How Ohio State helps keep farmers in their fields

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Aging legs and a surgically repaired back made Len Vonderhaar question whether he could continue six decades of farming. For his grandson, that possibility caused an ache in his heart. Adam Vonderhaar ’18 knew firsthand his grandfather’s love for working the fields of corn and soybeans in Preble County, Ohio, that the patriarch had bought in 1961. His lifelong identity had been formed by soil, sweat and labor.

With that appreciation, Adam’s mind raced with one thought: There had to be a way to help the 6-foot-5 Len get up the 7 feet of steep, narrow steps to his combine harvester’s control cabin. Overcoming that one hurdle would let him keep farming.

Scrambling for solutions in the spring of 2019, Adam remembered a program called Ohio AgrAbility that Professor Dee Jepsen ’89, ’97 MS, ’06 PhD had explained in one of his undergraduate classes. Jepsen is project director of Ohio AgrAbility, part of Ohio State University Extension and a partnership between Ohio State and Easterseals Redwood, a nonprofit in Cincinnati. Ohio AgrAbility arranged for a company to provide the Vonderhaar family with a customized electric lift platform that enables Len to bypass the combine’s troublesome steps. 

Five years later, at age 86, he’s still driving the harvester across 2,700 acres to complement the agricultural duties completed by his son and two grandchildren. “I just think the world of all the (Ohio) AgrAbility team and all that they’ve done for me,” Len says. “It has just been tremendous. We give Ohio State all the credit we can.”