The Annual Colome Chili Cook-Off will take place Saturday, February 26th at the Colome American Legion from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. If one would like to compete in the event they can call Jeff Hrabanek at 605-840-4211.
Category Archives: News
Structure fire Sunday morning
Today, at approximately 10:35am, the Winner Volunteer Fire Department was called to a structure fire, West of Winner on 278th Avenue. The fire resulted in a total loss of the structure. The Witten Fire Department also assisted in the effort. Both the Winner and Witten Fire Departments were still on the scene this afternoon.
Lutheran Youth Fellowship in Gregory this Afternoon
The Lutheran youth fellowship in Gregory is hosting a “football party subs” fundraiser today. The subs will have turkey, ham, salami and cheese and come with a veggie toppings tray and a cookie or bar. 1-4 subs are 8 dollars each and 5 or more are 7 dollars each. Subs are available for pick up from St. John Lutheran church in Gregory between 12pm and 3pm Sunday. To place pre orders contact Kristy Ring at 605 831 9295.
Job Openings at Winner Circle Feed Yard
Winner Circle Feed Yard is looking to fill full and part time positions with their thriving commercial cattle finishing operation near Winner, S.D. They offer competitive wages and company cost sharing of group health/live/vision and dental insurance. To apply one can call Casey Heenan at 605-842-3100.
B&F Variety Valentines Day Sale in Gregory
B&F Variety on Main Street in Gregory, S.D. currently has a wide selection available for Valentine’s Day including a wide variety of chocolates, candies, cards, and toys. They also have all fabric 20% off through Monday, February 14th.
21st Heart City Bull Bash Taking Place this Saturday
The 21st Annual Heart City Bull Bash will take place this Saturday, February 12th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Main Street in Valentine, Nebraska. The event will include pens of bulls and heifers from the area’s top producers as well as a variety of vendors. Go to bullbash.net for more details.
Silver Dollar Bar Fundraising Dart Tournament March 5th
There will be a dart tournament on March 5th at the Silver Dollar Bar in Chamberlain. It’s a fundraiser for Deb Byre and proceeds will help with her efforts to fight breast cancer. Registration starts at 12 p.m. and darts start at 1 p.m. There will be a free will donation taco bar along with door prizes and raffles.
S.D. Farmers Union Recognizes Dist. 16 & 19 Legislators for Support of Agriculture
South Dakota’s largest agriculture organization recognizes legislators David Anderson and Marty Overweg for their dedicated support of South Dakota’s No. 1 industry of agriculture. South Dakota Farmers Union (SDFU) presented the awards February 7 in the Capitol Rotunda during Farmers Union Legislative Day.
“Agriculture is the backbone of our state’s economy and yet in Pierre only a handful of legislators are actively engaged in production agriculture,” said Karla Hofhenke, Executive Director of South Dakota Farmers Union. “We appreciate David and Marty’s dedication to the family farmers and ranchers who raise the crops and livestock which fuels this industry.”
During the 2022 SDFU Legislative Day, Sombke will join with many South Dakota family farmers and ranchers who will take the opportunity to visit with legislators about the issues and policy that impact them. Farmers Union policy is developed and voted on by its more than 20,000 members.
“Yes, our organization has a lobbyist who represents our policy in Pierre. But it’s the personal stories that legislators want to hear. How exactly does this bill impact my family’s life on our farm?” explained Doug Sombke, President of South Dakota Farmers Union and a fourth-generation Conde farmer. “But Farmers Union Legislative Day is only one day of session. This is the reason we appreciate David and Marty and all the other representatives who understand agriculture and the concerns family farmers and ranchers have.”
More about District 16 Representative David L. Anderson
When Gov. Dennis Daugaard called David L. Anderson in 2013 and asked if he would serve District 16, Anderson said, “yes.” He also shared his philosophy on serving with Daugaard.
“I told him, ‘I don’t have any axes to grind. I think the state is run extremely well. What I do enjoy and hope to do through service, is work to find solutions to problems,’” Anderson said.
Eight years later, Anderson says when it comes to solving problems in Pierre, he calls on his experience as a fifth-generation farmer and small business owner. He also owns and operates Canton Insurance Agency.
“Farmers do not do the same thing every day,” Anderson said. “Farmers have to figure out how to do all the different things that they do. And their success is due to time management and knowledge of many different aspects of farming.”
Anderson raises crops on his family’s farm which is located between Beresford and Canton. “Farming is my passion. It is what I grew up doing and I love it.”
