South Dakota Farm and Ranch

SADDLE MAKING:

7

HOBBY TURNED FULL-TIME CAREER

PRESORTED STANDARD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 55 MITCHELL, SD

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE On the cover

Saddle Making Hobby turned full-time career 7

Cover Photo: Lonnie Smith, owner of Drifting Cowboy Saddle

Shop, cuts out the bars to the saddle tree for a saddle in his

workshop in Ree Heights. (Matt Gade / Republic)

Features

Flax Oil: Good for everyone

4

Milbank

National Grilling Month Changing bee practices

Mount Vernon

10 13

Publisher RO R Y PA L M Editor L U K E H AG EN

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Advertising Director LO R I E H A N S EN Layout Design JEN PH I L L I PS South Dakota Farm & Ranch is a monthly agricultural publication dedicated to informing South Dakota area farmers and ranchers about current topics, news and the future of agriculture. This publication fits the niche of our unique farmers and ranchers of South Dakota, and the diverseness we have in our state. Although the Missouri River divides our state, we are all South Dakotans and thank the land for supporting us each and every day.

You, our readers, may be livestock ranchers, or row crop farmers, and everywhere in between, however, we all have a common goal in mind. We feed and support the growing population and want the next generation to find that same love, dedication and support that agriculture can offer.

We’re all South Dakota farmers and ranchers, and with this publication, we want to showcase your successes, new technology, upcoming events and much more.

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JULY 2017 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 3

M

ILBANK – Flaxseed is growing in popularity and is boosting business for one South Dakota

company.

As more people across the state learn about the benefits of the “health conscious” flaxseed, Stengel Oils, in Milbank, is seeing the impact. The business, created in 2005, began when Cal Stengel learned how to create flaxseed into oil in Washington.

He and his family moved to Washington in 1998 when Stengel worked at a facility that produced flax oil. While there, he learned the process and he then moved to South Dakota in 2005 to create Stengel Oil. Approximately only 18,000 acres of flaxseed were harvested within South Dakota in 2015, according to the state Department of Agriculture. Flaxseed grows best on marginal and drier land, making the Dakotas a popular planting site, according to Stengel.

But despite the small amount of harvested acres across South Dakota, the seed is growing in popularity.

“It’s one of these health conscious items,” Stengel said. “The omega-3 is what is really important.”

Stengel said humans cannot produce omega-3, requiring the body to find alternative ways to receive the fatty acid.

But, according to Stengel, flax oil contains 55 to 60 percent of omega-3, making it a “good source.”

Today, flaxseed is often used to produce oil for human consumption, Stengel said.

“When it first came out, a lot of people said you couldn’t drink flax oil but you can because it hasn’t been exposed to high temperature and high pressure,” Stengel said.

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There are two different products Stengel Oil makes for human consumption. Stengel Oils markets a flax oil and a flax oil with lignan, which is plant materials, added back to the product. The lignan adds fiber to the oil.

The oil can be mixed into food such as smoothies, as long as it is kept cold.

“It’s not a cure-all but (omega-3) is needed in every cell of the body, so it helps out with a lot of deficiencies in the diet.

Especially with joints, arthritis and stiff movements for both humans and pets,” Stengel said.

WORKING WITH OUT-OF-STATE PRODUCERS Soon, omega-3 enhanced eggs could be seen on more grocery store shelves with the help of flax oil.

Stengel Oils has been working with poultry producers in Indiana and Pennsylvania to bring these eggs to the market using the flax oil made in its facility.

To create more omega-3 eggs, chickens must have the flax oil as an integral part of their diet throughout their lifetime, Stengel said.

To make flax oil, Stengel uses a cold process, meaning the oil never goes above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. It is kept between 85 and 105 degrees as it passes through presses at 60 rotations per minute.

Two products are created as the seeds go through the press: flax oil and flax meal.

The flax oil is then further filtered down to one-tenth of a micron and the pure flax oil is stored into tanks until ready to be sold as bulk or retail.

PETS BENEFIT FROM FLAX DIET Flax oil can also prove beneficial for pets,

and Stengel has been producing flax oil for animals for the past six years.

Sammy’s Shiny Coat, the pet flax oil product, is a human grade oil that can be put on any pet food as a top dressing.

“You don’t have to change their diet or change what they are eating,” Stengel said of pets. “So it as a top dressing and the pet is getting the benefits of the omega-3.”

But the amount given to each animal is dependent on the size.

Sandy Christenson, advertising and promotion at Stengel Oils, recommended that an animal gets a half teaspoon of oil for every 10 pounds the animal weighs.

“The fur will start to be noticeably softer,” she said.

Besides dogs and cats, the flax oil can also be ordered in bulk sizes for equine and poultry.

“Any animal can use it (flax oil). It helps with the coat, hairballs, muscles, allergies and the immune system,” Christensen said.

Animals can also receive the benefits of omega-3 through the flax oil byproduct, flax meal.

