Jim and Kim Henschel farm outside of Elkhart Lake at Deer-Vue Acres where they milk 150 cows and run 425 acres. The couple also has three children; Sarah, Austin, and Katelyn, with Sarah working full-time on the farm, Austin in college, and Katelyn in high school.
This past June, the family found out that Jim has Stage 3 colorectal cancer. At this point, he’s been through two rounds of chemotherapy, in which the second round put him in the hospital for almost two weeks. Earlier this month he was given radiation treatments and the family hopes he’ll be able to get surgery either late this fall or early this winter.
After hearing the heartbreaking news, Jim knew that he wasn’t going to be able to harvest the farm’s corn silage, so he needed to come up with a plan. He ended up getting help from another Sheboygan County dairy farmer, Ken Strack Jr. who farms in Random Lake.
Once Strack agreed to harvest the dairy’s corn silage, he went a step further and decided to donate half of his time and equipment to get things done for the family. The kindness didn’t stop there because that led to six other farms in the area donating their time and harvesting equipment as well. The crew harvested all 140 acres of silage within a two-day period at the end of September. Once that was finished, the Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah High School football team volunteered their time to cover the corn silage.
Thank you to everyone that helped the family through this tough time in their lives. Thoughts and prayers go out to the Henschel’s as they balance the farm and battling cancer at the same time.
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