Growing up, in addition to farming, Anderson’s dad, O.L. “Larry” Anderson, also served as a legislator. “I would go to Pierre and visit him from time to time and I found myself following the legislative process.”
Because of his agriculture background, Anderson says other legislators come to him with questions. “This is what makes a citizen legislature work. We are able to call on our career backgrounds to make decisions and answer questions for other legislators.”
He adds that legislators are always seeking more information so they can make the best decisions for South Dakotans. He encourages citizens to make time to visit with their legislators and share their story.
“When someone takes the time to come to Pierre, that tells me they have invested themselves in the issue,” Anderson explained. “In-person is much more effective than email. I get hundreds of emails. And many are the same.”
Throughout his years of legislative service, Anderson has had the opportunity to be involved in projects he sees as instrumental in helping move South Dakota agriculture forward.
“Agriculture is the lifeblood of our small communities. And farming has certainly changed over time. I was very actively involved in the Raven Precision Ag facility at South Dakota State University and also the Poet Bioproducts Institute which is currently under construction” said Anderson, who is a 1978 graduate of SDSU. “The Bioproducts Institute will bring together students, industry experts and scientists from SDSU as well as the School of Mines and Technology to work together to come up with new opportunities for agriculture.”
More about District 19 Representative Marty Overweg
Every decision Marty Overweg makes as a legislator, he first asks himself this question. “How will this impact the next generation of agriculture?”
“It is all about working for the next generation involved in our No. 1 industry,” he said.
Overweg grew up in New Holland working for area farmers and helping out in his family’s livestock feed business. Today, he lives only three miles from where he was raised. He raised cattle for more than 20 years, and stayed involved in the family feed business, expanding its nutritional focus and locations. Today, Overweg Feed also serves livestock producers in the Wagner area as Wagner Feed Supply. Until recent years, Overweg also cared for a cow/calf herd.
He says that when he is in Pierre, before making decisions, he relies heavily on his daily interaction with livestock producers as well as his first-hand knowledge.
“There are just certain things you cannot understand unless you calved out a bunch of calves in a snowstorm,” he said. “And I am not alone. When it comes to those of us who have a production agriculture background, we work together – it doesn’t matter if we are Democrat or Republican – our focus is what is best for agriculture.”
Overweg brings up the fact that what many citizens do not know is the fact that many times the Ag Committee is quite busy stopping bills that are brought in from outside interests and would be detrimental to South Dakota agriculture “Agriculture is under attack every day. Often someone will say, ‘introduce a bill that will help agriculture.’ To me, most of the time it is stopping a bill that will hurt agriculture,’” Overweg said. He goes on to explain. “It’s not that anyone will ever throw a monstrous bill out that says, ‘outlaw cows.’ But they will try to pass a series of bills that start nit picking at livestock producers’ rights.”
With so few legislators connected to agriculture, Overweg says he and the others who are, spend quite a bit of time providing information and answering questions. And again, every time, he says he is thinking about the future.
“I have five kids and 13 grandkids. All our children live in South Dakota. I want our children and grandchildren to be able to farm our family’s land when we are gone. When you make decisions this way, it does not matter what political party you are. You just do what is good for South Dakota.”
To learn more about South Dakota Farmers Union and the work the organization does to support family farmers and ranchers, visit www.sdfu.org.
The 6th Generation Farmer: SDSU Student Uses YouTube to Share about Agriculture around the World
For Carson Kahler, a senior agricultural systems technology student from Sherburn, Minnesota, agriculture has been his way of life since birth.
Being the sixth generation on his family’s corn and soybean operation, Kahler looks forward to following in the footsteps of those who cultivated the soil before him and sharing what that looks like with people across the globe.
“My family has been doing this for six generations now,” said Kahler. “Growing up, my brother and I would fight about who got to ride with our dad at the farm for the day. Every day after school, I would get off the school bus and do my homework as fast as I could so I could go out to the field.”
Getting Started
A few years ago, Kahler purchased a used drone from his cousin and, shortly after, his father encouraged him to use it to take footage of their family’s operation.
“My dad had the original idea,” said Kahler. “He told me I should take videos of our farming from year to year so that we can look back in the future and see how our operation was and I thought it was a cool idea.”
At first, Kahler’s videos were strictly comprised of drone footage that he posted to his YouTube channel to share with close friends and family members. However, that quickly changed when he posted a planting video in spring of 2018 and a harvest video later on that fall. Over the course of the next year, his harvest video received over 130,000 views.
“It was originally just something I was doing for fun, but those 130,000 views got me my first 1,000 subscribers,” said Kahler.
