The Farming Families of Minnehaha County (SD) — January 2021

January 2021 | www.AgeMedia.pub

of Minnehaha County

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

Meet the

THOMPSON Family Jeff Thompson and Karen Medema with their dog, Josie, and a neighborhood stray cat.

Story on page 28.

January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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TURNER COUNTY FAMILY

COMMITMENT TO CATTLE AND A COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

By Bob Fitch

Back-to-back tough years haven’t diminished the Hagena family’s commitment to feeding cattle nor their competitive spirit.

LaRohn and Dianne Hagena farm north of Davis with their sons, Jarrod and Steve.

The past year was frustrating because of market volatility. “Last spring was kind of a bugger with Covid,” Steve said. LaRohn agreed: “That made a mess of things.

We couldn't get rid of fat cattle.”

“But I think it was a bigger mess in ’19,” Jarrod said. “It was flooding so bad here. We couldn’t get fat cattle out. We eventually got some trucks through an alfalfa field. We had to get trucks crosscountry through fields to deliver fat cattle that were six weeks past due. When it floods hard here, the river runs right through the yard. We built a new dike this fall, so hopefully it won’t happen again.”

Flooding in both the spring and fall of 2019 made cattle feeding frustrating and hazardous. Steve said, “I only live a mile away from here, but when it was flooding, it was 80 miles roundtrip to do chores. That was the worst.”

Jarrod added, “We finally rented a feed wagon, put large tires on it, and used autosteer to find and follow the road through the water. Then it was only 10 miles around. We went through hell over here.

We had six inches of water running through the shop. That was enough to make you puke.” He had five feet of water in the newly-finished basement of his home.

Jarrod, LaRohn and Steve Hagena feed cattle near Davis.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

Farming close to the Vermillion River, “We’re in an area that can flood – we know that. But it had never flooded that hard. It just wiped out the road to the east. We’ve never had water in our bunkers like we had in ’19. Nobody alive around here has seen it as bad as it was in ’19,” Jarrod said. It was three months before the road was fixed and, as a township board member, he’s still dealing with FEMA. LaRohn said water and ice were trapping their cattle, forcing them to both commingle loads and send cattle to market overweight. “It was something we don’t ever want to deal with again.” He said the Vermillion River in their area was two miles wide. In between the spring and fall flooding, they found time to build a new feed bunker.

2020 started off looking like a pretty good year. But then Covid hit and did a number on the markets. “It’s still affecting things. We’ve got cattle we can’t rid of now. They’re telling us ‘Oh, we’re all full up.’ We’re selling cattle at a loss, but, meanwhile, they’re selling beef to consumers at record or near-record profits,” Jarrod said. Steve said, “People in town are paying $7 a pound for beef and we’re lucky to get a $1 a pound on the hoof. The packers are just taking advantage of the situation and we’re at the mercy of it.”

Dianne and LaRohn Hagena.

cattle on slats covered with rubber mats. He and his wife, Angela, have three children: Andrew, 13; Ashlyn, 11; and Colton, 9. Angela operates Barn Door Boutiques, selling apparel, accessories and gifts online.

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The Hagena family has been feeding cattle in Turner County for over 77 years. “My dad moved onto this farm in 1943. I started farming in 1970, lived on the county line for a few years before moving back here when I purchased it from Dad in 1979,” said LaRohn. “The boys started farming in 1996. The opportunity came up to rent some ground and everything fell into place. They started in feeding cattle, although at a different scale than we do now.”

Jarrod said, “I was a sophomore at South Dakota State. I quit school – I wanted to farm. I came back when we had a bunch of land offered to us on shares. Steve was still in high school that year. But we started at the same time. I lived by Parker and Steve lived by Lennox when we were younger.” Even with the added crop ground, land availability was tight, so it made the most sense to expand their cattle operations to make a living for all three households.

Jarrod built a new house a half mile west of the home place in 2009. He and his wife, Shannon, have a five-year-old daughter named Vivian. In 2014, Steve acquired land just a mile away where they added a deep-pit confinement barn with the

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than 10-12 miles,” LaRohn said.

Steve said, “We’ve got people who background cattle for us. So when cattle are going out, we’ve got cattle coming in right away.” Jarrod said, “We feed more cattle than we can hold.

There’s four different outfits feeding for us right now.”

Shannon, Vivian and Jarrod Hagena.

Laura and Dawn – both of whom live near Viborg.

