Sheboygan County, Wis. (CBS 58) — When a Sheboygan County farmer got COVID-19, his neighbors did what any good friend would do. When admitted to the hospital, he set aside some of his work to harvest his crops.
“I appreciate it, I really do,” Dave Obink said to a crowd of farmers gathered at a field in Cedar Grove.
Obink knows she has a lot to be thankful for, including good friends and her health.
“My wife and daughter said it was time to go and I said yes, it is,” he said of the decision to go to the hospital when he got Covid-19.
He was back in October. Obink was hospitalized, with most of his crops still in his fields.
Then his neighbors also came forward to help.
“Everybody knows Dave,” said farmer Jeff DeRuiter. “Dave is stable in the community and we heard he was sick and needed some help.”
and helped them. Seventeen farmers withheld their harvest to bring Obink’s soybeans and corn.
As for Obbink, it’s still a mystery who started it.
“No one would say they got this together, because they would never take credit for anything,” Obink said.
But DeRuyter said having so many hands on deck makes the job easier.
“It was the fastest I’ve ever seen come across several acres in time,” DeRuyter recalled.
Retired farmer Bob Caljouw pitched in, too.
“I had a blast. It was just fun,” said Kalyuw, laughing. “I think about 44,000 bushels of corn were harvested for Dave that day. About 200 acres worth.”
It also turned out to be a sight worth seeing in Cedar Grove.
“There’s another combination. One is red. One is green, and suddenly there are six combinations,” Obink said.
DeRuyter said it stopped the traffic.
“There were cars that would slow down and stop on the side of the road just to watch for a while,” he said.
All those combinations were lined up side by side, but then all the other people and machines were also needed to do the job.
Obink said, “He took 200 acres a day with six-seven combines and semis, and grain carts and wagons, and found people who came out of the woodwork to bail me out and help with this. “
“There were probably 68 people, different people, hauling corn in the dryer,” Kalyuw said.
Obink made him home from four days in the hospital to bring him corn.
“I just sat there on the couch, looking down at the arm of the couch, and tears rolled down my face. I said, I can’t believe these people would do that,” she remembered.
But the way they see it – how can they not see? This is what neighbors do.
“Everybody has known everyone else their whole life. Like I said, I grew up here, only a mile and a half, two miles away from where we are now. Known Dave and everyone behind me here my whole life,” DeReuter said. said.
They know that Obink will do the same for them.
That’s how he’ll like it.
“They said, well, that’s what we do. I said, I know, but doing it is easier said than done for you,” Obink said.
But the farmers said that all this was not work.
DeRuyter said, “It was so much fun to be able to get along with everyone and do things that way, and it makes a guy feel good that we can help someone who needs it. “
Obink says he is slowly recovering from his bout with Covid.
He will be there to help next time.
“Everyone in this community and in this area, you know they’ll be there if you need it,” DeRuyter said.
To see photos of all the farmers and their equipment on the farm, visit Country Vision’s Facebook page Country Vision Cooperative,