Community helps Ritzville farmer battling cancer

Larry Yockey, a Ritzville wheat farmer for more than three decades, was trying to figure out what to do. Wheat harvest was around the corner, but he no longer had the strength or energy to harvest. Yockey was diagnosed with stage four melanoma in February, and while treatments had been going well, his strength had not returned. Longtime friends and neighbors already had a solution in the works for Yockey, however, and a few weeks before harvest time, they approached him with a plan to host a harvest bee, with farmers bringing their combines to harvest 1,200 acres in a single day.

Section:Gallery

Sat., Aug. 10, 2019

Adams County wheat farmers and community banded together recently to help harvest Larry Yockey's 1200-acre wheat farm. Yockey, 63, has stage 4 skin cancer and could no longer work his fields.

Colin Mulvany The Spokesman-Review Buy this photo
Every farm within reach and a few from outside chiped in to help Larry Yockey harvest his wheat field in Ritzville. They got three weeks of work done in six hours.

Brandon Rose For The S-R
Every farm within reach and a few from outside chiped in to help Larry Yockey harvest his wheat field in Ritzville. They got three weeks of work done in six hours.

Brandon Rose For The S-R
Every farm within reach and a few from outside chiped in to help Larry Yockey harvest his wheat field in Ritzville. They got three weeks of work done in six hours.

Brandon Rose For The S-R
Every farm within reach and a few from outside chiped in to help Larry Yockey harvest his wheat field in Ritzville. They got three weeks of work done in six hours.

Brandon Rose For The S-R