Rural Living

RURAL

Living

JU N E 20 19 EDITION

National

Dairy Month Supplement to the Saturday, June 15 Wadena Intercom and the Sunday, June 16 Perham Contact

RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

June is National Dairy Month, a time to celebrate all the contributions that the dairy industry makes to the world.

Kicked off by World Milk Day on June 1, National Dairy Month raises awareness of the nutritional benefits of not just milk, but also cheese, butter, ice cream, sour cream and all the many dairy products that dairy farmers churn out day after day.

According to the International Dairy Foods Association, National Dairy Month started out as National Milk Month in 1937 as a way to promote drinking milk. It was initially created to stabilize the dairy demand when production was at a surplus, but has now developed into a broader, more general celebration of dairy. The name changed to National Dairy Month after the National Dairy Council stepped in to promote the cause.

From calcium to potassium, dairy products contain nine essential nutrients that may help people better manage their weight and reduce their risk for high blood pressure, osteoporosis and certain cancers. Whether it's protein to help build and repair the muscle tissue of active bodies or vitamin A to help maintain healthy skin, dairy products are a natural nutrient powerhouse.

These reasons, and many more, are why dairy should be celebrated not just in June, but all year long.

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By Michael Johnson mjohnson@wadenapj.com The cows just seem happy at the Burke Dairy farm near Sebeka.

Waylon Jennings was singing away in the background recently as Brianna Burke paced up and down the milking parlor, with 170 cows ready to give milk.

“They’re happier with the music playing,” Brianna said while wiping manure away from a cow’s udders in preparation for the milker to be attached.

“They don’t like it when the music stops.”

The 17-year-old was just beginning the evening milking routine following the last day of school at Wadena-Deer Creek.

She’ll have the summer off before returning to classes for her senior year, but nobody’s really on summer vacation on the dairy farm. She’ll just be putting in even more hours as the main milker for the family’s 190-head dairy operation.

Brianna may not look like your average dairy farmer, if there is such a thing anymore, but she’s been doing this long enough to know how to handle what’s thrown at her. While she worked at the farm several years prior, she’s now entering into her second year here since her parents, Duane and Angie Burke, bought the farm and

named it Burke Dairy, Inc. On this particular day, Brianna was working on one side of the parlor while Spencer Erickson, a Sebeka teenager, was working the other. As they cleaned udders and did an initial squeeze for milk, they determined whether any cows had mastitis issues. If a cow does have an issue, the workers will milk the udders that are healthy first, than milk the mastitis udder into a bucket that goes to feed the hogs.

“I like it,” Erickson said of the work. “You get to work for your American dollar.”

Once milk started flowing, Brianna quickly evaluated which cows were letting down milk and which were holding back. Just a look at a portion of the cow was all she needed to know which cow it was, her name, how old she was, if she had a calf coming or if she was in heat.

Finding two in heat, that were not giving their milk, she jumped into action. With Spencer holding the cow in place, she injected a dose of oxytocin. Oxytocin can contract the smooth muscle cells of the mammary gland to induce milk let-down and, in this case, the cow offered up a helping of milk.

The two didn’t need to say much, they mostly used body

(Michael Johnson / Pioneer Journal)

Angie and Duane Burke, owners of Burke Dairy, Inc., north of Wadena. language or said just a few words under the roar of the fans blowing to keep the cows cool.

After that, it was back to business as usual, dipping, cleaning, milking, watching and analyzing the production of the cows. Brianna said she likes the work, but she grew up with it, so it’s just second nature to her now.

“Brianna’s been our milker since we started,” Angie said.

“I’d rather be doing milking than the calf chores,” Brianna

said.

Her sister, Haylee, 20, arrives to work at the farm each night in-between her other job in Park Rapids and going to college in Brainerd and Detroit Lakes.

Haylee is the designated namer of cows.

It’s quite a job, as she has a unique name for each animal.

Each cow has two tags: one has its name, the other, the name of its mother. Both mom and daughter all start with the same letter, another difficult task. It’s a

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Available at participating U.S. dealers. Prices and models may vary by dealer. Offers available on new equipment and in the U.S. only. Prices and savings in U.S. dollars.

3 Offer valid on purchases made between 1 May 2019 to 2 July 2019. Subject to approved installment credit with John Deere Financial, for agricultural, consumer, or commercial use only. No down payment required. $16.67 per month for every $1,000 financed. 0% APR is for 60 months only. Taxes, freight, setup and delivery charges could increase monthly payment. Available at participating U.S. dealers. Prices and models may vary by dealer. Offer available on new John Deere 1025R Compact Utility Tractors and in the U.S. only. Prices and savings in U.S. dollars.

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3 Offer valid on purchases made between 1 May 2019 to 2 July 2019. Subject to approved installment credit with John Deere Financial, for agricultural, consumer, or commercial use only. No down payment required. $16.67 per month for every $1,000 financed. 0% APR is for 60 months only. Taxes, freight, setup and delivery charges could increase monthly payment. Available at participating U.S. dealers. Prices and models may vary by dealer. Offer available on new John Deere 1025R Compact Utility Tractors and in the U.S. only. Prices and savings in U.S. dollars.

