They’re grinning from ear to ear
Father and son cherish annual combine ride
By RHIANNON BRANCH | FarmWeek
For 35 years, Gary Brelsfoard spent countless hours in the combine seat during harvest, often with his son, Jason, by his side.
Fast forward and their roles have reversed.
In 2020, when Gary’s health prevented him from climbing the combine’s ladder on his own, Jason promised him an annual combine ride together, just like when they were younger. Now retired and dependent on a wheelchair, the elder Brelsfoard looks forward to that day each year on the family’s Macon County farm in central Illinois.
“I feel like I owe that to him to give him some time in the combine so he can feel like he’s a part of the operation,” Jason said.
While it takes a lot of time, coordination and help to hoist his dad into the machine, Jason said the smile on his face makes the delay in harvest worth it.
“That crop will be there tomorrow. If I don’t get that extra 10 or 20 acres out because we took time to get dad in the combine, there will be another day for that,” Jason said. “One of these days there might not be another day to get him in the combine. So, we make
that our priority.”
The younger Brelsfoard shared a video on social media of his father getting into the combine during last year’s harvest. On TikTok alone, it was viewed more than 947,000 times, generating over 88,000 “likes” and more than 5,000 comments.
Jason said viewers connected with it because it served as a positive story in a world often filled with negative news.
“I think when people saw that video, they realized there are better things out there in life if you stay true to your roots and take care of your parents,” he said.
The comments from neighbors and strangers alike were overwhelming.
“People were saying ‘You don’t see that very often anymore,”’ Jason said. “You don’t see kids taking care of their father or a lot of family farm actions like that.”
The Brelsfoards said the conversations in the cab during their annual rides are just as memorable, usually centered around yields. “When dad was farming, the yields weren’t near as good as they are now with all the new genetics and hybrids they have out,” Jason said.
And Gary enjoys watching the yield monitor from the buddy seat, two things they didn’t have back when he was driving the combine.
GRINNING cont’d to page 19
Photo courtesy of Jason Brelsfoard Jason Brelsfoard snapped this selfie with his father Gary in the combine cab.
TODAY’S FARM
GRINNING cont’d from page 18
“Dad can see the numbers pop up on there and how the yield changes throughout the field,” Jason said. “I think that maybe amazes him a little bit.”
The Brelsfoards grow corn and soybeans with a cover crop rotation near Maroa in Macon County. Jason took over the farm in 2015 and his 20-year-old son, Mason, helps out. Their goal is to obtain more ground so Mason can join the farm full-time soon.
When asked about the future of the operation, Gary shared his vision with Jason and Mason.
“Just keep it together and keep farming, but adding to it every year,” he said.
But for now, they look forward to continuing the harvest ridealong tradition in 2025.
“I want to do that for him every year and keep him as much of a part of the farm as I can, for as long as I can,” Jason concluded. “I owe that to him for all that he’s taught me.”
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.
Coming to the rescue
When a serious car accident sent a farmer to the hospital, a volunteer organization sent help
By PHYLLIS COULTER FarmWeek
On a sunny, cold October day, Chris Martin drove the combine on the family farm near Mt. Pulaski with the biggest smile on his face.
“My favorite thing to do in the world is to be in the combine,” he said.
The monitor showed 302 bushels per acre. The smile wasn’t just because of the “best yield ever” on the Logan County farm, but because Chris was combining at all.
When this cornfield was planted, he was lying unconscious in a hospital bed with a brain injury after a serious car accident.
Chris calls it “unbelievable” to be harvesting his family’s best yields yet — his father calls it “a miracle.”
On April 19, Chris, 32, finished planting soybeans. In the wee hours of the next day, he was in a car crash on his way home. For two weeks, he was unconscious in the hospital with his mom and dad, Cheryl and Tom Martin, at his side.
“My favorite thing to do in the world is to be in the
— and Chris Martin is back in the combine again, after recovering from a car crash last year. He calls his return to the fields “unbelievable.”
“We were there day and night. We didn’t want him to wake up alone,” Tom said.
