There are many farm towns across the U.S. where a significant amount of the world’s food supply is churned out yearly in near obscurity. But the farming community of Kiowa, Kan., population 892, made sure one of their own was not forgotten.

Combines, sprayers and tractors lined a Kansas highway as family members of Bob and Lori Schrock returned recently from the East Coast. Bob and Lori, the owners of Premium Grain, were tragically killed Jan. 29 in the crash in Washington D.C. involving an Army Blackhawk helicopter and American Airlines jet.

They were flying from Wichita to D.C so they could take a train to Philadelphia to see their daughter Ellie, who is a junior at Villanova University. (See obituary, recording of funeral service here.)

Noting a video of the farm equipment salute, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran said Saturday on X, “In small towns, we share each other’s burdens and sorrows. This tribute to Bob and Lori Schrock, victims of the AA Flight 5342 plane crash, is a touching tribute from the Kiowa community to comfort each other and grieve for these two dear people.”

Although Bob is widely known for his successful and progressive farming techniques, he could very often be found at his happy place, the beach, his family said, partaking of ocean-related activities like stand-up paddle boarding and scuba diving. “He will be greatly missed in many gyms, dirt bike courses, farms, churches, lagoons, and oceans across the country,” family said.

Lori Schrock was born in Topeka, Kan., received her degrees from Wichita State University in Accounting, English, and Linguistics. Lori enjoyed using her unique skill set to creatively tackle a wide range of business ventures and enjoyed the challenge,.

Her family said Lori, “inspired a beautiful community full of laughter, love, and faith which was readily and generously shared with people in every place they lived and on every adventure they took."

Innovative No-Till Management

Bob and Lori were married in 1988 and worked as a team to transform their family farm into a thriving innovative agriculture business.

Schrock had switched his farm in south-central Kansas from a full tillage cattle grazing enterprise to a no-till, grain-only system while pioneering the successful introduction of a new crop, winter canola.

At the time he’d been experimenting with six crops (wheat, canola, corn, milo, soybeans and sesame) in different rotations, but found a wheat-canola rotation fits best in his area.At one time Bob ran as many as 7,000 head of stocker cattle annually, but he has since left the cattle business entirely.

“I could not get my no-till crops to the level I was satisfied with by grazing them,” he said in 2013. He adds, “I can teach someone to ride a combine or a tractor, and that’s a lot easier than to get someone to feed and doctor cattle when it’s over 100 degrees outside.”

Schrock was eventually generating more revenue from the same farm with less labor. He ran a thriving custom seeding, scouting and harvesting business that helped pay for his investment in specialized air-seeding and harvesting equipment.

He wasn’t missing the cattle and said at the time he couldn’t imagine going back to his old ways, joining the growing ranks of farmers who describe the shift away from traditional tillage as “life changing.”

The Schrocks explained their approach to farming nnovation and transparency on their website, noting they could provide documentation from seed purchase to grain in the silo.

Integrated pest management, soil sampling and yield mapping, variable-rate nutrient application, fertilizer prescriptions, split N applications and no-till practices were the core of their management.