The Hagena cattle and crop operations are less spread out now than they were in the past, even though their total volume has grown considerably. “Everything’s getting closer to home now.

One farm is 20 miles away, but everything else is within no more

About half their corn, soybean and alfalfa crops are on irrigated land. “We have nearly 30 centerpivot irrigation systems,” Jarrod said. LaRohn said, “Dad started irrigating in 1956 with handmoved sprinklers. Then he went to whirlybirds, then center-pivots.

He was one of the earlier ones to be irrigating. I’ve been irrigating my whole life, so I don’t know any

different.” Even with all their cattle, they still grow more corn than they can feed.

On paper, the size of the operation would seem to dictate the need for hired help. But “there’s just three of us, although mom helps quite a bit,” Jarrod said. “We do have some part-time guys trucking for us. We probably need one or two full-time working for us. So we’re pretty tired right now. We do have friends who help us when it’s time for chopping because that’s a pretty busy time.” They harvest both silage and earlage.

There’s a pretty strong competitive spirit in the Hagena family, too.

Steve holds the state record for corn yield on irrigated land at 312.9 bushels per acre, set in 2017. Jarrod finished second the same year at 309. LaRohn took second this year in the state soybean yield contest at 102 bushels per acre on irrigated

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

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ground. Steve said, “We put it on high fertility ground, experiment a little bit and see what we can get.

It’s something we like to do.

Good manure management is what it takes.”

Jarrod and LaRohn are also involved in competitive tractor pulls. In the winter, LaRohn participates in antique travel pulling in Missouri, Mississippi and Oklahoma. “Summertime, we just stay around here. We’ve met a lot of great people from all over the country.” Jarrod takes part in the “Thunder in the Valley” Outlaw national pull event in Rock Valley.

Father and son started doing tractor pulls in the early 1990s.

LaRohn’s dad, Harm, pulled back in the 1950s.

LaRohn Hagena competes at an antique tractor pull.

Steve has passed on the family competitive spirit to children Andrew and Ashlyn, both of whom are active in sports and having good success. Andrew’s basketball went undefeated as did Ashlyn’s volleyball team. “So there’s potential there as they get older,” he said.

The Hagena team used a guidance system to keep their tractor on the road while hauling feed during the floods in 2019.

Steve Hagena set the state record for corn yield on irrigated land in 2017 at 312.9 bushels per acre.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

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HUTCHINSON COUNTY FAMILY

FINDING TIME FOR BULLS, COWS, CALVES PLUS ELK, PHEASANT AND MUSKRATS

By Bob Fitch

Shannon and Josh Neuharth. Josh is holding Chauncey, and standing in front are Kaycee and Sage.

Hard work and diversification are mainstays on just about every family farm and ranch these days. And good, oldfashioned help from your neighbors and friends is also essential.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

“There are a group of guys around here who do our spring cattle work together. Without them, it wouldn’t be possible. We help each back and forth, especially during calving season,” said Josh Neuharth, who farms with his parents, LueAllen and Pam Neuharth north of Menno. Josh and his wife, Shannon, have three daughters, Sage, 7, Kaycee, 3, and Chauncey, 8 months.

Shannon grew up on a ranch near Long Valley, S.D., which is south of Kadoka. When she’s not working at Heritage Pharmacy in Menno or minding their daughters, Shannon is right there with Josh working the cattle (and has the bruises and broken bones to prove it).

The two of them met in Mitchell when she was a student at Dakota Wesleyan University and Josh was a student at Mitchell Vo-Tech.

“When I graduated from high school, I didn’t really know what I was going to do yet. I moved to Wyoming and worked on a ranch out there for awhile. But that wasn’t really for me, being out there on my own away from home for the first time. I came back here, worked for Dad and Mom, and worked for Bruce Handel, a local Gelbvieh seedstock guy,” Josh said.

Age Media Qtr Page Color 7-12-19.pdf 1 7/12/2019 11:22:43 AM

The Neuharth girls: Sage holding Chauncey and Kaycee standing.

His parents pushed him to go to college, after which he headed west again. “When I did my internship, I went to White River and then stayed there for four years. The guy I worked for out there had 1,200 head of cows. He also had crop dusters, so I learned a lot about weed control.

“After awhile, Dad decided he wanted to drive truck again as an owner-operator. He wanted to back off farming, but not get out of it completely. I told him I’d come back and run things if he’d sell me the equipment. So he and I share-crop everything and run cattle on shares,” Josh said.

