By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

When Mark Burton was asked if he would like to drive big farm equipment for Farm Rescue, he jumped at the opportunity. Little did he know at that time that he would be doing much more than driving large farm equipment and helping farmers in need by doing more than planting crops, but he also would be planting seeds of God’s love.

Farm Rescue is a 501.c 3 charitable organization with headquarters in Horace, ND. Its mission is to help farmers and ranchers who have experienced a major illness, injury or natural disaster by providing the necessary equipment and volunteer workforce to plant, hay or harvest their crops.

Burton retired from Deere & Co. in 2015 and began working part time for friends at Randy and Kolby Haars Farms in Geneseo doing fall tillage work….”That ‘s how I learned to drive big equipment,” he said.

Prior to his retirement, Burton worked for nearly 40 years at John Deere and always liked being around the agricultural industry…”I really enjoy being in the seat of large equipment and learning about farming practices,” he said.

It was a fellow John Deere retiree, Mark Baumgarten, who introduced Burton to Farm Rescue in 2018…”He had been volunteering with Farm Rescue for several years and when he learned I was driving equipment each fall, he asked if I was interested in driving equipment for Farm Rescue…I jumped at the chance,” Burton said.

Since 2018, he has volunteered in the spring of every year when he does planting with a huge air seeder on farms in North Dakota.

He is the team leader on an air seeding crew and said, “We work hard, generally around 18 hours a day for seven to 10 days straight. I am tired when I return home!”

He explained, “It is a bit like painting a room, tons of prep time, and then the final rolling or seeding in our case, goes pretty fast. We have to load seed and fertilizer into the seeder, calibrate the machine, perform maintenance on the tractors, seeder, etc. The depth and spacing settings need to be made for different crops, soil types and more. Once everything is set up, we can plant up to 350 or 400 acres per day. The equipment is huge.”

Burton said the key to Farm Rescue’s process is that they use big, highly productive equipment, with teams of volunteers who can run the equipment almost around the clock, to come in and do something for a farmer in a few days that would take the farmer himself weeks to accomplish with him running his smaller equipment.

When asked to share a memorable experience he has had with the Farm Rescue outreach, Burton thought back to the very first case he helped with in 2018, and said, “We pulled into a farm about 11 p.m., circled up, held hands, and prayed with the family under the beautiful stars. We started seeding early the next morning and the family was so grateful. They brought food into the field for us so we could keep running and their neighbors showed up to help us with moving semis, loading seed, fertilizer and more. The local fire department arrived and hosed down the whole rig before we moved to the next farm…The dust in North Dakota is crazy!”

Since his first year with Farm Rescue, Burton has worked on many cases all over North Dakota.

Helping those farmers has been a benefit to Burton and he shared, “There is no better feeling for me, and the other Farm Rescue volunteers, than to be able to help someone in need. I can’t really describe the feeling of being able to literally help someone save their farm, their livelihood. Even though Farm Rescue is not a faith-based ministry, being a Farm Rescuer is exactly what Jesus has instructed us to do – loving one another.”

He said the volunteers are referred to “angels in blue,” as they are dressed in dark blue work clothes.

When asked if anyone else in his family is involved with Farm Rescue, Burton replied, “No, but my wife Debbie loves that I do what I do with Farm Rescue and has no problem at all running things at our house when I leave for my work in North Dakota each spring.”

Farm Rescue is beginning to expand into other states with Illinois being the latest addition, and Burton added, “There have also been cases in South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.”

More information is available on the Farm Rescue website and at https://farmrescue.org/aboutus/ and htps://farmrescue.org/aboutus/history.html.

Wyffels Hybrids is a major sponsor of Farm Rescue. Prairie State in Geneseo is combining with Wyffels for an event that includes a barbecue meal and speakers on Friday, June 16, at Wyffels Headquarters on Route 6, just west of Geneseo. Information to sign up is available at https://www.wyffels.com/news-events/event-details/farm-rescue-friday.