His wife and their faith in God helped Tom get through those difficult days, he said. “Without that, I don’t know how people survive,” he said.
RESCUE cont’d to page 20
DO I SMELL A PROBLEM?
Photo by Phyllis Coulter of FarmWeek
combine”
TODAY’S FARM
Resources available for farmers who need a helping hand
The stress of an illness or injury on the farm, or having to face tight financesn is daunting, but there are resources to help ...
Farm Rescue
Based on the principle of farmers helping farmers, Bill Gross, a UPS pilot who grew up in rural North Dakota, created Farm Rescue, a nonprofit organization.
Today, 600 volunteers in 49 states come to help farmers with equipment or labor in nine Corn Belt states, including Illinois, when a crisis arises, said Terry Johnston, farm rescue development officer.
The injury, illness or death of a farmer, a sick child, a family member getting cancer treatment or a natural disaster are reasons to call for help, he said.
To nominate someone, to get help or to inquire about volunteering, visit farmrescue.org.
AgrAbility
AgrAbility helps enhance the quality of life for farmers and ranchers with injuries or disabilities, said Haley Jones, Illinois AgrAbility program coordinator with the Illinois Extension. The program helps farmers safely do their work and reduces barriers to continuing with their livelihood.
Farmers or seasonal workers suffering from circumstances as varied as arthritis, a spinal cord injury, a chronic condition, hearing loss, respiratory impairment or an amputation, can qualify for free services.
On request, AgrAbility staff conducts a free on-the-farm assessment and recommends equipment or assistive devices or provides education to help.
The National AgrAbility Toolbox, at agrability.org/toolbox, has information on hundreds of tools and devices.
Helplines and hotlines
Josie Rudolphi, a University of Illinois occupational and environmental health professor, said resources are available to farmers in a crisis by email, texting or telephone.
The suicide and crisis lifeline at 988 lets people text, call or chat 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Concern Line, a helpline started by Iowa University Extension during a farm crisis, offers legal, financial and disaster resources at 800-447-1985.
The Farm Aid Farmer Hotline is available 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Callers are assigned a specific case worker to help them over time. Call 800-327-6243.
The Illinois Mental Health Voucher Program for Ag Producers allows ag producers and their families to get free help from a certified mental health professional through the Illinois Extension program. Email Kacie Hulshof for information at khulshof@illinois.edu.
—ByPhylissCoulter,FarmWeek,viaacooperativeprojectbetween IllinoisFarmBureauandtheIllinoisPressAssociation.
RESCUE cont’d from page 19
Jim Birge, the Sangamon County Farm Bureau manager, told Tom about Farm Rescue, a nonprofit organization that helps farmers and ranchers affected by a major illness, injury or natural disaster by providing equipment and volunteers.
“Our friends, family and neighbors planted for us,” Tom said. They didn’t need the help of the volunteer organization — then. However, to harvest 3,000 acres was a bigger worry. Chris, still recovering, was unable to drive the semitrailer, and their usual driver wasn’t available.
So, Tom hired a couple of young men to help drive grain carts, and then called Farm Rescue.
All the way from Pennsylvania, Roy Schreffler, a volunteer who has helped Farm Rescue for 11 years, arrived on Oct. 14, and was soon behind the wheel of Martin’s truck on the way to the elevator. He helped for 10 days.
“In our world, how many industries help each other like this?” Chris said, expressing his appreciation for the giving nature of the farm community.
After a few weeks of recovery, followed by six weeks of rehab, Chris was able to return the farm. He’s still regaining his strength, and his ability
to multi-function has gone down, he said, but his dad has been there to help every step of the way.
Tom has a strong history of volunteering. He was on the board that developed the Market on the Hill, a grocery co-op, and was a founder of central Illinois FarmFED Cooperative to support farmers and feed the community. He has also been active on the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, U.S. Grains Council and the Looking for Lincoln project.
Tom, also a pioneer in conservation practices, appreciates Farm Rescue’s help, which allowed him to plant cover crops while others helped his son with harvest.