“Our commercial herd is just big enough to keep full-time calving in the spring, but not enough to keep us tied up all summer.” On the crop side, they dove deep into hay about five years ago. “With crop prices being so low and us already being in cattle, I told Dad we should do a lot of alfalfa.

That’s been working for us. There’s always a need for hay someplace and not everyone is willing to put in the hours on it. We’ve been selling a lot into Iowa. Dad trucks it over.

“We’re rotating our ground back into corn and soybeans now, and we’ve got some wheat acres. I did wheat on my ground this year – that way we can keep in on the hay market, so we

January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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keep in front of people and remind them that we’re here when we bring it back around to alfalfa later,” he said.

Josh is the fifth generation of the Neuharth family to farm this land.

His great-great-grandfather moved to the United States from Germany in 1874 and proved up on his homestead in Hutchinson County in 1882.

Looking for a way to increase his cash flow and inspired by his work for Bruce Handel, Josh decided to toss his hat into the seedstock ring.

“When I was first building my herd of cows, I artificially inseminated everything. I just made leaps and bounds in the genetics. It got to the point where they were good enough on the commercial stuff, I really didn’t see where I needed to A.I. anymore if I was buying decent enough bulls. I was up there where I needed to be.

Josh Neuharth and his oldest daughter, Sage. In the background is Daytona, their herd sire.

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pounds, so people kind of shied away. I had guys who had interest, but they’d decide they were a little small, so they’d leave,” he said. But those who gave his stock a chance liked the results, telling him, “Man, your bulls are lasting twice as long as what I got from so-and-so.”

“It came down to guys finding the bulls they bought elsewhere were falling apart, where mine would keep gaining as a yearling. So the guys I do have are really happy and are loyal customers. They keep coming back.” His expectation is the Neuharth bulls will hold up to the demands of breeding season and the summer, and look better at the end of the season than when they are put out to grass.

Originally, Josh and Shannon were selling Angus bulls, but have since transitioned to SimAngus which has resulted in better gains and carcass values. The Fleckvieh/Simmental genetics provide heavier wean weights and good calf vigor.

The seedstock business is small and he’s still primarily focused on their commercial cow-calf operation. “If we sell 3-5 bulls a year, that’s what we’re looking for – just that little bit of extra capital.”

Also adding a little bit of extra income is dirt work he does putting in driveway approaches, culverts and building pads. He’s picked up this line of business because his dad has a side-dump as part of his trucking business.

“For a few years, I also got into dirt-raised pigs, fattening them up and selling them to people to have processed wherever they want. Mostly I did it because I didn’t like the way the pork I was buying in the store tasted. I wanted something with a little more fat on it,” he said.

“We had a couple sows and boars, but they kind of destroy everything. Now we’re getting rid of them and just buying feeder pigs for ourselves, fattening them on a ration of oats, corn and soybean meal. That seems to layer the fat on them.” Another sideline he’s considering is raising sheep because the market is good and there are a number of side pastures in the area where it doesn’t pay to put cattle. But neither his dad nor Shannon are big fans of the sheep idea.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

which proved to be a gateway to adventures. “The guy said the horse was broke, but it wasn’t. So I kind of got into breaking horses.

That was my deal when I was in high school. That’s what I did all summer long, training colts for people.” He also used to ride bulls and saddle broncs. “I hadn’t done it for a long time, but two years ago I decided to try it again. I was decent at it when I was young. It was fun – but I had forgot how much the ground hurt.”

Josh also finds to time to hunt elk, antelope, deer, pheasant, grouse – “anything that’s legal.” “Dad taught me how to trap muskrats when I was a kid. We’ve got a good population of those around again now, so maybe I need to teach trapping to Sage. Anything the kids want to do, I’ll teach them.”

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January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

A TOUCH OF GREEN IN WINTER PHOTO BY BRETT DAVELAAR, BD PHOTOGRAPHY.

January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

19

LINCOLN COUNTY FAMILY

Loren, Milo and Michael Knutson of Canton.

IT’S EASY TO BE HAPPY DOING SOMETHING YOU ENJOY

By Bob Fitch

Creating a good life is easy when you’re doing a job you love. “You might not make a million dollars, but it’s easier to be happy if you’re doing something you enjoy. I’ve always enjoyed farm work. I grew attached to it,” said Loren Knutson.

