A week after losing most of his crops, a farmer in Jones says people from all over the country are offering their support.

The Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture, the Oklahoma City Police Department and the Oklahoma Farm Bureau have all stopped by to investigate. 

"We're hoping for some answers," Farmer Michael Ruzycki said. "We haven't heard much yet. We're waiting to hear from them. We want to find out where it came from, and what it can be. If it’s something that’s a little more widespread, we want to figure out how we can stop it from happening to anyone else."

Meanwhile, some people from across state lines are making the drive to Jones to help however they can. Dozens of people made the trip to Ruzycki Farms to clear out some dead plants.

"It was about a four-hour drive to get here," Volunteer Aaron Allen said. "I saw on the news last week that there’s massive crop failure here. Just wanted to come out, help and see what I can do to provide some assistance."

Allen, an aspiring farmer, drove up from Dallas, Texas.

"Learning from other farmers, and learning from other people in our community, it can definitely help us out as we’re preparing for our farm too. We all have to help each other in one way or another. I think the more we can all help each other the better everybody can be, and the better our communities can be."

The Ruzycki family says that community efforts aren't going unnoticed.

"We’ve seen a lot of support," Ruzycki said. "We’ve seen support over the 15 [years] we’ve been doing this, but this is definitely a team effort. It’s coming from all over the city, all over the state and we’ve got actually out of state support as well."

Ruzycki says once the dead plants at his farm get torn up, his family will put new seeds in the ground along with other donated plants.

"just kind of getting the farm back into a planting manner. A growing fashion. We’re hoping within the next 30-60 days that we start seeing a little bit of growth, and some production."

While investigations about what happened continue, Ruzycki says having the community behind him means everything.

"It’s very uplifting. It’s the hope that’s going to keep us going. It's not over yet."

Ruzycki says it should take two weeks to find out what was sprayed on his plants.

Source - https://okcfox.com