Farmers help families finish harvest

Two families received support from producers after tragedy struck

When fellow farm families need help, they can count on neighbors to show up.

Two groups of producers in Iowa proved this point when they took time away from their own farms to support families in need.

On Oct. 16 in Kingsley, Iowa, a group of more than 70 farmers gathered at Dana Sitzmann’s farm to finish harvest after he passed away in a farming accident 11 days earlier.

Together, the farmers harvested about 850 acres of corn, while volunteers helped fuel them with 72 packed lunches.

The outpouring of support reflects the kind of person Sitzmann was.

“Dana was a very caring, compassionate person,” Chad Isminger, who helped organize the harvest, told KTIV. “If the roles were reversed, he would be the first one there to help somebody else.”

A member of the Sitzmann family posted photos of the community support on social media.

“The community coming together to honor Dana’s family and legacy,” Brandon Sitzmann wrote on Facebook.

A few days earlier, roughly 2.5 hours and 138 miles away in Bancroft, Iowa, another group of farmers harvested another’s crop.

On Oct. 14, neighbors brought 17 combines, 15 grain carts and 32 semi-trucks to Jim Heldorfer’s farm to harvest more than 460 acres of grain after Heldorfer died in a car accident on Oct. 1.

Heldorfer was well known in the local trucking and farming communities.

“Most of the guys that are out here today, he’s worked on their semis, he’s helped them do something at one time or another,” Kathy Fahy, Heldorfer’s cousin, told KCCI.

And at his memorial, trucks lined the streets to say one last goodbye to Heldorfer.

He’ll be remembered as someone who helped people, Fahy told KCCI.