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Loren and his brother Michael have farmed together for 35 years north of Canton. Their father, Milo, 84, farmed with them for many years, and their grandfather, Clarence, was still around in the beginning. “Grandpa wasn’t afraid to let you just dive in and try. He figured ‘doing’ was the best way to learn. If it didn’t go right, he used to say, ‘Well, we’ll worry about that afterwards,’” Loren said.

Michael added, “Grandpa was pretty good to us starting out, but Dad wasn’t so sure sometimes.

Dad told Grandpa: ‘You’re not going to let them go out and cultivate?!’

And Grandpa says, 'It’s my corn and if they go out and wreck it, it don’t matter. It ain’t going to hurt you any!’”

How have the two brothers succeeded in getting along all these years? Loren joked: “Even though I’m always right, I recognize you have to acknowledge that other’s opinions might work, too.” Michael responded, “I just let him go.”

The Knutsons are from the Norwegian stock that populated much of Lincoln County in the late 1800s. All four sets of Milo Knutson’s great-grandparents immigrated to Dakota Territory from Norway in the 1870s.

Appropriately, all of them lived and farmed in Lincoln County’s Norway Township.

Loren, Jill, Audrey, Milo and Michael Knutson at the celebration of the 35th marriage anniversary of Milo and Audrey in 1995.

Three of the four homesteaded in 1872, 1873 and 1876. But great-grandparents Ole and Andrea Knutson first lived in Canton and Ole worked for the railroad for 12 years. They had three sons under the age of four when they ventured forth from Norway. Later, Ole and Andrea bought the farm on the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 11 and Lincoln County 152. They later sold two acres of their land to the first owners of the Norway Center store.

Milo’s parents, Clarence and Opal Knutson, moved the family to a farm north of Canton in 1949, which they had purchased from Opal’s parents. Back then, the primary crops were corn and oats. They added soybeans to the rotation in 1963 and fed cattle until 1975.

“I enjoyed farming, I always have,” Milo said. “Mom asked me if I wanted to go to college when I graduated from high school. I said ‘Nope. I want to be a farmer and that’s it.’

I rented my first land in 1958. I farmed with my dad for almost 30 years. I never had a problem working with my dad or my sons.”

Milo’s dad did have to find a hired hand to help with the harvest though in the fall of 1961. “I was in the National Guard after high school. During the Berlin Crisis of 1961, the National Guard here in Canton got called in. We left for Fort Sill, Okla., in October and came back eight months later.

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21

When we left Canton, we figured we were going to Germany because the Russians were getting frisky.

But by Christmas time, things were tame, but they kept us there in Oklahoma until August.”

Land-wise, Milo considers himself lucky. “I bought 73 acres from a guy, plus gained three quarters to rent out of that deal; and then I got a call about another quarter and I rented that. Things worked out in my favor. The ‘80s didn’t bother me any. The only debt I had was on that 73 acres. I was paying 13 percent interest on the loan, but I didn’t owe on anything else.”

Aerial views of the Knutson farm in 1950 and 2017.

“The boys started farming with me in 1985,” Milo said. Loren attended South Dakota State University and Michael went to Mitchell Vo Tech, where both studied ag business.

“They both came home and wanted to farm. They started just like I did.

I didn’t have to borrow money to buy machinery – Dad had enough machinery. I did the same thingW for hether yoused u’re mine se e k in my boys.

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the number of fields. “The farm fields were chopped up on that quarter – originally there were seven fields on that quarter. Some of them were only eight or 10 acres,” Milo said.

He stepped aside for his sons to run the farm when he started on Social Security. “Now I’m the parts runner. And I won’t give up that 18-wheeler at harvest. I was 72 years old when they bought a semi to haul the grain. Last year, they told me I was too old and I should quit, but I said ‘Nope, I ain’t quitting. Heck, I don’t feel a bit different than I did a year ago.’ They’re afraid I’ll slip and get hurt. But I’m just as likely to slip and get hurt around the house. Driving that truck makes those the best couple of months of the year for me. I get up in the morning and I’ve got something to do.”

He met his wife, Audrey, when she was teaching country school north of Canton after earning a certificate from Northern State Teacher’s College in Aberdeen. She later obtained a bachelor’s degree from Augustana, and taught 6th grade for seven years and kindergarten for 18 years.

She also spent four years as a teacher’s aide. Audrey passed away in 2008. Their daughter, Jill, lives in Sioux Falls where she works for Loren’s wife, Dawn, who owns Midwest Employee Benefits. Michael’s wife, Rochelle, works for Capital Card Services.

