Harvest Help app connects farmers with seasonal workers amid labor shortage

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - A new mobile app called Harvest Help is connecting farmers with seasonal labor to fill a growing agricultural worker shortage.

Aaron Block took over his family’s farm about two years ago, continuing a legacy that began when his grandfather homesteaded two miles east of Hallam, Nebraska.

He often relies on help from local community members during harvest season.

“A lot of times it’s retired guys that are just helping part-time, especially during harvest — just helping with grain carts,” Block said. “And margins are so tight right now that it just, it’s hard.”

John and Tommie Lenhart, who live outside Nebraska City in Iowa, created the app after experiencing the labor shortage firsthand. John Lenhart works in grain marketing consulting for a company in Lincoln and has worked in the grain industry for about 19 years. Sixteen years ago, he and his wife started farming and now own farm ground in both Iowa and Nebraska.

“We don’t have a lot of equipment just trying to ease into it and grow as we can,” John Lenhart said. “So we’ve always had to hire somebody to custom plant, custom harvest, come do dirt work, come do tree work, all that stuff for us, trucking.”

“I think as we go further down the road here with fewer people coming into agriculture, especially younger people, it is harder to find that labor,” John Lenhart said. “That shortage seems to be growing.”

Launched this fall after two years of development, Harvest Help functions as a double-sided marketplace for short-term farm work.

“So if you need somebody to come help you for a week or a month or just to fill in, bring their own equipment and do work around your farm, that’s what this is designed to fill that gap,” John Lenhart said.

“And the nice thing is that as you work for people or you hire people that you like, you can add them to your contact network, so you can go back and find those people again when you need them in the future,” Tommie Lenhart said.

Nearly 200 people across three states currently use the platform.

“Ninety-nine percent of my business is probably done within a 30- or 40-mile radius of our farm, where I think Harvest Help kind of allows us to branch out outside of that,” Block said. “And my kids are looking at potentially farming, and you want to give them every opportunity if they want to do it.”

Lincoln software firm Don’t Panic Labs created and tested the prototypes. The Lenharts also received a state grant and partnered with The Combine, which started in 2019 as part of Invest Nebraska and now supports about 40 startups, including a workspace on Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln.

“The exciting thing about Harvest Help though is it’s a double-sided marketplace,” Brennan Costello, director of The Combine, said. “So people that are looking for opportunity can also use the platform to go and find good people to work for.”

Costello said the Business and Innovation Act provides shared grant funding that helps companies like Harvest Help build prototypes.

“So it’s a huge value prop that Nebraska has,” Costello said. “And it’s really important that we continue to support it because it’s one of the only tools that we have to generate new technology and new technology businesses here in Nebraska.”

Harvest Help is available to download on the App Store and Google Play. The Lenharts are offering a six-month free trial, after which the subscription is $130 per year.

“We want everybody to have an opportunity to get on there, try it out,” John Lenhart said. “We realize it’s going to take some time to get enough users on the platform for it to work for everybody.”

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