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A Supplement to the Star Shopper
WORK HORSE HOBBY Carlson spent first Social Security check on gentle giants By DIANE LEUKAM Staff Writer PENNOCK – If anyone is looking for Curtney Carlson of Pennock, chances are they’ll ind him tending to his animals. Even though he’s been a dairy farmer for most of his life, and even in his retirement helps on the family farm, the animals he now cares for most are of a different variety – horses. The day Curtney received his irst Social Security check at age 65, he had a surprise for his wife, Louise: a trip to Granite Falls. “I had an older friend, Newell Nielsen, that lived by Eagle Lake,” Curtney said. “I used to go visit him and we’d go to horse sales; I told him I was looking for a team of work horses. One day he called me up and said I should go over to Granite Falls. He knew a guy who had a team.” Unbeknownst to Louise, even though the two had known one another since childhood, Curtney had been longing to have horses of his own.
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Friday, Oct. 6, 2017 • Edition 14
“I said ‘how come you never told me you wanted work horses,’ and he said, ‘Why talk about something you can never have?” Louise said. “All my money went into the dairy,” Curtney said. His longing to own his own team of work horses began early. Living only miles from each other as kids, Curtney and Louise (Ruter) attended country school together, walking each day from opposite directions. “He had a mile and I had two-anda-half miles. He didn’t wait for me at the corner,” Louise said. “He was a good friend of my brother, George.” Louise had 11 siblings, and Curtney knew them well. In those days, Louise’s brothers would ride bareback on the work horses to visit the Carlsons, and Curtney admits he was jealous. Though his family had Shetlands while he grew up, the work horses were much more fascinating. He did buy a couple of ponies for their sons, Chad and Carl, when they were young. “I bought a couple at a sale when the kids were little – one was a Welsh and one was half Arab. I bid a couple times,” Curtney said. “I stopped bidding and the kids were looking up at me.” He couldn’t say no. The kids rode them until they started sports, and that was pretty much the end of it.
Curtney Carlson with two of his Belgian work horses, Millie (left) and Gus.
Curtney’s love of horses didn’t wane, so when that irst retirement check came in many years later, he igured the time had come. That was 13 years ago. That day, he brought home Macy and Lily, two Belgian workhorses. They were 4 and 5 years old at the time, and already trained for pulling. “We got there and there were all these horses,” Louise said. “I asked him, what in the world are you gonna do
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PHOTOS BY DIANE LEUKAM
Curtney Carlson waters his Belgian mares, Macy and Lily, at the Kandiyohi County Fair Aug. 12 in Willmar.
HUMANELY RAISED
Zachman, Meyer hog farming neighbors By ELIZABETH HOAG Staff Writer BELGRADE – Sows and piglets oink and squeal on the Al Meyer and Bruce Zachman farms. The neighbors farm independently of one another, yet share a common purpose in their hog operations. One could say they are very different from today’s typical hog farmers, in that they are contracted to raise their a n imals m u c h like their g r a n d p a rents did. B o t h men grew up on dairy and hog farms and continue to raise hogs as
a hobby. “I started raising hogs full time five years ago after I retired from 35 years of bridge construction work,” Zachman said. “Raising hogs keeps me busy.” Meyer agreed. “I always enjoyed taking care of my parents’ hogs when I was younger and after I sold my cows in 2013, I have more time to focus on my sows,” Meyer said. “It also helps that I have a neighbor who raises hogs. It makes it easier.” Meyer owns 1,000 acres of land, some of which he plants and harvest crops on with his brother, Gary, and sister-inlaw, Kym Meyer. The leftover acreage he uses to raise hogs and a small herd of steers. “Spring and fall get pretty busy planting and harvesting, so my sows only farrow twice a year,” he said. “I typically have 120 hogs at one time, but it depends. When my sows or gilts are farrowing, after I could have up to 150 pigs at one time because of the increase in piglets.” Zachman, who owns 430 acres – 300 of which are tillable – rents out the majority of his land. He houses pigs, chickens and Labrador retrievers on his land. “My operation is pretty low key,” he said. “The chickens free roam, my dogs think they are pig-herding animals and my 70-100 hogs walk in and out of buildings, free to walk wherever they want
PHOTO BY ELIZABETH HOAG
Al Meyer (left) and Bruce Zachman stand in front of Meyer’s barn on his hog farm outside of Belgrade. The two neighbors raise hogs for Niman Ranch.
within a fenced area.” Meyer and Zachman work with a company called Niman Ranch, through which they contract their hogs. Even though Meyer’s and Zachman’s farming systems are different, they have to follow strict guidelines to comply with the company’s rules and regulations to ensure the hogs they butcher are humanely cared for from birth to slaughter. “Our hogs cannot be kept in cages, crates or attached to tie stalls,” Zachman said. “They have to be free to do what they want.”
The organization’s mission, humane but not organic, is to improve the lives of farm animals in food production by driving consumer demand for what they feel are kinder and more responsible farm animal practices. “Every two months a field agent comes out to inspect our operations to make sure everything is up to par,” Meyer said. The two neighbors also have to fol-
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