Milo has 12 grandchildren (six boys and six girls) and 14 great-grandchildren (seven boys and seven girls). Loren is not sure if any of his or Michael’s children will take over the farm in the future. “We’re letting them see what else is out there in the world now. If the time comes one of them is interested in coming back to farm, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

He’s loved driving truck ever since he was a junior in high school when he started driving himself and his sister Maurine to school in his dad’s 1949 Ford single-axle grain truck. “We only lived a mile-and-a-half from school, but I was the first on the bus in the morning and last off at night. That didn’t make sense.”

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January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

25

KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE

REMEMBERING NOVELIST FREDERICK MANFRED Author Frederick Manfred was immersed in what he called “Siouxland, ” the region at the confluence of Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota. He was born in northwest Iowa and much of his inspiration came from his upbringing there; his greatest work was based on an inspirational story from Dakota Territory; he had long-time ties to both the University of South Dakota and Augustana University; and he lived much of his life and ultimately died in southwest Minnesota.

Frederick Manfred’s parents were immigrants to Iowa from The Netherlands. His father, Feike Feikema VI, couldn’t even read. Yet Manfred, born on a farm in Rock Township in northern Sioux County, grew up to be a Pulitzer Prizenominated novelist.

Manfred – baptized as Feike Feikes Feikema VII – was born in 1912 east of Doon. His parents met while growing up in Orange City. Manfred wrote more than 20 novels plus works of non-fiction and poetry. The University of Iowa Press said: “The gently rolling slopes and wide horizons of the northwest Iowa plains created a landscape that permeated his writing.” His fiction vividly depicted life on the Great Plains, particularly the region for which he coined the expression “Siouxland."

Manfred was raised in the Christian Reformed Church and attended Western Academy (now known as Western Christian High School) in Hull. He later graduated from Calvin College in Michigan. Calvin College emeritus professor James Bratt said Manfred rebelled against his Christian Reformed upbringing, being filled with "religious doubts and ethical chafings." But, Bratt said, the qualities of Manfred’s work included "earthy detail, metaphysical sweep, both set to biblical cadence - are precisely those of his native faith.”

Frederick Manfred was 6'9" tall. He's pictured here at his home at Blue Mounds north of Luverne in 1973.

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While in high school, the 6-foot-9-inch tall Manfred excelled as a baseball pitcher and dreamed of becoming a professional player. After college graduation, the future author hitchhiked around the country for two years. He had jobs as a harvest hand, carpenter, basketball player and factory worker before becoming a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal. While there, he met future U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and several years later was an assistant campaign manager when Humphrey ran for mayor of Minneapolis.

He soon set aside politics to become a full-time novelist.

In 1954, trying to become more accepted by the literary establishment in the eastern U.S., he changed his name from Feike Feikema to Frederick Manfred. That same year, he published his most successful novel which was entitled Lord Grizzly. It became a national best seller and was a finalist for the National Book Award. The New York Times described the book as a "heady mixture of history made into first rate fiction."

For a time, Manfred lived in a house he built which is now the interpretive center of Blue Mounds State Park in Rock County, Minn. Frederick Manfred died of a brain tumor at age 82 in Luverne, Minn., in 1994.

Lord Grizzly tells the story of Hugh Glass, a real-life mountain man who was attacked by a bear in 1823 and abandoned in the wilderness by his companions who thought he would not live. With a broken leg and open wounds, Glass crawled hundreds of miles from what is now northwestern South Dakota to Fort Kiowa on the Missouri River to reach safety. Unlike other fictionalized accounts of Hugh Glass (including the 2015 movie The Revenant), Manfred’s story in Lord Grizzly moves Hugh Glass from an attitude of revenge to one ultimately of forgiveness towards the companions who left him behind.

The University of Iowa Press said Manfred’s novels “captured the beauty of the Missouri and Big Sioux river valleys, whose grassy bluffs resembled ‘long windrows of huge sleeping mountain lions’ below the ‘creamy folds and rising towers of gold’ of wind-driven clouds. His characters' enduring connection to the land, from the untamed wilderness of his buckskin-clad pioneers to the plowed fields of his farmer-heroes, is a permanent reminder of the power of the regional novelist to preserve a sense of place.”

Young Feike Feikema VII writing "Boy Almighty" in 1944.

