Country
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Friday, June 7, 2019 • Volume 7, Edition 8
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Her place ON THE FARM
PHOTOS BY DIANE LEUKAM
Abby Gierke takes a break from planting soybeans May 14 near Westport, where she farms with her mother, Pam Gierke.
Gierke fast tracks through college to begin career in the country By DIANE LEUKAM Staff Writer WESTPORT – May 14 was warm and sunny as Abby Gierke maneuvered her 8690 Massey Ferguson tractor in a field near Westport. Inside the cab, she watched the monitors, buttons and dials as she planted soybeans on land she runs with her mom, Pam Gierke. The day before, she planted her first field of soybeans just across the gravel road, finishing up at 1 a.m. “I always knew I would end up doing this someday, but I always thought it would be when my dad was 60 years old and I already had a life,” she said. “I just didn’t think it would be happening this early.” The 21-year-old graduated in December from South Dakota State University with an animal science major with an industry base, along with minors in ag-business and ag-marketing. Her four-year degrees were achieved in just two-and-a-half years, and the young woman is on a fast track into farming. The trajectory of her life was not necessarily altered, but was rocket-launched
on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. After a long weekend of dirt-car racing with her dad, Bob Gierke, that Friday and Saturday, and a trip to the state fair on Sunday with her mom, Gierke was back at school in Brookings. She was doing chemistry homework at 10:30 a.m. when she noticed she had three missed calls from her younger brother, Ryan. Thinking it was weird, she called him back to learn the he and his twin sister, Robyn, along with a farm employee, were following an ambulance to Glenwood. Inside the ambulance was their father. At the time, Pam and another daughter, Katelyn, were in Duluth spending time together before Katelyn’s scheduled ninemonth mission trip with a departure date the following week. During the process of the family traveling toward the hospital and gathering together, the worst was confirmed. Bob Gierke, husband and father, had passed away from heart failure at age 48. “It kind of shocked everybody because we weren’t expecting it; it was the start of pumping season and everything was getting busy after the summer,” Gierke said. “I came home and stayed home for two-and-a-half weeks and then went back to school. When my dad passed I
This month in the
COUNTRY
Sitting at her desk May 22 at Gierke Farms in Westport, Abby Gierke is a management trainee for the hog operation.
kicked it in high gear and it was like, ‘ok I can do it, I can get it done.’ I felt at the time there wasn’t a purpose for me to stay home because I didn’t know how to do anything. I still came home every weekend but I really didn’t know my place yet on the farm.” Management trainee Whenever a farmer is lost, the farming must go on and for the Gierkes that held true. At Gierke Farms, Pam was always in charge of the sow operation separated into three sites. One site is home to
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2,500 sows in a farrow to wean facility, one is a nursery site and the other a finishing site. Several other sites are rented to raise pigs. Bob managed a trucking operation along with Pam, took care of the crops and managed a manure pumping business. Since his passing, the manure pumping business has been sold and the trucking is for the most part used for hauling
GIERKE continued on page 2
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