DeKam Construction

Family at Mark and Heidi Zwinger’s surprise wedding in 2017. Heidi’s niece Elissa Oyen; Heidi’s sister Heather Bunjer holding her daughter Eva; brother-in-law Brendon Bunjer; Mark’s mom Jane Zwinger; Mark, Brody, Heidi, JoAnn, Royal, and Heidi’s sister Jennifer Selken.

raising calves and milking cows. When her parents sold their dairy cows, about half of them went to Boadwine Dairy in Baltic. After working off the farm for a year, she followed the cows there and took a position feeding calves. The Boadwine operation grew substantially in the 18 years she worked there. And, even though her parents shut down their dairy, Heidi didn’t quite let go, buying back a few cows which are milked at Boadwine and she keeps a few head of heifers on hand so that the family can continue to have dairy calves to show. She can remember the birth date and names of dairy cows born 30 years ago even though she might forget what she ate for breakfast today. Heidi’s father and his sister started showing dairy calves in 4-H in 1960. Royal grew up on a farm near Arlington where he and JoAnn farmed and milked until 1988. About the time Royal’s younger brother was finishing his years of showing, then Royal and JoAnn’s oldest daughter, Jennifer, was just getting started in 4-H; followed by middle daughter, Heather, and, finally, Heidi. There were nearly 40 consecutive years of Selkens showing at the State Fair; and approximately 50 years out of the last 60 that the family was competing. Heidi’s son, Brody Ahlquist, shows dairy in the summer, but he has a greater passion for FFA’s Career Development Events and Leadership Development Events. Brody and his team from Tri-Valley High School recently won the state FFA ag sales LDE. Next October, they will compete at nationals in Indianapolis. “It’s exciting that a team of sophomore boys is enthusiastic enough to put the work into it and bring it to the goal line. Brody has good leadership skills just like his mother,” JoAnn said. In addition to the ag sales LDE, Brody also takes part in the FFA Natural Resources CDE, which involves identifying plants and animals plus knowing laws related to the environment, land preservation and hunting. JoAnn does a lot of the feeding of the family’s small herd of dairy heifers and calves. She enjoys having physical chores to do outside (except in the really cold

DRAIN TILE DESIGN, PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND INSTALLATION RURAL WATER & DIRT WORK TREE REMOVAL

FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED SINCE 1973