With his first few videos performing so well, Kahler realized he had something more in the works and decided he wanted to start a vlog – a video blog.
“I figured I would try it out,” said Kahler. “I had never done anything like it before and I was very uncomfortable in front of the camera, but I learned as I went, and every time I made a video, I learned things that I could improve on.”
His first vlog that really grabbed the attention of YouTubers was on July 26, 2019, and reached 46,000 views. A few weeks later, he shared a farm machinery tour video that received over 57,000 views, which encouraged him to keep producing the vlogs.
What started out as his personal YouTube channel evolved into what he called “Farm Country Living.” But, as his platform continued to grow in popularity and Kahler realized he wanted to take vlogging more seriously, he figured his channel needed a new, more relevant name. Therefore, to reflect his role on the farm, he named it the “6th Gen Farmer.”
Growing an Online Community
Without any prior video production or editing experience, Kahler had to do his research to teach himself the ways of vlogging.
“I’ve always watched other YouTubers, but little did I know, that when you tun on the camera, it is like giving a presentation to an auditorium, but you forgot your notecards,” said Kahler. “I really had to get myself used to that.”
Some of the biggest skills Kahler had to learn were video editing and content planning.
“I want to be sure I am filming what the viewers want to see,” said Kahler. “I always ask myself “what am I doing and why am I doing it?” But it is also important to have a sense of humor as well, and I think that is where I excel – when something goes wrong, I am not the type of person to get mad. Instead, I will laugh about it and learn from my mistakes.”
He also had to learn time management and how to create a balance between his work and filming for his vlog.
“When I am on the farm and taking video, I try to be as efficient as I can,” said Kahler. “I don’t want my filming to take precedence over what I am actually doing, so I have gotten very good at multitasking.”
Kahler says one of the things he enjoys most about his platform is interacting with the online community.
“I am here to teach others about agriculture, yet I have learned so much from other community members,” said Kahler. “I absolutely love answering questions and responding to comments.”
His broad audience includes viewers from several different countries ranging from 13 to 70 years of age.
“When I first started, I remember telling my family that it would be cool if I hit 10,000 subscribers,” said Kahler. “It ended up taking less than a year and that blew my mind.”
Kahler’s vlog covers a variety of topics – from machinery and maintenance to planting, harvesting and spraying both conventional and organic crops, he is now educating more than 13,000 subscribers around the world who tune in each week to learn more about what he is doing on his family’s farm.
His vlog has even gained the attention of some agricultural companies, landing him a paid sponsorship from Teucrium, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider focused solely on U.S. agriculture.
Growing His Platform
Because of his YouTube channel, Kahler travels home to Sherburn, Minnesota, nearly every weekend to film new content to show his viewers what is currently happening on their farm. When he returns to campus during the week, he usually spends between two to six hours editing the footage before posting the finished product. That way, viewers see his videos just three to four days after they are filmed.
Kahler has learned that posting his videos on a consistent basis greatly impacts his viewership and has made a goal to share one video each week.
“I always post my vlogs on Sundays,” said Kahler. “After I post a video, I check it a few minutes later and, usually, there are already a few hundred views.”
Kahler recognizes the importance of sharing his life on the farm and sees it as a means of bridging the gap between those who live and work in agriculture and those who are unfamiliar with the industry.
“I like to help those who haven’t had a chance to be around agriculture to understand what actually happens,” said Kahler. “Agriculture is always changing, what goes into our food is always changing and our practices are always changing, so I think it is so important that farmers have an outlet to connect with consumers. It is important that farmers are telling our story and helping our consumers to be knowledgeable about the food they eat, the fuel they burn and the real differences between organic and conventional farming. I think consumers should know how products are made and I am absolutely honored that people love to see what I do every week.”
As for the future of the 6th Gen Farmer, Kahler has no intention to stop making videos. He plans to graduate from SDSU in December of 2022, and until then, will continue to farm with his family, focus on his YouTube channel, spend time with friends and work as an intern at C&B Operations, a large midwestern John Deere dealership, during the summer of 2022.
Following graduation in December, Kahler hopes to pursue a career in the industry while staying actively involved on the farm.
“My great-great-great-grandpa started our operation, and the fact that my brother and I have the opportunity to help keep it going is really special,” said Kahler.
Gregory City Meeting Tomorrow Night
The Gregory City Council will hold their regular meeting on Monday, February 7th at 6:00 p.m. in the Gregory City Hall located at 120 W 6th Street. Please note the City of Gregory meets on the first and third Monday of each month.