“This was the year I was going to turn the rest over to Chris,” Tom said. The 68-year-old has slowly been handing over the reins to Chris, who, started farming full-time right out of high school and was ready.
“That was the plan” Chris said of the transition, which was almost upended by the accident. As for the future of that plan? He remains optimistic: “I think it will still happen.”
This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.
TODAY’S FARM
He’s precisely what the land needs
Ogle County farmer’s soil conservation efforts earn statewide award
By TOM C. DORAN tdoran@shawmedia.com
STILLMAN VALLEY — When your livelihood is the land, it pays to be a good steward of the soil.
Just ask Cade Bushnell. Not only has the land provided the Ogle County farmer with a living, it’s earned him an award from the Illinois Corn Growers Association.
Bushnell received the Randy Stauffer Stewardship Award from the association at its annual meeting Nov. 26, recognizing his farm conservation work through the Precision Conservation Management (PCM) program.
This isn’t the first time the Bushnells have been recognized as caretakers of the land. They were named Conservation Farm Family of the Year in 2004 by the Illinois Association of Soil and Water Conservation District for their decades-long efforts to improve soil conservation at the family farm.
The award recognizes a PCM farmer who embodies the land stewardship ethic and farm conservation leadership that was modeled by the late Randy Stauffer.
Stauffer was a Morton, Illinos, farmer who worked for several years as a consultant for the Illinois Corn Growers Association and the PCM project up until the time of his death on June 27, 2020. He was posthumously honored by the association that November with its Environmental Award. According to the ICG, his “work and expertise were foundational to the development of Precision Conservation Management program which, under his guidance, has grown to become one of the most recognized conservation efforts in the Midwest. “
Special consideration is given to farmers on the leading edge of conservation technology, or those who work to share information to other farmers, leaders and beyond.
Bushnell graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture in 1981 and returned to the family farm in Stillman Valley.
His father, Fred, a Rochelle native, had started a corn, soybean and beef cattle operation post-Iowa State in the early 1950s. Ever a student of the soil, Fred began experimenting with no-till in the 1970s.
Cade adopted no-till across all acres in 1991. Strip-till was first incorporated in 2004 in fields with large amounts of corn residue.
Bushnell and his son, Ross, plant cereal rye after corn and soybean acres have been harvested. He started experimenting with cover crops in 2006, settling on cereal rye as the most effective.
“I was really kind of shocked when Alexa Skirmont, my PCM specialist, called and told me I had won — I didn’t even know I’d been nominated,” Bushnell said.
“She’s a great representative in our area and I enjoy working with her. I’m very comfortable with the data they collect and what it’s used for.”
He has participated in PCM since the program kicked off four years ago.
“There’ve been good recommendations and I’ve appreciated the outside look. Basically it’s data collection. So, they really haven’t asked us to make much change, but our operation is already 100% no-till. Depending on the year, we’ll get 60% to 90% of our ground covered with cover crops, almost exclusively cereal rye,” he said.
“What PCM is trying to do ... is ... gather enough data to understand what works and what doesn’t work and whether we can make this pay. I know it pays in the long run. I just have trouble making it pay in the short run.
“We’re about 80% (highly erodible land). The first step to a healthy soil is stopping the soil erosion period. It’s just got to be stopped. You can’t have a healthy soil with soil erosion.”
“Cade’s work to help other farmers learn from his own experience with no-till, strip-till and cover crops is so important to the overall effort of profitable conservation practice adoption,” said PCM Director Greg Goodwin. “He channels Randy Stauffer in his pursuit of soil conservation and sharing expertise. I am honored to present Cade with this award.”
Read more farm news at Shaw Media’s AgriNews, at agrinews-pubs.com.
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TODAY’S FARM
It’s never too late to be in the running
Long-time Ogle County teacher named runner-up for Teacher of the Year
By PHYLLIS COULTER FarmWeek Now
KINGS — Tammy Greene is supportive of young teachers getting recognition and awards, so the longtime educator was surprised to learn that she was the one who’d be getting the recognition and award.