According to Stengel, there is 12 to 15 percent omega-3s left in the flax meal pellets as it comes out of the presses.

Leaving some oil still in the meal makes the byproduct an “excellent animal feed,” he said.

After the pellets come out of the presses, it is ground up and put into tote bags to be sold in bulk for animal feed.

But as the company looks to the future, Christensen said there’s room for expansion for other animal feed and research opportunities.

“There is so much potential in flax oil and it’s just beginning,” Christensen said.  001602822r1

Flax Oil :

Milbank-based company seeing impacts of ‘health conscious’ product

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SADDLE MAKING:

HOBBY TURNED FULL-TIME CAREER

BY MERCEDES LEMKE South Dakota Farm & Ranch PHOTOGRAPHY FOR SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH

R

Continued on page 9

Main Photo: Lonnie Smith is the owner of Drifting Cowboy Saddle Shop in Ree Heights.

(Matt Gade / Republic) ---------------Left: A saddle made by Lonnie Smith for the Fulton Family to present to the South Dakota High School Rodeo State Timed Event Champion held back on Sunday June 18th. (Photo Courtesy of Lisa Fulton)

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EE HEIGHTS – Lonnie Smith’s duplicator saw screamed as it trimmed an 8- by 4-foot cut of wood.

This process created three wooden bars to be used to create a saddle tree, or a frame around which a saddle is built. It’s the first building block for a customordered saddle Smith designs out of his Ree Heights saddle shop.

It started in 1982, when Smith was home from college and living on his family’s ranch north of Fort Thompson.

“The social life on the ranch was pretty minimal,” Smith said.

So he opted to spend his evenings working with family friend, Pat Fogg, making a saddle. That spring he learned leather work, hardware work and woodwork.

Those skills came in handy 29 years later after his hobby turned into a full-time career, when he opened Drifting Cowboy Saddle Shop in 2011.

“I’ve always said it was a nice hobby, but I’d never do it for a living,” Smith said with a laugh.

For Smith, saddle making was a hobby that kept him busy when he wasn’t working, but in 2001 he started pursuing it as a career.

At the time Smith was working in Nebraska while his wife was working and living in the Highmore area. To get his family under one roof, he moved back to South Dakota and started pursuing saddle making along with other jobs. It took nearly 10 years until it became a full-time gig.

Besides taking on a new business in 2011, Smith also took on the woodworking portion of his operation, meaning he began making his own saddle trees. Before, he bought all of his saddle trees from a craftsman. As time went on the wait time for the saddle trees

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Continued from page 7

proceeded to get longer. At one point he was waiting over year to get the saddle trees.

So, he decided to make his own trees from cottonwood or black hills pine.

The best type of wood pieces have few notches or inclusions, with none near the waist of the bar or the narrowest part, Smith said.

“You do the best you can selecting (wood). I really rely on my covering,” Smith said. “Back in the days of rawhide. The covering was the strength.”

And Smith sticks to that same philosophy today.

Smith still makes sure the saddle trees are sturdy by drilling and glueing all the dowels

into place “like a furniture builder would do,” he said, adding fiberglass pieces over the top of the saddle tree and finishing with a resin. Using all of the these materials “make it durable,” he said.

After the saddle trees are made and dried, the saddles start to take shape as Smith adds leatherwork to the trees.

Leather has different characteristics depending on the placement of the location, Smith said. The back and rear are thicker and firmer, while the belly stretches more. Each pattern is placed in the best location for that piece.

This technique, Smith said, was passed down Continued on page 11

Top left photos: A saddle waiting to be repaired sits in Drifting Cowboy Saddle Shop in Ree Heights; Smith lines up the bars to a a saddle tree for a saddle bronc in his shop in Ree Heights; Main photo: Lonnie Smith, owner of Drifting Cowboy Saddle Shop, likes to use leather when he makes saddles; Bottom right photos: Smith marks the part he needs to cutoff for his bar to a saddle tree in his workshop; Smith shows where the style, front part of a saddle, and the cantle, where the rider will sit, goes on the bars as part of the saddle tree. (Matt Gade / Republic)

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Continued from page 9

from Fogg. And while he learned a lot from Fogg, Smith said it still takes time to become comfortable with tools and leather.

“I’ve heard other people say you gotta make about 100 (saddles) before you get a routine,” Smith said.

Each piece of leather cut is a “rough cut.” But once the leather is wet, Smith shapes, trims and sews each piece as needed to create the customordered saddles.

After it is all sewn together the saddle will be ready to go. For Smith, the best part of the job is seeing the saddle being used.

“The best decorations are butt prints in the seat and rope burns on the horns,” he said.

LOW-TECH CUSTOM SADDLE MAKING A 1900s Landis 1 sewing machine sits in Smith’s shop as a remembrance.

Smith used the old machine for 35 years to sew the pieces of leather, but it has been out of commission since March after he bought a new machine.