Photos courtesy Center for Western Studies at Augustana University.

A 1983 video portrait of the author can be viewed on the Twin Cities PBS website at www.tpt.org/american-grizzlyfrederick-manfred/. In the video, Manfred reads from his works; visits the site of his parent’s former farm in Sioux County (where he speaks Dutch with Mr. Brenneman who owned the farm at that time); and talks about when he ran 7½ miles every day from home to Western Academy in Hull. He said he was a writer because “I get a double take out of life.”

Also available is a later interview conducted by his daughter which can be found at https://reflections. mndigital.org/catalog/p16022coll38:15#/kaltura_video.

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Sources https://www.tpt.org/american-grizzly-frederick-manfred/ https://sdexcellence.org/Frederick_Manfred_1985 http://uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/bdi/DetailsPage.aspx?id=248 https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/frederick-manfred/ http://www.unl.edu/plains/publications/resource/manfred.shtml http://www.usd.edu/arts-and-sciences/english/frederick-manfred.cfm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Grizzly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Manfred “Siouxland: A History of Sioux County, Iowa.” By G. Nelson Nieuwenhuis

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27

MINNEHAHA COUNTY FAMILY

COMFORTABLE WITH WHERE THEY’RE AT

By Bob Fitch

Small gestures can create big legacies.

Grandma’s little wave from the kitchen window is one of those memorable legacies for Lyons area farmer Jeff Thompson. “I remember hauling grain in the fall, hauling load after load in. Grandma would always be at that kitchen window when we pulled in the yard. She always gave me a wave. Mom would do the same thing.”

Jeff’s wife, Karen Medema, said, “I try to do the same thing, listening for the truck when it comes in.”

Memories of Grandma’s gesture of affection help keep his grandparents’ spirit alive. “Pretty much from the day I moved in up to yesterday even, every decision we’ve made, whether it’s adding onto the house or building the shop or putting up a bin or what flowers do we put in, it’s always been ‘Would Grandpa and Grandma approve of this?’”

In 1992, Jeff moved into the former house of his grandparents, Roy and Jaye Thompson. Karen joined him there when they got married in 1997. Jeff said, “They bought this farm in 1950. My dad pretty much grew up here.” Jeff and Karen added on to the house in all four directions; and Jeff built the cabinets and trim in the re-built story-and-a-half house.

His parents, Ronald and Verla Thompson, lived about two miles away, but Ronald spent a lot of time in the shop at the home place. “Dad was very good at welding and fabricating. He’d fix things and make it the way he wanted it to be. That’s where my affection for shops and building things came from.” Jeff earned a degree in mechanized agriculture from South Dakota State University in 1983.

Karen Medema and Jeff Thompson with their dog, Josie, on their farm near Lyons.

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Over the years, he’s built about 20 sets of kitchen cabinets, mostly for friends. “I worked out of the garage for many years. When I decided to build a new shop, I didn’t want a regular steel building, so I built this shop in 2005 to resemble a small, old-time barn since we didn’t have a barn on the place.” Karen said, “We looked at moving a barn here, but didn’t like the answer when we researched how much it would cost to move one.”

Jeff added, “And then you’d still have an older barn you’d need to fix up. I’ve been pretty happy with this layout.”

He’s building a headboard now as a wedding gift for his nephew, Matt Thompson and his bride Maggie. He’s building it from an old pine tree which had been on the farm site which belonged to his Tokheim great-grandparents. He also built a cross for the sanctuary at First Lutheran Church in Colton from the same pine. In addition, he makes “baptism boxes” for families at the church to preserve the memorabilia from baptisms.

After college graduation, Jeff came back to farm with his dad, but also worked at various positions off the farm, including driving a fuel truck and working at a Sioux Falls cabinet shop, plus eight years at Central States Fire Apparatus.

Karen was a school librarian for 30 years, four of those at West Central Schools and then the next 26 years at Axtell Park Middle School in Sioux Falls. “That’s where I went to school. I took over for the librarian who was there when I was student and I was hired by the principal who had been my principal when I was a student. The old Axtell Park Middle School was a great school.” Karen’s undergraduate degree is from the University of South Dakota and she received her master’s degree at Minnesota State University Mankato.

Jeff said, “She’s an easy keeper. She doesn’t really go shopping. Our biggest expense is the greenhouse plants we buy in the spring.”

Jeff and his father, Ronald, with Dad’s pride and joy, a 1974 International ¾-ton pickup.