When Melinda Colbert, the Ogle-Carroll Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom ag literacy coordinator, asked Greene, a Kings School fourth-grade teacher, about applying for the 2025 Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year honors, Greene deferred. She said that since she’s retiring in the spring, it would be better for a younger teacher to be nominated, to get the motivation and the rewards.
Colbert had something else in mind.
Not only did she nominate Greene for the award, she got to see her earn the runner-up title. Lisa Corp, a second-grade teacher at The Open Bible Learning Center in Freeport, was named Teacher of Year. The two were recognized for their achievements at the Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting at Palmer House in Chicago in December. As runner-up, Greene will also be the Illinois nominee for the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture White Reinhart Award.
Greene learned in October that she was named runner-up for the annual honor.
“Greene looks for ways to incorporate hands-on experiences for her students to make learning educational and memorable,” said Kevin Daugherty, director of Illinois Center for Agricultural Engagement for Illinois Farm Bureau, who joined Colbert to present Greene with her award in October.
Greene has taught at Kings School in Ogle County for 35 years, and while she has only six fourth-graders in her class, she said she believes they deserve just as many fun projects, activities and good education as students in any larger class. According to an Illinois Extension news release, Greene “has inspired countless students with her passion for learning during her 30-plus-year teaching career… [incorporating] hands-on experiences for her students to make learning educational and memorable … [and integrating] science, social stud-
ies, and English Language Arts with agriculture.”
The school is surrounded on three sides by farmland and on one side by the community of Kings, with a population of 164. “I think with this location, it’s important that my students know about agriculture,” said Greene, of DeKalb County.
Last year Greene surprised her class when she put boys’ white underwear on their desks. They asked her if she was going to scare them and they’d need a fresh pair, she told FarmWeek with a chuckle.
Instead, she taught the IAITC Soil Your Undies lesson, with students burying the undies and learning about soil.
After Greene retires, she plans to volunteer with Colbert to keep teaching ag lessons at Kings.
Agriculture in the Classroom is a statewide educational program for students in grade K-8, with the goal of helping students, teachers, and the public gain greater awareness of agriculture’s role in the economy and society. The program is offered through the University of Illinois Extension Ogle County in partnership with Ogle County Farm Bureau, Carroll County Farm Bureau, Ogle County Soil & Water, and Carroll County Soil & Water.
The Illinois Extension Service contributed to the article. For more ag news, go to farmweeknow.com
Greene
Colbert
TODAY’S FARM
Harvesting the data: A look at ag, by the numbers
New survey digs up info on U.S. farms, shows that most farms are still family owned
By TOM C. DORAN | tdoran@shawmedia.com
WASHINGTON — Family farms accounted for 96% of total U.S. farms and 83% of the total value of production, according to the Agricultural Resource Management Survey.
The survey, released Dec. 10, is conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and Economic Research Service.
Statistics are for 2023 and are based on information collected through 2024. Farms are divided by farm size: Small family farms are defined as having a gross cash farm income (GCFI) less than $350,000, GCFI for midsize farms is between $350,000 and $999,999, and large-scale farms’ GCFI is $1 million or more. Here’s what the survey found ...
Approximately 86% of were small family farms, operated 41% of U.S. agricultural lands, and accounted for 17% of the total value of production. The number of small family farms fell by 1% from the previous year.
Large-scale family farms accounted for 48% of the total value of production and 31% of agricultural land in 2023. Midsize family farms accounted for 18% of agricultural land and 18% of the total value of production.
Nonfamily farms accounted for the remaining 4% of farms. Among nonfamily farms, 16% had a GCFI of $1 million or more. Nonfamily farms vary widely in size, income and ownership structure and include partnerships of unrelated persons, nonfamily corporations and farms with a hired manager unrelated to the owners.
Nonfamily farms’ share of value of production increased from 11% of the total value of production in 2022 to 17% in 2023. Production was concentrated in large-scale nonfamily farms, which accounted for 16% of nonfamily farms and 93% of all nonfamily farms’ production.
