Volume 40 - Number 44 E-mail: starandtjeditor@butler-bremer.com Telephone: 319-267-2731 Website: www.butlercountytribune.com
Thursday, October 31, 2013
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Happy Halloween
Blockhus wins this week’s Football Contest There were 3 entries with perfect games on this week’s football contest - Dave Reints and Jim Blockhus of Allison and Pat Norton of Clarksville. Determined by the tie-breaker, Jim was the 1st place winner and will receive $35 in football bucks while Pat placed 2nd and will receive $15 in football bucks. The 3 tie-breaker scores were within 10 points of each other. Those missing only 1 this week were: Shane Buss, Kelly Thorne, and Ryan Mittelstadt all of Allison; Dennis Hippen, Aplington; Cindi Hoodjer, Clarksville; Darla Ubben, Conrad and Richard Ubben, Dumont. Football bucks can be spent like cash at any of the locations listed on the football contest pages. Football bucks may be picked up at either newspaper office. Check inside for this week’s featured games and submit your picks for a chance to win!
Allison Trunk or Treat to be held on Halloween Trunk or Treat will once again be Halloween night from 5-6:30 pm. This will be located on 3rd Street between the Allison Public Library and The Corner. Community members are welcome to park their car and hand-out treats to the children. This does not replace door to door trick or treating. The City’s Trick or Treating hours are from 5-7 pm. The Allison Park Board and Wilder Days of Allison will be sponsoring free hotdogs and drinks for the children and families from 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm.
Speedy comes back to town By Pat Racette Brianna Speedy always wanted to come back to her hometown of Allison to open up a hairstyling shop. When she heard Jim Meinders of Jim’s Barber Shop was looking for someone to run the place, Speedy jumped at the opportunity. Meinders then cut down his hours, working Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings, with Speedy runningh the shop the rest of the week. “I love it, it doesn’t feel like work anymore,” Speedy said of breaking off on her own since July. Having not known Meinders previously, Speedy said he’s been great. “We’ve actually learned a lot from each other, cutting wise,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot more barbering technique from him to accompany the men, and he just kind of soaks in the information with women. He doesn’t cut women’s hair, but he’s fascinated by it. “We kind of bounce ideas off each other.” The cosmetologist has been getting a lot of business in town, cutting both mean and women’s hair, along with coloring and highlighting, perms and facial waxing. She also
has been getting business from surrounding areas in Waverly, Nashua and Greene. “Greene surprised me,” she said. “My sister at high school and family at sporting events helps a lot.” Speedy graduated from North Butler in 2010, and went Capri College in Cedar Rapids for her cosmetologist license. Subsequently, she worked at Cost Cutters in Waverly for nearly two years, including as manager for 10 months. “I have a lot of experience cutting men’s hair and coloring and styling,” she said. “I pretty much try to accommodate anybody and everybody. It’s funny because the older generation comes in and is like, ‘Oh, it’s a girl.’ They aren’t used to girls coming here, so it’s been an experience with that.” Her hours include: Mondays 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Wednesdays noon-8 p.m., Thursdays 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fridays 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturdays by appointment. She takes either walk-ins or appointments, selling lines of Biolage, Matrix, Kenra, Crew for men and other strays.
The Rehabilitation Center of Allison is ready to hold Trick or Treat Night Thursday, October 31, before Trunk or Treat. Residents will be passing out candy from 4 to 5 p.m. Please use the main entrance. Contact Sandy Scallon, Activities Director, at 267-2791 with questions.
Trunk-or-Treat will be held on Wednesday, October 31, from 4:305:30 p.m. at the Dumont Reformed Church parking lot. This event is sponsored by the Dumont Reformed and New Hope United Methodist Churches.
Allison native and cosmetologist Brianna Speedy started working at Jim’s Barber Shop in July. She says Jim Meinder’s chair is neat because people will remember it. (Pat Racette Photo)
Tiling away
Allison Trick Or Treat Night set for October 31 The City of Allison will have Halloween trick or treating on Thursday, October 31 from 5 to 7 p.m. They encourage homes who pass out treats to have an outside light on for the safety of the children. They also urge motorists to exercise extra caution as little ones are crossing the streets. They would like to remind everyone to respect others and their property. Have a safe and fun Halloween!
