Category Archives: News

News, Story

Chamberlain City Meeting

The Chamberlain City Commission will meet tomorrow (Monday, October 18th) at 6:00 p.m. at the Chamberlain City Offices located at 715 North Main Street in Chamberlain. Please note the Chamberlain City Commission holds meetings the first and third of every month unless otherwise noted.

 

 

News, Story

Holiday Preview Event in Valentine

The Valentine Holiday Preview is set for Sunday, November 21st from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Santa will be at Viaero from 1:00 to 4:00
p.m.  The Valentine Chamber will have the Holiday Punch Card promotion as well. Shoppers can pick up their cards at any participating location, and then proceed to each location on the card to get their stamp or mark. They will have all week to get their card filled, and then turn them in at any of those locations for a chance to win $500 in Chamber Bucks! Plans are also in the works to have Christmas carolers scattered around town.

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Farmers Union Celebrates Perkins County Ranch Family

 Donald Melling grew up farming and custom harvesting with his dad, Donald.
“We started right after spring planting. We’d get stuff ready and head to Johnson, Kan. We went from there to Interior and Wall, S.D.,” Donald Jr. recalls. “When we came home, it was just in time to jump right into the combine and harvest our own fields.”
The last year they custom harvested, Kolson was 5. Now Donald Jr. and LeiLani’s oldest son is 16.
“I didn’t want to go anymore, and my dad was dealing with some health issues,” Donald Jr. explains.
Instead, Donald Jr. decided to focus his time and invest his energy taking care of his and LeiLani’s cattle and managing rangeland and crop acres. In 1994, he accepted an opportunity to farm and ranch on land owned by a family he used to custom harvest for.
“The family was tired of hiring people to farm for them, so they asked us to take over. We own some of our own land, but rent most of it,” Donald Jr. says.
He explains that although he leases most of the acres he manages for crops and livestock, he cares for the land like it is his own. “The better you do it, the better it is for yourself and the better it is for everybody – with the hope that someday it might be yours.”
His efforts have not gone unnoticed. April 2021, he received a phone call from a landowner he has leased from for several years. “He said, ‘I know things are tough right now, so how about I draft a new contract and we lower the rent,’” Donald Jr. shares. “I bet our family has farmed this land for at least 50 years.
First my dad and uncle, and now my brother and I. It made me feel really good that they are aware of the situation, and they are looking out for us.”
The Melling family raises wheat, sunflowers and flax along with a Black Angus cow/calf herd west of Lodgepole, S.D.
“You have to have one to make the other work,” Donald Jr. says. “If the cows are good, generally the farming isn’t good. If the farming is good, generally the cows are not good.”
This growing season Perkins County, like most of South Dakota, has experienced drought conditions. So in most fields their bushels will be cut by more than 70 percent.
“It’s moisture dependent,” he says.
“Moisture and hail,” LeiLani adds. “We have hail every year.”
Even with the dry conditions, Donald Jr. remains cautiously optimistic. “We are trying to get flax to work because the market is really high right now and the price of sunflowers is astronomical.”
Moisture is not the only issue with flax. Kolby, 13, points out that the viny plant is difficult to combine. “Harvesting it is the worst,” he says. “It sticks to your reel. You pull it off and it does it again.”
Kolby and his brothers are actively involved in every aspect of their family’s operation. They each have an area they enjoy.
For Kolson, it’s raising the crops. “I enjoy watching what is happening throughout the year and see how it is going and see what we achieve at harvest.”
Kolby enjoys hay season. “It’s the shortest season. And I rake the hay.”
“He likes doing the hay because he gets to drive his favorite tractor, a 4440 John Deere,” Donald Jr. adds.
And for Kaison, 9, it’s riding in the combine. “Getting to talk to my brothers.”
“It’s fun watching them do all the stuff on the farm and learn,” says LeiLani.
LeiLani grew up in Hettinger, N.D. Although she wasn’t raised on a farm or ranch, she grew up around it. And she appreciates the lifestyle it provides.
“I like being out and away from people. The peacefulness of being out on the farm – our kids can experience things other people don’t get to experience. It’s a good experience and we can do it together,” she says.
During the work week, LeiLani spends most of her time working off the ranch for social services. “I work in town for health insurance,” she says.
Health insurance has been especially necessary in recent years. In 2017, Donald Jr. began experiencing multiple seizures. It took several tests and specialists before he was told he had Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
An unpredictable disease of the central nervous system, MS disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body.
“Neighbors said he went from 10-foot-tall and bullet proof to human in a day,” LeiLani explains.
Fortunately, with medication, Donald Jr. is able to slow the progression and today, although he doesn’t have the energy he once had, he feels mostly normal.
Without insurance, the medication would be cost-prohibitive.
LeiLani works in Hettinger, only a 30-minute drive from the ranch. A fact that also impacts where their sons attend school. The family lives in the Lemmon, S.D., school district, but the 50-minute drive made their decision to open-enroll in Hettinger easy.
“If you talk to anyone in this township, even though we are in Perkins County, S.D., most of us consider Hettinger, N.D., our hometown,” Donald Jr. explains.
Actively involved in their community, Donald Jr. and LeiLani make time to serve on the township board – Donald Jr. is the current president and LeiLani is clerk/ treasurer. LeiLani also serves as a BetterLife Board Member, and Donald Jr. is President of Perkins County Rural Water.
“In this small, rural community, you have to get involved because there are not enough people to go around,” LeiLani says.
News, Story

