LOOK INSIDE FOR OUR WORLD DAIRY EXPO PREVIEW EDITION!
DAIRY ST R
September 11, 2021
“All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 23, No. 14
Strong storms sweep coverage area Minnesota, Iowa dairy farmers deal with crop damage in the aftermath By Krista Kuzma
krista.k@dairystar.com
SAND SPRINGS, Iowa – While Steve Turnis and his family were working with cows in his farm’s freestall barn the afternoon of Aug. 24, a storm picked up outside. “The wind was howling,” Turnis said. “It was scary. The wind blew really hard for about 20 minutes. We shut down the curtains and closed the doors. I was afraid to look when we got out and the storm was over.” The 80 mph wind had knocked down 50 of his 250 acres of corn on his 200cow dairy near Sand Springs. Northeast Iowa was not the only area to experience lateAugust severe weather. Sandra and Tom Herdering
MARK KLAPHAKE/DAIRY STAR
Steve Herdering chops corn Sept. 7 for his brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Sandra Herdering, on their 75-cow dairy farm near St. Rosa, Minnesota. A storm Aug. 28 aƩened a large porƟon of the Herderings’ corn. from St. Rosa, Minnesota, had a powerful storm roll through their 75-cow dairy about 12:30 p.m. Aug. 28. David Tauer also had storm
damage from strong wind that came through later in the day – one portion that arrived around 6:30 p.m. and a second round around 10:30 p.m. – at his
family’s 220-cow dairy near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. “I’ve never seen corn down like this before,” Turnis said. “There’s not a stalk stand-
ing. It’s like you ran it over. I’ve seen some break off (from storms) but nothing like this.” Turnis was about 10 days out from starting to chop the corn, which he guessed probably would have yielded about 200 bushels per acre. “I tried chopping it with my chopper, and I can’t get through it,” he said. One load took 1.5 hours to chop so Turnis said he will hire a custom chopper. “You can’t believe there would be that much difference between varieties, but we have corn that is at right next to the corn that is still standing,” Turnis said. “We’ll just take one step at a time trying to get it done.” The Herderings are in a similar situation. The storm Aug. 28 rolled in quickly, Sandra Herdering said. “Within ve minutes the storm came up … and just like that the sky started turning green,” she said. “When it’s green like that when it storms, it’s bad.” She and her husband reTurn to STORM | Page 7
Grab-and-go dairy Benton County ADA donates cooler to high school By Jennifer Coyne jenn@dairystar.com
FOLEY, Minn. – With the new school year underway, students at Foley High School were welcomed back with a new feature to their lunch program. High school students have the option to incorporate more dairy into their diets because of a donation from the Benton County American Dairy Association’s dairy farmers. “We’re excited about the fact that we’re going to reach so many kids and families, and let them know about dairy,” said Pat Boyle, treasurer for Benton County ADA. “We’re going to get them to drink more milk, and hopefully, they’ll develop lifelong habits that are passed on for generations. This could be a win-win for everybody.”
In working with the school’s child nutrition director, the group of dairy farmer representatives provided an outlet for the school to have more dairy products available for students. “We are a big farm-to-school district, and milk is considered a part of that with it going from the farm to these milk cartons in 48 hours,” Cheryl Pick said. “When (Boyle) reached out asking if we could use a cooler, that gave us the chance to offer kids cheese sticks, yogurt, even salads with cheese on them.” Pick is the child nutrition director at Foley Public Schools. She has been with the department for 21 years. The cooler is located in the cafeteria and displayed in a way that students can pick and choose which foods they want to incorporate into their meals. Food options will include tried-and-true dairy products, such as milk cartons, cheese sticks and yogurt cups, as well as fruit parfaits, and sandwiches and salad with cheese included.
JAKOB KOUNKEL/DAIRY STAR
McKenna Funk grabs a string cheese from the dairy cooler that was donated by the Benton County American Dairy AssociaƟon Sept. 1 during the school district’s open house in Foley, Minnesota. The donaƟon will allow a variety of Turn to BENTON COUNTY | Page 6 dairy products to be on hand for school lunches.