The volunteers of Farm Rescue were harvesting wheat this week near Eureka, S.D., for a family whose farmstead had been destroyed by a tornado, when they were contacted by Justin Retterath, a longtime friend and neighbor of Wesley Doepke, of Wilton.

Doepke received burns Monday in a fire northeast of Wilton when the combine he was operating caught fire. Transferred to a burn center in St. Paul, Minn., Doepke's condition has been changed from critical to serious.

About 160 acres were burned in the fire; Doepke farms about 4,000 acres total, raising wheat, pinto beans, corn, sunflowers and soybeans, Retterath said.

So Retterath, who had partnered in a custom harvest operation for several years with Doepke and seen brochures for Farm Rescue, contacted the 2-year-old nonprofit organization, which helps with planting and harvesting for those who have experienced a major illness, injury or act of nature.

Farm Rescue, after finishing up in South Dakota, will move its equipment north to Wilton on Saturday and start harvesting wheat for Doepke on Sunday. Bill Gross - a Cleveland, N.D., native and president of the board of directors for Farm Rescue - said the work will probably take most of next week. The organization, which uses volunteer workers and loaned equipment, will harvest up to 1,000 acres for a farmer, Gross said. Retterath expects friends and neighbors of Doepke to help out as well, he said.

Farm Rescue, which was named "Innovative Program of the Year" by the North Dakota Association for Nonprofit Organizations and was filmed this week for a feature on the "Today" show that will air Aug. 9, planted crops for a dozen farm families in crisis during its first year of operation in 2006.

The South Dakota work they just completed is the group's first harvesting effort, which they added to their schedule this year, Gross said.

After harvesting for Doepke, they'll move on to farms near Bisbee, Park River and Casselton, Gross said.

What Farm Rescue does is what farmers have done for generations, step in to help neighbors in crisis, but on a statewide and regional scale, Gross said.

When Gross looks at the demographic changes on the Great Plains, he notes fewer farms and fewer children, which makes it harder to get a crew of neighbors together.

So "instead of your neighbor being down the road, the whole state and region is your neighbor,"he said.

The farmer in Bisbee has had triple-bypass heart surgery, and the one in Park River's in the hospital and needs a liver transplant. Another farmer in his mid-30s was in a coma for about a month following a severe car accident, and is now in Minneapolis undergoing rehabilitation, Gross said. Farm Rescue will harvest his soybeans later in the season, he said.

All have been approved through Farm Rescue's application process.

No money goes directly to farmers, but families' financial burdens are eased by Farm Rescue's ability to access volunteers to get crops in and take them down. Farmers pay for their own seed and fertilizer, but expenses such as fuel, insurance and volunteer meals and lodging are taken care of through donations from entities such as Bremer Banks and UPS, the loan of John Deere equipment by RDO Equipment and billboards courtesy of Newman Signs, Gross said. The organization now has 80 sponsors.

About a half-dozen volunteers work at each site, he said. About three-quarters are retirees, and the other portion are people who take time off from their jobs to volunteer their time, he said.

It's important to note, Gross said, that Farm Rescue has the capacity to help more people and is still accepting applications.

"We're not full up yet,"he said.

Gross expects harvesting will go on through September and into October, he said.

Once winter arrives, the group will focus on fundraising and trying to obtain new sponsors, he said.

"We have time then. We need to know what we have for a spring planting budget,"he said.

For more information on Farm Rescue or to fill out an application, visit http://www.farmrescue.org or call 701-526-0947.

(Reach reporter Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com.)