Registration Now Open for 2021 South Dakota Local Foods Conference

The annual South Dakota Local Foods Conference (SDLFC) is set for Nov. 4-6. A three-day, virtual event celebrating local food production and use in South Dakota, SDLFC invites all supporters of local food to attend and discuss presentations on specialty crop production, industry challenges, new technologies and opportunities, as well as local food projects happening in South Dakota and neighboring states.

This year’s SDLFC will feature two keynote speakers. On Thursday evening, Rob Hage of Blind Butcher Brewery Co. will tell the story of how his family unexpectedly turned a machine shed into a small-batch brewery.

On Friday the keynote speaker is Jean-Martin Fortier, a farmer, educator and award-winning author of the best-seller “The Market Gardener- A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming.” Fortier is a recognized authority on small-scale organic vegetable production whose work has inspired hundreds of thousands to embrace a vision of agriculture that is human-scale, ecological and profitable.

Two tracks of breakout sessions will be offered during the conference on topics including: agritourism, farm to school, South Dakota food cottage laws, integrated pest management, cover crops, food preservation, pricing and budgeting, chickens and eggs, and more.

The North Central Region-Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NCR-SARE) Farmers Forum is a traveling annual event giving farmers, ranchers, researchers and others the chance to share information about sustainable agriculture practices with a national audience.

The forum is scheduled for Thursday evening. These presentations focus on research, demonstration and education projects that promote profitable practices that are good for the environment and community. The projects highlighted in these presentations and the Farmers Forum are funded by grants from NCR-SARE, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded program that supports and promotes sustainable farming and ranching by offering competitive grants and educational opportunities.

Registration is open now until Nov. 1, with tickets available for $35. The first 100 registrants can request a free goodie box, which will include a book published by SARE, an event program and other sponsored gifts.

To register for the South Dakota Local Foods Conference, visit the Eventbrite Ticketing Page (eventbrite.com/e/160201106823) or find the link on the South Dakota Specialty Producers Association page (sdspecialtyproducers.org).

The SDLFC is hosted by a collaboration of partners including the South Dakota Specialty Producers Association, South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension, Dakota Rural Action, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of South Dakota, Sicangu Community Development Corporation Food Sovereignty Initiative, Bear Butte Gardens, Sturgis Chamber of Commerce, the Wizipan Leadership and Sustainability Initiative and Lakota Youth Development.

Event sponsors include NCR-SARE, SD-SARE, NRCS, Monument Health, Xanterra, the South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, and support by the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program at the USDA.

Direct any questions to conference organizers at SDSPAinfo@gmail.com or 605-681-6793. To join the conversation, visit South Dakota Local Foods on Facebook (facebook.com/SouthDakotaLocalFoods).

News, Story

SDSU Swine Day to Celebrate Swine Education and Research Facility’s Fifth Anniversary

South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension will commemorate the fifth anniversary of the SDSU Swine Education and Research Facility at this year’s Swine Day. The annual event will be held at McCrory Gardens in Brookings on Tuesday, Nov. 2.

“The SDSU Swine Education and Research Facility continues to play an integral role in exposing students from South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and surrounding states to real-world swine industry teaching and research experience,” says Ryan Samuel, Assistant Professor and SDSU Extension Swine Specialist. “Swine Day is an opportunity for producers, allied industry members and stakeholders to get an update on the latest groundbreaking research being conducted at the swine units and connect with these future industry members.”

