Reporting on Jackson County agriculture as a journalist more than 30 years ago, I quickly learned there’s a good-natured competition between farmers who drive green implements and those who drive red.
Well, it’s mostly good natured.
The Community Foundation of Jackson County invites tractor enthusiasts to stand up and vote — with their donations — for their favorite implements in the Head to Head: Green vs. Red competition this fall.
Today, combines — red and green and even some yellow and blue ones — are moving through farm fields across Jackson County. Harvest is well underway and wrapping up for some farmers.
Bushels and bushels of corn and soybeans will be transferred from field to farm to grain buyers, food processors and eventually to our grocers and our kitchen tables.
Farmers hope this growing season has been a good one, producing a good yield. The Community Foundation of Jackson County hopes so, too, for the benefit of our farmers and our community in general.
Farmers and the agri-business sector represent a strong, vibrant part of our local economy and community. Many of our friends and neighbors are employed directly or indirectly by farming and the businesses that help keep them operating.
Each harvest season, the foundation makes a tool available to area farmers to help support the community — the Giving a Gift of Grain program.
Crops, of course, are the livelihood of grain farmers, who prepare the soil, plant the seeds and nurture their plants to maturity and eventual harvest. That’s also how the foundation handles the gifts of cash and property, including gifts of grain.
Participating in the Gift of Grain program is simple and can take place at participating elevators — Premier Ag in Brownstown and Cortland, Bundy Brothers at Medora, Rose Acre Farms at Cortland and Tampico Grain near Crothersville. Gifts have started flowing.
One came in last week, a donation of soybeans from D&B Pfaffenberger & Sons Grain of Seymour to the foundation’s Community Fund.
Farmers can contribute their gifts of grain to benefit the area’s agricultural community through grants to programs such as 4-H and scholarship funds such as the Jackson-Jennings Co-Op/Bob Myers Scholarship and the Jackson County Veterinary Scholarship. They also can benefit the Fall Grant Cycle with gifts to unrestricted funds.
Their donations also count as votes in what we’re calling the Head-To-Head Green vs. Red contest. The good folks at Wright Implement and Jacobi Sales in Seymour have teamed with us to promote the contest, parking equipment head-to-head in the foundation parking lot.
For more information about the Giving a Gift of Grain program, or its companion program, Giving a Gift Livestock, contact the foundation at 812-523-4483, or send an email to [email protected]. We’ll be happy to work with you as you harvest your crops and sow the seeds to help us grow better tomorrows.
For tractor enthusiasts without grain to donate, a $25 donation entitles the donor to cast one vote for their favorite equipment line. A $100 donation entitles the donor to five votes. You can vote in our office or online by going to cfjacksoncounty.org and clicking on the Donate Now button.
The Pfaffenbergers, by the way, cast their votes evenly between the Red Team and the Green Team. In the contest’s inaugural season two autumns ago, the Red Team won. Last year, the Green Team took the honors. This year? The Red Team has a slight lead.
Just one more thing — let’s all be careful out there as those big lumbering combines, grain trucks and trailers make their way along area roads as farmers hustle to bring in their harvest.
Dan Davis is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Jackson County, 107 Community Drive, Seymour, IN 47274. For information about donating to the foundation, call 812-523-4483 or send an email to president@cfjackson county.org.