While Karen is not a shopper, Jeff’s shopping is what brought them together. Many years before they actually met, he spied her working at Dayton’s department store in Sioux Falls.

Though he didn’t know her name, years later she popped into his head and he tracked down her name through a woman he knew who worked there. Karen would not agree to a blind date. She told their mutual acquaintance that “if he wanted to meet me, he’s got to come up and talk to me at least.” Jeff said, “I finally manned up and came in and talked to her.” The match took.

Karen started working at Dayton’s when she was 16 and continued for 22 years, even while being a full-time school librarian. Coincidentally, she and other employees used to make fun of the farm boys who became confused in the department store’s maze, often saying “Oop, third time around, he’s lost.” Jeff said, “The farm boys like the straight back-and-forth rows, and that store was on the contour.”

The Sioux Falls girl moved to the farm and adapted well. “Now I drive the grain cart and try to keep the yard looking great. I tell people I retired to become the groundskeeper of a small rural estate.”

She also stepped up to do chores when Jeff was in Chile as part of the South Dakota Ag & Rural Leadership program. He

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29

said, “It was 15 below when I left her here, and it was still 15 below when I got back two weeks later.” He was in Chile’s warmer climate learning how to say “beer” in Spanish. “Meanwhile,” Karen said, “His wife is at home, doing chores, taking care of the horses.”

South Dakota Ag & Rural Leadership (SDARL) is an 18-month program which includes 30 people, about half of them farmers and half from agribusiness.

“They hold 10 in-state classes all over South Dakota. Class sessions run twothree days. You get exposed to a wide range of topics from forestry to dairy and more,” Jeff said.

“You make so many connections.

Any time you have questions about anything, you can get your SDARL alumni book out and call so many of those folks to find the information you need,” he said. The program helped prepare him for his current role as the president of the South Dakota Soybean Association. And the SDARL network of alumni has proved beneficial: “If I’ve got a soybean board seat opening eight counties over, I can look at my SDARL connections and see who I know over there and ask who would be a good fit.”

The SDARL program also includes a week in Washington, D.C., and the aforementioned international

component. “From grapes to apples to avocados, Chile is an interesting country and the people were friendly. We got along great. The week after I got home, I was in the grocery store and was checking the county of origin and, sure enough, there were blueberries from Chile which I had just seen being picked down there. I thought: ‘I’ll buy it, I trust them.’”

In 2016, Jeff and Karen hosted the first “Hungry for Truth Farm-toFork Dinner,” an initiative of the checkoff-funded South Dakota Soybean Research & Promotion Council designed to open conversations about food between South Dakotans and the farmers who grow it. During the evening on the farm, urban residents enjoyed a meal while talking with local farmers, exploring questions about everything from family life on the farm to antibiotic use in livestock.

In addition to the South Dakota Soybean Association board, Jeff is the third generation of his family to serve on the Valley Central Coop Elevator board and he’s been a part of the Lyons Fire Department since 1992.

When not in the corn and soybean field or at a board meeting,

the couple spends time at Lake Madison where her family has been going for 54 years. Although they are at the lake a lot, Jeff said he’s never graduated from the stick pole fishing his Grandma Tokheim taught him at Skunk Creek.

He added alfalfa to their corn and soybean rotation last year and has been selling hay to nearby Boadwine Dairy. “We’ve had a very long-standing family relationship with them. Growing up, we’d go play hide-and-seek in the haymow of their dairy barn when they were milking 40 cows. Mom and Dad, and Bill and Esther, were very good friends. We’ve been getting manure from them for our fields for 10 years or better. That’s always worked very well. Lynn runs a good operation over there. I don’t want to milk cows, but I’ll support you.”

Jeff and Karen don’t have plans to grow or radically change what they’re doing. “We’ll keep on doing what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re a size that just the two of us can handle what we’ve got. Why beat my head against the wall? We either own our land or rent from Dad. So we’re secure in our crop acres. Why chase some acres with how nuts the cash rents are getting? We’re comfortable with where we’re at.”

Respectfully serving families for generations.

BALTIC | 180 St. Olaf Ave. 605.529.5411 DELL RAPIDS | 104 East 4th St. 605.428.4200

COLTON | 205 East 4th St. 605.446.3246 GARRETSON | 101 South Leslie Dr. 605.594.3700

www.minnehahafuneralhome.com Sue and Don Olson on their farm near Colton. Photo by Bob Fitch.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

Jeff Thompson said his woodshop provides a supplemental avenue for income rather than raising livestock.