The event begins at 9 a.m. CDT with a poster session highlighting graduate research projects from the past year. Attendees are invited to enjoy a continental breakfast and visit with graduate students about their projects. The formal program will follow at 10 a.m.

Dr. Steve Meyer, Partners for Production Agriculture, is this year’s keynote speaker and will deliver an engaging presentation on swine industry economic data and analyses. Meyer has worked in the hog industry in a number of roles. As Vice President of Pork Analysis for EMI, he conducted ongoing analysis of hog and pork markets. As President of Paragon Economics, which he founded, he monitored and analyzed cattle, beef and poultry markets. Prior to Paragon Economics, Meyer served as Director of Economics for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC ) and the National Pork Board (NPB) from 1993 to 2002. In that capacity, he provided economic counsel to producers and NPPC/NPB staff while coordinating staff and consultants’ activities regarding meat industry production. Since leaving the NPB staff, Meyer has served as the organization’s consulting economist.

Below is the schedule for this year’s Swine Day:

  • 9 a.m. CDT — Continental breakfast and poster session with graduate students
  • 10 a.m. — Welcome, Dr. Joe Cassady, Professor and Head of the Department of Animal Science at SDSU
  • 10:15 a.m. — Keynote, Dr. Steve Meyer, Partners for Production Agriculture
  • 11:30 a.m. — African Swine Fever (ASF) surveillance and diagnostic updates from Dr. Jane Christopher-Hennings, Department Head, South Dakota Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (ADRDL)
  • Noon — Lunch
  • 1 p.m. — SDSU swine faculty and graduate student research program highlights
  • 2:55 p.m. — Discussion and closing

This event is open to the public. To register, please visit the SDSU Extension Events page.

For more information, contact Samuel at 605-688-5165 or Ryan.Samuel@sdstate.edu.

News, Story

Governor Noem Appoints First Members to Freedom Scholarship Board

Governor Kristi Noem today announced the appointment of five board members for the Freedom Scholarship endowment. The appointments set the stage for the state to begin delivering awards for its first-ever needs based-scholarship program. Dana Dykhouse, Miles Beacom, Phyllis Heineman, Diana Vanderwoude, and Chris Houwman will serve as the inaugural board members for the Freedom Scholarship endowment.

“I am grateful to these five South Dakotans for volunteering their experience and talents to help us launch the Freedom Scholarship. This endowment will allow us to tap into a network of students who are eager to excel in their studies and professional pursuits,” Governor Noem said. “This scholarship will ensure that South Dakota is securing some of the top talents in our colleges and universities. As more and more companies move to our state, we need today’s workforce ready to take on tomorrow’s jobs.”

Dana Dykhouse is the CEO of First PREMIER Bank and currently serves on the board of the Build Dakota Scholarship Fund. Miles Beacom is the CEO of PREMIER Bankcard and has a strong record of community service, including as a member of the Board of Governors of the University of South Dakota Beacom School of Business. Phyllis Heineman is a former educator, South Dakota State University alum, and has previously served on numerous boards, including the South Dakota Partners in Education. Diana VanderWoude has 40 years of experience in healthcare administration and education and is currently the Vice President of Learning, Education, and development for Sanford Health. Chris Houwman is CEO and President of Malloy and currently serves on the South Dakota Workforce Development Council.

The Freedom Scholarship endowment was created in the 2021 legislative session. Senate Bill 171 initially authorized $50 million to be allocated to the Freedom Scholarship endowment. In partnership with First Premier Bank, T. Denny Sanford, and other private donors, the fund is now at more than $175 million in commitments.

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First Annual Burke Lake Carnival October 24th

The first Annual Burke Lake Carnival will take place Sunday, October 24th from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Burke Lake camping area which is sponsored by the Gregory County Patriots. There will be games, bouncy houses, a barrel train, food, wagon rides and hiking.    This event is a free will donation for the Burke Lake Project.

