Dozens of local farmers helping harvest hay for a hospitalized farmer

CARBON, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) Dozens of farmers lent a helping hand to one of their own, in the hospital with heart complications.

“People may have have an hour, hour and a half to run cause they’re all busy. They’ve got their crops but, everybody is just coming in to help out,” says Windall Treadway, a local farmer.

All the help is for Zack Rice, a local hay farmer.

“He got an illness, a bad heart, and is currently in the hospital and has been for a few weeks. We’ve got a hay crop and we’ve got an amount of time to get it out so, everybody’s pulled together to help Zack Rice out,” says Kalli Stacy.

Kalli and her husband Brad work closely with Zack and have known him most of their lives.

“If he didn’t have this crop, the income, how he pays for his bills, provides for his wife and his two sons there wouldn’t be any,” says Kalli.

For nearly 3 weeks Zack has been in the hospital leaving his fields unattended.

In an hour and the farmers say the work they got done would have taken them a whole day without all the help.

“You get a lot of work done with a lot of equipment and we haven’t had any break downs. It’s been great,” says Windall Treadway.

Treadway heard what was happening and started making calls.

“86 calls the first day. We live in a great area if you need some help there is no better place to be from,” said Treadway.

The crew finished all 80 acres in a fraction of the time, giving Zack one less thing to worry about.

The farmers say Zack is doing well and hopes to be back home sometime this week.