A northwest Iowa farmer died Friday evening in a combine accident on a gravel road and the next morning over three dozen of his neighbors showed up for work in Gene Sitzmann’s field. Neighbor Chuck Kellen (rhymes with “Helen”) of Le Mars helped organize the “harvest bee.”
Nearly 40 people gathered in a field about a mile east of Merrill and, within three hours, they’d harvested 200 acres of soybeans.
The same group of neighbors is laying plans for a similar gathering to harvest Sitzmann’s corn. Sitzmann was 55 years old. Authorities say it appears he was pulling a trailer behind his combine. The trailer, which was carrying a soybean head for the combine, broke loose, hit the combine and sent the machine into a ditch. Sitzmann was thrown from the combine’s cab. He was taken to a Sioux City hospital, where he died from his injuries.