News, Story

Ehlers presented 2021 Spirit of Dakota Award

The pioneer spirit and love for the land and its people has led to a lifetime of outstanding service for this year’s Spirit of Dakota Award winner, Angela Ehlers of Presho.
A fourth generation Lyman County resident and landowner, working and caring for the land has been a driving force throughout her life. Her journey began on a diversified crop and livestock operation located between Fort Pierre National Grasslands and Lower Brule (Jul Wicasa Oyate) Reservation. As a young girl she studied everything and shared her knowledge and ideas on any topic you would ask her about — literature, music, science, math, and of course, agriculture.
Her passion for the land led her to South Dakota State University where she earned a bachelor of science degree in two majors, commercial economics and ag business. Still on her bucket list is to go back and finish her master’s degree or become a master woodworker.
From the beginning, Ehlers knew she wanted to pursue a career in agriculture by planting her roots in South Dakota.
She has been Executive Director of the S.D. Association of Conservation Districts for 32 years, moving the association forward through challenging times.
“I will find a way” describes her dedication and commitment.
As Executive Director of SDACD, Ehlers works closely with over 60 conservation districts. During her tenure new coalitions have been formed, including the S.D. Agricultural Land Trust, the Grasslands Coalition, and the Soil Health Coalition. Her leadership reaches beyond the South Dakota borders as she works with various agencies to ensure the people of South Dakota have clean water and air, along with clean energy for a healthier environment.
As a longtime Lion’s Club member, Ehlers helped organize community projects including eye tests for youth, helping the chamber organize a successful annual farm and home show and build a basketball court in the city park.
Every Memorial Day weekend, she visits the city cemetery and Catholic cemetery to decorate graves of family members. A few years ago, she noticed many graves that had been neglected, so she gathered decorations for them and cleaned up the headstones.
When asked if she knew those buried there, her response is simple: “No, but somebody did and this person mattered to someone. They deserve respect and recognition for their contribution to this community and their family during their lifetime. It’s just the right thing to do.”
In the public policy arena, she provides support and leadership on drainage, conservation program funding, road funding and precision agriculture. She is a key supporter of activities for S.D. Ag Unity.
Through her vision to showcase all aspects of agriculture, AgFest has become an annual event held during the legislative session in Pierre.
Her leadership extends to the Avera St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation in Pierre, where a new cancer treatment center will make a lasting difference in. health care services in central South Dakota.
The former newspaper editor and publisher has served on various local boards, including city council, Medicine Cree Golf Course, and the Lyman County Ambulance District, with more than 40 years as an EMT (emergency medical technician).
She is a lifelong member of Christ the King Catholic Church in Presho.
News, Story

Governor Noem Appoints Brian Sandvig and Joy Nelson to Board of Technical Education

Governor Kristi Noem has appointed Brian Sandvig and Joy Nelson to the Board of Technical Education. Brian Sandvig will replace the late Bob Faehn and serve the remainder of Faehn’s term. Joy Nelson will replace Ed Mallett effective November 1, 2021.

“South Dakota’s technical colleges are among the very best in America thanks to the Board of Technical Education’s important work,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “I am confident that Brian and Joy will continue that legacy. Both have a long history of excellent work and service to our state, and I am thrilled that they’ve accepted the call to serve South Dakota students.”

Brian Sandvig currently works as the CFO at Valley Queen Cheese Factory in Milbank. He joined Valley Queen in 2007 after 10 years as a banker to dairies, farmers, and agribusinesses throughout South Dakota and neighboring states.

Sandvig serves on the South Dakota State Historical Society, South Dakota Junior Achievement, the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Grant County Economic Development Corp., and the City of Milbank Parks and Recreation. He teaches Sunday school at Living Word Lutheran Church and is an assistant coach on the Milbank High School football team.

Sandvig is a graduate of Aberdeen Central High School and the University of North Dakota. Brian and his wife, Janel, live in Milbank, South Dakota, and have three children, Jacob, Jack, and Ella. A photo of Brian Sandvig can be found here.

Joy Nelson is a lifelong resident of South Dakota. She began her career at Farmers and Merchants Bank in Watertown in the real estate and student loan lending departments. She entered the real estate business in 1982 and is the broker-owner of Haugan Nelson Realty, Inc. in Watertown. She has been engaged in residential, commercial, and agricultural real estate for the last 38 years.

Nelson is the founder and beneficiary of Joy Ranch outside of Watertown, a non-profit facility whose mission is to serve people with disabilities and medical issues, as well as veterans, through equine therapy. She was awarded the National ALDE Award in 2013 for philanthropy, the National Association of Realtors Good Neighbor Award in 2018, and is an inductee to the South Dakota Hall of Fame and the Watertown Hall of Fame.

Nelson currently serves on the Sanford Medical Center Board of Directors, the Lake Area Technical Institute Strategic Advisory Council as President, the Village Harmony Hill Board of Directors, the GLC Foundation Board of Directors, and is the past president of both the Prairie Lakes Hospital Foundation and the Lake Area Technical Institute Foundation.

Nelson currently resides at the Joy Ranch, where she enjoys spending time helping with the equine programs.