Elm Springs to host senior breakfast in November Allison Senior Breakfast will be held at Elm Springs in November. In December and January, it will be held at the Allison AMVETS Hall. The breakfasts are held every Wednesday at 8 a.m.
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See more on page 12
Cutting edge technology Thoreson travels to European research centers for glimpse of dairy future By Pat Racette
Rehabilitation Center of Allison to hold Trick or Treat Night
Dumont Trunk-or-Treat to be held October 31
Pumpkin Time… Rehabilitation Center of Allison residents created jack-o’-lanterns last Thursday that will be showcased at their Trick or Treat Night today from 4 to 5 p.m. (Pat Racette Photo)
Johnson and Sons Tiling and Excavating of Aredale tile a field west of Greene last Wednesday, with Tom Johnson helping aiding in putting the tile machine back on a trailer. (Pat Racette Photo)
The future of dairy farms likely lies in Northern Europe. The capital of the world’s automatic milking systems has engineers constantly working at research centers and farms to come up with technology advancements. Starting in the Netherlands, automatic robotic dairy systems have worked their way out into Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Recently, Allison’s Dale Thoreson ventured abroad with friend Larry Trannels on a two-week study tour of the robotic dairy industry to see what they were doing and thinking of next. Thoreson went as a volunteer for Iowa State University Extension, while Trannel is an ISU Field Specialist in dairy in northeast and southeast Iowa. “What we wanted to do on this tour is try to get to the manufacturing plant and talk with some of the key people that were developing some of this equipment,” Thoreson said. “We were successful in getting that done with a couple of them, and then get on to farms and see what was going on.” The giant five automatic milking companies that the duo targeted was: Delaval (Sweden), Insentec BV (Netherlands), Lely Industries (Netherlands), BouMatic (Madison, Wis., priorly Gasgooine Milot in Netherlands) and GEA Farm Technologies (Germany). They managed to find a farm that was testing mainly Delaval robots. Spending half a day with the assistant manager there, the ISU specialists witnessed an add-on machine to the box (automatic milking system) that engineers were using to hold numerous tests. “They are dealing with what they call a navigator device that will test the milk for pH,” Thoreson said, “and tell us whether it has mastitis (breast inflammation) or not, test the blood for ketone to tell us whether they have ketosis, or whether we
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ought to feed them additional something to keep them from getting ketosis.” The navigator device, the addon machine, can test activity to see whether the cow is in estrus or in heat and can find out what’s going on with a dairy cow. Thoreson, who used to work as a extension dairy director in a 20-countywide area, challenged engineers to come up with a way test for milk fever, a low blood calcium disease that makes a cow weak. “I was challenging them to think,” Thoreson said, “and these are brilliant people, much smarter than I am. I said think about what else you can do there; this is a big problem in dairies all over the world. You have the cow confined, how could you find some tests of what’s going on?” Thoreson and Trannel got the chance to visit with the manager of Geno Global for a couple hours in Oslo, Norway, as well. The company artificially inseminates Norwegian Red sires, the only cattle the country can use. “They’ve been quite successful at breeding a very useful cow,” Thoreson said. “They would like to get their foot in the door and be able to sell semen from their bulls for crossbreeding in the U.S., which has be-
come lucrative.” Moving on to Sweden, Thoreson and Trannel stopped at a random farm where the owners and president of the Swedish Dairymen’s Association happened to live. “Larry was jogging and went by this farm with their lights on, and then we stopped and got invited back for supper,” Thoreson said. The Swedish couple set up the guys with a tour the next morning at a research farm, as Thoreson was able to view a wheat field similar to ones he worked growing up in North Dakota. He also saw several new types of clover, and gave the Swedish farmers a different clover to work with in Kura. Hitting Germany next, Trannel met his fourth cousin, and found out the Trannel farm could be traced back to 1640 ownership. Later, they drove to Denmark, but unfortunately Thoreson’s genealogical leads weren’t as successful as Trannels. Last but not least, the duo used technology of GPS and a navigating voice to take a scenic drive from Germany’s Aacchen to Dusseldorf, before flying overseas back to the states.
See Milking on page 2
Iowa State University volunteer and field specialist in dairy Dale Thoreson and Larry Trannel visited a farm involved in testing robotic milking machines. Pictured is an add on machine called a navigator device engineers were working on to find out more about a cow while in the box.
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