The share of farms with a low-risk operating profit margin (OPM) of at least 25% varied by farm size in 2023, with midsize and large-scale family farms being most likely to have low-risk OPM. Less than 30% of small family farms of each type operated in the low-risk zone compared with 42% of large-scale family farms. Between 52% and 85% of small family farms had an OPM in the high-risk zone — OPM less than 10% — depending on the farm type, compared with 34% of large and 29% of very large family farms, respectively.
Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payments continued to be more concentrated among small farms than other government payments. CRP payments target environmentally sensitive cropland and increasingly enroll
grasslands in support of grazing operations, with most payments going to retirement farms, off-farm occupation farms and low-sales farms. In contrast, most countercyclical-type and Natural Resources Conservation Service payments went to family farms with a GCFI of $350,000 or more.
Overall, 16% of farms participated in federal crop insurance in 2023, up from 14% in 2022. Participation varied by production, with 66% of farms producing row crops purchasing insurance compared with 12% of farms producing livestock.
Indemnities from federal crop insurance were roughly proportional to the acres of harvested cropland. Midsize and large-scale family farms together accounted for 67% of all harvested cropland acres and received 67% of indemnities from federal crop insurance in 2023.
Farm households, in general, were not considered low income or low wealth compared with U.S. households. In 2023, median farm household income — including both farm and off-farm income sources — exceeded that for all U.S. households, but was lower than the median income of all U.S. households with self-employment income. About 42% of farm households had income below the median for all U.S. households, and 5% had wealth below the U.S. median in 2023.
Most farm households — 85% — received over half of their income from off-farm sources, and 51% had negative income from farming. Reliance on off-farm income sources ranges from 99% of households associated with off-farm occupation farms to 11% of households that were the principal operator of a very large family farm.
For more farming news, go to Shaw Media’s AgriNews, at agrinews-pubs.com.
Farm tech: By the numbers
The survey also included the data of precision agriculture uses by farm type.
n Technologies that mainly provide information to support operators’ decision-making, such as yield monitors, yield maps and soil maps, were used on 13% of small crop-producing farms, but 68% of large-scale crop-producing farms. Similar to other precision agriculture (PA) technologies, low usage rates of these technologies by small farms were driven by retirement farms, of which 5% adopted, and low sales farms (with GCFI less than $150,000) that had a 9% adoption rate.
n Guidance auto-steering systems on tractors, harvesters and other equipment were used on 9% of small farms, 52% of midsize farms and 70% of large-scale crop-producing farms. The adoption of these systems, as with several other PA technologies, increases with farm size primarily because larger farms can benefit more from employing these tools than smaller farms.
n Variable rate technology (VRT) adoption rates were 5% for small farms, 32% for midsized farms and 45% for large-scale farms. The scale, structure and soil variability of farms play a large role in explaining these usage patterns.
n The adoption of drones plateaued at 12% of large-scale, crop-producing family farms and 13% of nonfamily farms.
n Precision livestock farming use was low, but mixed across farm sizes. Robotic milking was adopted on 19% of large-scale farms that produced milk. The adoption rates for wearable technologies on farms with livestock commodity sales ranged from 1% of small farms to 12% of large-scale farms.
n The motivations underlying farmers’ PA adoption were diverse and broadly consistent with the stated benefits of the technologies. For instance, of the farms that adopted yield monitors, yield maps, or soil maps, many did so to increase yields (55%), reduce purchased input costs (41%), and improve soils or reduce environmental impacts (40%). These same three factors were among the most common for VRT, although a greater share of VRT adopters were motivated by reducing purchased input costs, at 62%.
On the other hand, reduced labor time and operator fatigue spurred farmers to adopt precision agriculture technologies having substantial labor-saving potential. Half of all farms on which guidance auto-steering systems were used indicated that saving labor time was a reason for adoption, while the share of farms with robotic milking indicating this as a reason was 77%. Likewise, reduced operator fatigue was a decision factor for 64% of farms using guidance auto-steering and 41% of those using robotic milking.
