We lost a good Henry County Citizen in a farm accident.
Marshall Banta was a good Husband, Father, Son, Neighbor, Friend, and an Agricultural
Community Leader. Because of my associations with Agriculture, the folks here at the LOCAL
asked me if I would care to write a Commentary about Marshall. At the time, I just
couldn't. Now, after witnessing some rather unique events, I believe I should try.
As County Extension Agent for 4-H and Agriculture,I had
the good fortune to have known Marshall Banta for over 24 years, and in that time had
several opportunities to work with him in his role as an Extension Leader. Together, we
planned and conducted several Tobacco and Forage Demonstrations and Field Trials on the
Banta farm. His willingness to put some new ideas from the UK College of Agriculture to
work and then open the farm to Field Days surely helped hundreds of Farmers from the
County and Region to adapt some improved practices.
I don't know just when Marshall became a great Agriculture
leader. But I can probably point out several reasons why. His easy going personality,
constant smile, obvious love of farming, and his willingness to try to make things better
made Marshall a favorite in several Agriculture related groups. The Extension Service
benefitted greatly from Marshall's service on the County Extension Council, the
Agriculture Council, and the Extension District Board. He represented Henry County well as
an Area Extension Council Officer, and became the only Henry Countian ever to serve as
President of the State Extension Council. His leadership was certainly not confined to
Extension, as he was very active in the Henry County Conservation District, Southern
States, Farm Bureau, and the Chamber of Commerce. Each of these groups will miss his
leadership. Many of Marshalls' friends and neighbors have told me that they didn't realize
just how many organizations he worked with and provided leadership for. Back in the
community, he simply remained a good farmer, friend, and neighbor, always ready to lend a
hand when needed.
That spirit of community and giving has been demonstrated
in many ways since the accident, as folks have pitched in to help the Banta family. Work
on a farm takes no holiday, and the harvesting of nearly 300 acres of field corn needed to
be accomplished. This effort was coordinated by a couple of talented individuals, and the
corn harvest began on Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend. Combines, Grain Carts, Tractors,
Trucks, Elevators, and many friends and neighbors rolled into the Smithfield area and
smoothly and efficiently began binning a good corn harvest. In one instance when a Combine
broke down, there was a quick response and two combines appeared to take its place. The
harvest took 4 days, and was a sight to behold. After running on several farms and
different fields for the first 3 days, the entire operation moved to the Banta farm on
Tuesday afternoon. They got close enough to finishing that they decided to work after
dark. The last field was illuminated by a full moon and the lights of 3 huge combines, 2
grain carts and tractors, and several grain trucks. When the last corn stalk was run, the
entire armada moved across the ridge behind the Banta home to the Grain Elevator. As one
of the farmers said "I've heard about things like this, but until now I'd never seen
anything like it".
The entire Harvest effort will be long remembered. Nearly
50 people were somehow involved on site, with many others doing extra duty back home to
allow these many volunteers to leave for a few days. The entire group had a common goal
and purpose, and worked as a team. Individually, these men and women were extremely
talented and capable, and did whatever it took to accomplish the end goal. In my
experience, farmers are somewhat individualistic, but any differences of opinion were put
aside during the harvest operation.
The reasons for this probably surfaced in a conversation I
heard as 5 or 6 of the volunteers were discussing the operation. As one farmer said,
"If this had happened to any one of us, Marshall would have been the first in the
field to have helped". He lived and shared the message that "friends should help
friends", and that came through in his personal life, in many board meetings on the
local and state level, and even in National Agriculture Summits.
It is ironic that Marshall volunteered quite a bit of time
and leadership to the newly formed "Farm Safety Coalition" this past summer. He
assisted the many agencies and organizations in conducting the very well attended
"Farm and Home Safety Fair". One of the messages the coalition wanted our
farming population to hear was to simply take the time to be safe. No accident is planned,
all are damaging, and some are terribly tragic. Because of an accident, one of our best
and brightest is gone. I think he would continue to encourage folks to work together to
always make our place a better one in which to live and to "be careful out
there".
