VOLUME CIII, NO. 2
HURON, SD
MARCH/APRIL 2018
South Dakota
Union Farmer A PUBLICATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA FARMERS UNION Meritorious Award Winner
Page 12
Legislative Day
Rocky Forman Profile
State Advisory Meeting
Page 13
Page 13
Page 18
2018 National Convention
Farmers Union Celebrates the Feickert Farm Family
More than 40 South Dakota family farmers and ranchers traveled to Kansas City, Missouri, to develop policy advocating for agriculture during the organization’s 116th national convention March 4-6.
“As a grassroots organization, Farmers Union truly gives family farmers and ranchers a voice.” – Doug Sombke, President South Dakota Farmers Union.
National Convention Continued on Page 6
Keep Our Kids Safe!
To schedule the Farmers Union Farm Safety Trailer for 4-H club meetings or school events, contact Rocky Forman, SDFU Member Services Coordinator, at 605-350-3421 or RForman@sdfu.org
South Dakota Farmers Union has served South Dakota farm and ranch families for more than a century. Throughout the year, we share their stories in order to highlight the families who make up our state’s No. 1 industry and help feed the world. This month we feature the Feickert family. Dennis Feickert is pictured here. See page 2 for family photo.
T
he second oldest of seven, Dennis Feickert grew up on a traditional 1950s South Dakota farm. His dad, Elvin, and mom, Christina, raised pigs, chickens, a cow/calf herd, a 30-cow dairy herd and corn, oats, wheat and hay. It was on this 1,200-acre McPherson County farm that a strong desire to work on the land and care for livestock was instilled in Dennis. “My passion and my love has always, absolutely been with the cattle and the land and the machinery. That is where my entire energies have always been focused,” he says. Although the only career Dennis ever wanted was to be a farmer, when he graduated from high school, the family farm was too small. His dad was young yet and had a large family to support. “So, I moved to Aberdeen and began working for Dakota Farmer magazine and hated it – absolutely despised it,” Dennis says. To emphasize how farmsick he was, Dennis tells this story. “It was summer. I would lay in our small apartment with the windows open to catch a breeze and I would smell alfalfa and I would go wacko,
Feickert Family Continued on Page 2