In addition to the Thompson acres, Jeff also owns and farms the homestead of his mom’s Tokheim family.

January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

31

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

TSGC HELPS FARMERS PRESERVE THE VALUE OF THEIR GRAIN ASSETS

By Bob Fitch

Tri-States Grain Conditioning Inc. is one of the most well-known suppliers of grain temperature monitoring equipment in the world.

Headquartered in Spirit Lake, Iowa, the team at Tri-States Grain Conditioning (TSGC) makes service and high quality products their highest priorities, while providing lifetime free tech support. TSGC has an extensive network of contractors representing their products and services nationwide and in over 40 countries.

“Grain temperature monitoring is critical,” said Daniel Winkowitsch, CEO of TSGC. “When grain goes out of condition, regardless of the cause, there is always an unusual change in temperature. Excessive moisture, high temperature, and poor grain condition from insects or damaged kernels are generally considered the most important factors that lead to problems with stored grain. When any product goes bad, it gives off heat. So, a spike in temperature is the main indicator that there is a need for seeds or grain to be aerated or moved. A good grain manager will watch the trending temperature and check out changes.”

Winkowitsch said monitoring the temperature of grain (watching for changing trends) on a regular 32

basis gives farmers the best chance to make a correction in order to preserve good quality in grain.

Also, using TSGC’s grain monitoring systems helps farmers better know when to turn off the fans, thereby cutting utility expenses significantly.

“For pennies per bushel, temperature monitoring systems can be installed to monitor changes in grain that need to be attended to,” Winkowitsch said. As part of its innovative grain systems, TSGC offers farmers and grain managers the ability to remotely monitor grain on their phones.

The more advanced systems can monitor grain temperature, moisture and volume, plus how long it’s been stored.

“We want to provide growers with the best tools to keep their grain and seed in great condition until it is time to sell,” he said. “Our reliable remote monitoring systems for grain bins, tanks or silos detect even the slightest changes in grain condition, so that you can take

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | January 2021

action in time to preserve your assets.” Running fans excessively can cause grain to lose too much moisture. If it becomes over dried, it becomes lighter and not as valuable.

While TSGC sells, installs and services clients world-wide, they are a family-owned business with Midwestern values. Founded in 1982, the business was sold to the Winkowitsch family in 2008 and has grown extensively under their watch.

Dan spent a good share of his adult years as a missionary through Avant Ministries Ecuador, where he worked with the Quichua-speaking people, descendants of the Incas.

His wife, Luisa, is originally from Bogota, Colombia. She has a background in banking and runs the financial side of the company, while Dan focuses on sales, service and growth.

While business is important, family and faith come first. Daniel and Luisa have two adult children,

Age Media Qtr Page Color 7-12-19.pdf 1 7/12/2019 11:22:43 AM

Luisa and Daniel Winkowitsch of Tri-States Grain Conditioning.

Natasha and Juan; and one grade-schooler, Sophi. “Sophi is our special needs girl, being diagnosed with autism from age 3,” Winkowitsch said. “She is non-verbal and needs a lot of attention. We call her the most painful blessing that God has ever given us.”

Luisa said Daniel works because he likes it, but preaches because it is his first love. Dan said, “I say yes to filling the pulpit for any church that calls when I have an opening on my calendar. My goal is to encourage believers to know Christ better and follow Him, and if we can laugh a bit while we learn all the better! There are plenty of tears to be shed in this life.”

For more information about TSGC’s products and services, call 712-336-0199, email TSGC@TSGCinc.com or see their website www.TSGCinc.com.

January 2021 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

33

FROM THE KITCHEN

CINNAMON PULL-APARTS From the kitchen of Taylor Smith as printed in the cookbook of Grace Lutheran Church of Parker, SD

INGREDIENTS: • 2 loaves frozen bread dough • ½ cup oleo or butter • 1 cup brown sugar • 1 (3-ounce) package vanilla pudding (not instant) • 2 tablespoons milk • ½ teaspoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS: Grease a 9x13-inch pan. Let dough thaw, but do not let rise. Cut or tear apart dough. Keep loaves separate.

Lay first loaf of bread pieces in greased pan.

Mix ingredients together and pour over first loaf of torn dough. Lay pieces of second loaf on top. Let rise until desired size. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Let stand a few minutes before turning out.

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