Fertilizer dealer doesn’t have to spread it on thick: Area farmers 
willingly donate 
to charity effort

ERIE – In the farming world, nothing says happy holidays like a hopper full of Illinois corn. In the world of the needy, nothing says it like food.

Which is why Charlie Brown, owner of fertilizer company D.J.C. Applications, decided to ask his 40 or so client farmers to donate a few bushels of corn, here and there, to raise money for down-county food pantries and Christmas toy drives.

Brown started the project this harvest season thinking he might raise about $5,000. In 1 week, farmers from Rock Falls to Hillsdale already have donated $13,000 worth. As a bonus, Hillsdale Elevator waived penalties for wet corn and bought the cereal grain at full price.

“Farmers, all in all, are pretty decent people,” Brown said. “I hope this gives people a better perspective.”

Market prices for corn fluctuate, but Brown estimated he received an average price of $3.70 a bushel that farmers donated. To raise $13,000 in corn, that’s a little more than 3,500 bushels from area farmers.

“Everybody I asked donated,” Brown said. “They just donated more than I expected.” One farmer donated 400 bushels, about $1,500 worth of corn, Brown said.

He jumped into D.J.C.’s company semitrailer and hit the road, hopping from farm to farm collecting the donated grain for 6 or 7 hours a day, in addition to running the fertilizer business at a time when farmers are looking to prepare their fields for next season.

“They’d turn the auger on and run some into the bin, then I’d be on to the next place,” Brown said. “It was kind of a neat deal.”

“I’ve got a really great group of farmers I work with. ... They’ll bend over backward to help others.”

Not too late to help

Charlie Brown has officially finished his round of collecting corn to raise money for area food pantries and toy drives, but he said he’d accept more corn if he could find time to pick it up. The corn is being held in the Hillsdale Elevator in Hillsdale.

Farmers interested in donating can call him at 815-314-3630.