“You have to have a feel for it,” Smith said when talking about using the old machine.

Near the old sewing machine sits a drawdown horse made from old corral planks, which is used to hold the saddle tree in place while the leather is being added. It has been with Smith since his days of working with Fogg in 1982.

While memories of the past loom within the shop’s walls, Smith keeps working toward the future.

Each order Smith receives is kept neatly in a spiral notebook. As orders come in, Smith works to create each saddle by hand. The current wait list for a saddle is six months but the wait has been as long as two years.

Despite the wait his customers keep coming back.

“I have been blessed with business from Montana to Texas and from Oregon to Florida,” Smith said.

One of those customers is Lisa Fulton and her family. The Fultons have known Smith for more than 20 years, as Smith has made 10 saddles for the family, according to Fulton.

The family keeps going back to Smith because of his ability to customize the saddles for the horses, Jared and Jake Fulton said.

Smith also makes all of the family’s leather work from headstalls, breastcollars and reins.

One of the most recent saddles made for the family was a memorial saddle in honor of Brian Fulton. It was awarded to the timed event men’s or women’s champion at the South Dakota High School Rodeo Finals in June.  Lonnie Smith, owner of Drifting Cowboy Saddle Shop, stands in the doorway to the workshop which is right across the street from his shop in Ree Heights. (Matt Gade / Republic)

JULY 2017 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 11

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Bee management practices continually changing

BY MERCEDES LEMKE South Dakota Farm & Ranch PHOTOGRAPHY FOR SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH bee mortality throughout his 1,200-hive operation. But to combat these stressors, each of his hives are strategically placed in his 41 state-registered locations throughout South Dakota in Davison, Hand, Hutchinson, Turner, Aurora and Faulk counties.

The hives are kept in groups of 32 to 40 in an area less than one-half acre. This allows him to manage the bees himself, along with his employees.

Determining locations for each of his hives has become a challenge as “farming practices have changed a lot,” Schroeder said.

Ideally, the hives would be located around clover crops, such as alfalfa, and have a small amount of row crops within 1½ miles from the hives’ location.

Over the last two years, he has tried to set hives in locations that keep the bees away Continued on page 14

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M

OUNT VERNON – If there’s a stressor on Alan Schroeder’s beehives, he knows what to do.

Schroeder, of the Mount Vernon Bee Company and president of the South Dakota Beekeepers Association, has learned a few tricks in the past 42 years about maintaining his hives against varroa mites, pesticides and viruses.

These stressors have contributed to

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Continued from page 13

from row crops, which is “hard to do in South Dakota,” he said.

This is to detract the likeliness of neonicotinoids or other chemical being found in the pollen and brood.

After federal researchers came and performed a study on Schroeder’s bees, he found he had 17 different chemicals, which he did not introduce, within the brood and pollen.

While these chemicals may not impact the bees during the summer months as the insects are pollinating and making honey, it can have significant impact during the winter dormant season. This is when the bees feed on their stored pollen.

“When all the bees are in one area and they are not active it’s just feeding grounds for anything that can get to them,” Schroeder said.

MORTALITY RATES HIGH IN WINTER SEASON Since there is less activity within the hive during the winter months, Schroder said this is when most of his losses occur, with mortality rates as high as 40 percent.

“During the summer they are reproducing bees faster than the mites or any predator are producing. It’s when the (queen bee) starts shutting down and quits laying in the fall when the bees dwindle down,” Schroeder said. “ …

That just makes the mites able to get to them a lot easier.”

For the winter months the bees are sent to California to pollinate almond trees, which Schroeder has done for more than 20 years. For these few months, the bees do not produce any honey and Schroeder drives to California four times each winter to feed the bees liquid sucrose.

And in California, there are also more hives in a condensed area, leading to the spread of diseases.

“There are thousands upon thousands of hives within a mile of where you are at so if there are any diseases or viruses anything like that. You can pick them up from somebody else,” Schroeder said.

But the lesser activity and condensed areas of California are not the only killers. Viruses and diseases can also be carried and transferred through varroa mites.

To combat those losses, Schroeder started administering probiotics to his bees in the spring before honey production and in the fall after the honey has been taken off. Adding this to his management program has helped with viruses, Schroeder said.

Also in early April, Schroeder “splits” his bee hives to make up for his losses that are obtained over the winter months. He buys new queen bees and adds bees from an established hive, splitting between 500 and 600 hives each spring.

“I’m just making up the losses basically. I’m not enlarging my operation by any,” Schroeder said.

The hives take approximately six weeks to become productive and the goal is to have the bee numbers back up before the winter months begin again, Schroeder said.

Since his bees are harder to manage while they are in California and diseases can be more likely, Schroeder has since been considering wintering the bees in South Dakota.

“Rumor has it that some of the people that winter them here seem to get away from that (diseases and viruses) because their bees aren’t exposed to that,” Schroeder said. “So I think I might try that and see how it goes.” 

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