestly, farming has changed drastically just within the last 20-25 years due to the introduction of first Roundup Ready® soybeans and then traited corn products. Now we have corn hybrids that fight weeds and bugs on their own.

Even the food on our tables has changed in the last 90 years. When Grandma was young, everything was made from scratch. No one worried about how many calories were consumed because it was all worked off by the enormous amounts of manual labor that was done. Today’s society is not only concerned with calories and nutritional content, but many consumers want to know how the food was produced.

So much has changed! I’ve had a great time the last couple weeks reminiscing about the good ol’ days, but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m glad to be farming today. Earlier this fall I attended a Threshing Day where I saw them harvest the same amount of oats in three hours that could be harvested by a combine in just 10 minutes! Earlier this month I participated in the 4th Annual Franklin County Harvest Blogger’s Tour where we visited our county’s agricultural museum and then gave non-farmers rides in combines.

My understanding of farming history helps me appreciate farming today! It’s great to be able to use today’s technology to grow my crops, raise my pigs, and even be able to communicate with all of you!

Guest Blog by April Hemmes,

On Wednesday, October 15, I shut down harvest and headed to Des Moines Iowa for a 7 am breakfast. Not an everyday event for the middle of October for this farm girl! I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) Communication Award Ceremony.

My good friend Annette Sweeney invited me, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy for me to get away. She lured me with a panel of discussion on GMOs after the presentation, and I couldn’t say “no” to that!

But first I want to explain a little more about this CAST award, which is presented annually to a scientist who has shown leadership and passion for communicating agriculture technology. The recipient was Alison Van Eenennaam, an Animal Genomics and Biotechnology Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Animal Science at the University of California—Davis. She has an active research and extension program but also works tirelessly and creatively to relay important information about agriculture and food production.

Annette and I got to meet Dr. Van Eenennaam, and we had a great discussion about how more farm women are needed to speech publicly. More women are needed to get the truth disseminated about what farmers are doing. In Alison’s statements (since I met her, I feel like I’m on a first-name basis with her now), she pointed out that there are 16 million fewer dairy cattle than in the 1940s yet we’re producing 60% more milk! How? Mainly through genetic selection. Then she talked about the “spiral of silence,” meaning that even though someone might think GMO’s are acceptable, he or she won’t say anything due to the people who are speaking out against it.

My favorite quote from Alison’s acceptance speech was a true story she told about her experience on Twitter. People were smack talking a peer-reviewed paper she had written, and she said, “It’s very difficult to defend a scientific paper in 140 characters or less!”

Now about the GMO panel… This panel was part of the Borlaug Dialog at the World Food Prize. What a great group of people! The moderator was Mike Pearson, Host of Market to Market. Panelists were: Jay Byrne, president of v-Fluence Interactive, company that does research for public affairs and issue management; Julie Kenney, a farmer involved with CommonGround, a group of farm women who talk with other women (consumers) about what they do on the farm; and David Sutherland, a blogger and activist who is a Vegan but has no problems with GMO’s.

This panel discussion provided some great tips on how to best communicate with the public about GMOs. First of all, we must realize that the Anti-GMO people are “story tellers.” While they have no facts to back up what they say, they are very well funded. They use those funds to spew untruths about those of us who farm or whose jobs are related to agriculture. We have “real jobs,” need to make a living plus defend what we do!

So what do consumers want to hear? Honestly, those involved with farming are proud to help feed the world. Consumers don’t care! They also don’t care that the science is sound and safe. Consumers just want to know that there isn’t going to be a problem with eating food. Basically the take away is something that I have heard over and over: “We must keep telling our family’s farming story, so the truth gets made public.”