Farming and family were ‘true loves’ of Nebraskan killed in combine crash

LOUISVILLE, Neb. (KLKN) – Benjamin “Mike” Scholting’s loved ones say there are two things he loved most: family and farming.

On Monday, Scholting was killed near Firth when he was crossing train tracks in a combine.

“It just hit me like a wall,” lifelong friend Butch Derby said. “I was just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.'”

His friends are still finding it hard to believe that he’s gone.

“It kind of has me into a feeling where I’m in disbelief, but yet I know it’s true,” Bill Lefler said.

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Lefler has been Mike’s neighbor for as long as he can remember.

He said they bonded together over their late fathers and farming, which was a passion for both of them.

“We were just good neighbors; we helped each other out when we need to,” Lefler said. “I’ll miss him.”

He said there are so many memories that he shared only with Scholting.

Derby said he and Mike had been friends since they were kids, and they had a lot of fun together through the years.

“My wife and I, we kind of got him and Kim together,” Derby said. “It was kind of a blind date.”

Channel 8 asked Derby what his favorite memory was with Mike.

“Well, I’m too embarrassed to put it on TV, really, I am,” he joked.

Derby and Lefler agreed that farming made Mike who he was.

“Farming was his passion; he loved to farm,” Derby said. “And machinery, he loved to be around machinery. He grew up with it with his dad, like I did.”

Lefler said family and friends will work together to help take care of Mike’s farmland.

The Scholting family declined to speak, but they did send a message.

“Mike was a husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother and friend,” it read. “He was an avid farmer of 50 years. Farming and his family were his true loves. For Mike there was nothing better than being in the combine picking corn. He will be greatly missed.”