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Check out this video: Matt Boeve represents the third generation cattle producer on land near Steen. He’s shown here on his parents’ farm, with his farm visible just down the road. Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Boeves switch to complete containment to expand herd By Julie Buntjer | jbuntjer@dglobe.com STEEN — G&A Farms, Inc., of rural Steen is a third generation beef cattle operation started by Arthur Boeve in the late 1950s. Second generation owners, Glen and Ann Boeve, created the incorporation and gave the farm its name, and third generation owner Matt Boeve continues to grow and expand the operation. Comprised of adjoining farms — Glen and Ann’s to the west and Matt and Kayla’s to the east — the operation has a capacity for up to 2,500 head of cattle and 8,000 hogs, with Matt and Glen farming about 2,700 acres of tillable land. “I’ve known since I was seven that I wanted to farm,” said the younger Boeve, who earned an associate’s degree in agriculture from South Dakota
State University in 1998. “We’ve been fortunate to be able to grow land base and livestock base here.”
farmland, with a lot of it discharged in July, when Mother Nature tends to deliver less rainfall to growing crops.
The farm’s most recent expansion was five years ago, when the Boeves went to complete containment — a requirement to be able to expand the number of animal units. All runoff is collected in lagoons — one on each farm — with underground pipes connecting the two lagoons to manage water levels.
“It doesn’t take a lot of set-up,” Boeve said of the system. “If it’s a perfect day, you just flip a switch. It’s programmable, so we can put on twotenths to three-tenths or up to an inch (of water). It’s so handy, and as far as being a good neighbor, if it’s windy you don’t run it.”
“With as much water as we’ve had the last two years, it’s been challenging,” Boeve said. “They’re going to take some maintenance in the next couple of years to get them back to capacity.”
Also somewhat unique to the Boeve operation is that most of the nine cattle pens in the operation have a concrete base. Those that don’t have dirt mounds.
Water from the lagoons is pumped onto approximately 60 acres of adjacent
“For taking care of the cattle — cleaning and bedding, we want to make them as comfortable all year long,” he said. “We CONTINUED ON PAGE 93
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