4 Offer valid for $500 off on all New John Deere 1025R Family Sub-Compact Tractors when purchased with two or more John Deere or Frontier Implements purchased from a participating John Deere dealer between 1 May 2019 to 2 July 2019. Some restrictions apply, prices and models may var y by dealer. This can be combined with the regular installment options. Prices and savings are in U.S. dollars. *Term limited to years or hours used, whichever comes first, and varies by model. See the LIMITED WARRANTY FOR NEW JOHN DEERE TURF AND UTILITY EQUIPMENT at JOHNDEERE.COM. John Deere, the leaping deer symbol, and green and yellow trade dress are trademarks of Deere & Company.

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RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

helpful way to remember who is who, though the milkers agree that they can tell you who is who without seeing any name tags at all.

The person who can tell you even more about these cows is Duane Burke, who has worked with cows most of his life and was proud to be able to finally buy his own dairy operation in June 2017.

“I’ve been doing it since I was little,” Duane said. “I started when I was like 6. I should be ready to retire soon then, right?”

He’s been involved in herdsman work since 1998.

He planned to milk with his grandfather but changes in his grandpa’s health meant he had to put his efforts elsewhere. His grandpa is now at Burke Dairy, helping Duane out.

Duane is passionate about the work of dairy farming and hopeful for the future of the dairy industry. That’s a big deal considering his family’s first full year of owning a dairy happened to be the worst financial year for dairy farms in 23 years. Milk prices were low and uncertainties over the Farm Bill and trade were high.

“We took over and then shortly after that it kind of crashed,” Duane said. “We had to kind of buckle down and do more ourselves.”

What helps is his brother

coming on full-time to handle the mechanical side of things, fixing the many pieces of machinery and equipment that need to operate 365 days a year. It also helps that Duane basically handles all the veterinary work himself, aside from a few situations that are outside of his range of expertise.

Duane does all the artificial insemination on the farm and performs the checks on the cows to see that the pregnancies are moving along.

He even serves other area farms with his artificial insemination services. It also helps having his girls and some other teenagers working with the herd.

“I guess you just make it work,” said Angie Burke, who works in Wadena as a loan officer at Mid-Central Federal Saving Bank. “You just budget for what needs to be done.”

Owning and operating a dairy farm is not an easy job as it is, and throwing in low milk prices doesn’t help. Even so, it’s the job that Duane finds most rewarding.

“It’s what we wanted to do,” Duane said. “A big chunk of it is being your own boss … and just the drive and passion of wanting to do that.”

Duane feels better about the future after the recent Farm Bill passed. A big help seems to be the higher pay if the price

of milk drops while the price of feed rises.

The family has plans of updating the buildings at the farm in the near future. While they could add in some robots, Duane enjoys milking each morning and the total of nine employees on the farm seem to enjoy their part of the operation, too. Being there to milk each day allows Duane to closely watch the health of the cows.

Keeping healthy, happy cows allowed the family farm to win the Land O’Lakes milk quality award for 2018.

“Good cell somatic and good components really helps on your milk check,” Burke said.

“We always have good cell somatic and always have good components. Right now we’re gaining about $3 a hundred weight between those two things.”

They had a 74,000 cell somatic average for 2018, which earned the recognition. While it looks good on paper and in the bank, it’s also a sign of a healthy herd — and thanks to a close family and some good music, happy cows.

The family farm is about 450 acres, with about 350 acres planted into corn and oats, which all comes back to feeding the herd. Milking takes place twice a day.

“We took over and then shortly after Living-June Dairy monthPioneerof Journal-Wadena that it kind crashed. We had to kind $169 June 15 of buckle down and do more ourselves.”

-Duane Burke, on running the farm during hard times

“I like it. You get to work for your American dollar.”

-17-year-old Brianna Burke, on dairy farming

(Michael Johnson / Pioneer Journal)

Milking master Brianna Burke measures out a dose of Oxytocin for one of the milk cows on a warm May night at Burke Dairy, Inc.

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RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

A different thrill

Local tractor puller says it's not for the faint of heart

By Carter Jones

cjones@perhamfocus.com Dave Romann is at a loss for words describing what it feels like being behind the wheel of his tractor, “Totally Tanked.”

“They really set you back. If you’ve been in any real fast car, that will throw you against the seat… like you’re trying to put a hickey in the seat,” Romann said.

Romann isn’t talking about any old John Deere around the family farm. His is a modified behemoth equipped with a V-12 tank engine that generates over 1,000 horsepower.

As members of the Red River Valley Pullers Association, Romann and his wife, Cheryl, travel all over the upper midwest competing in tractor pulls.

Tractor pulling started in the 1920s, but didn’t evolve into the

high octane spectacle it is now until the ‘70s and ‘80s.

The objective is to pull a weighted sled 310 feet in one of 10 different classes, ranging from 2WD pickup trucks, to open modified tractors with turbine engines.

Romann got his start in 1981 with an old farm tractor and a Ford engine.

“Nothing spectacular, just low dollar fun,” he said.

While he didn’t grow up farming, Romann was always mechanically minded, tinkering with his minibikes if they didn’t run.

Almost 40 years later, Dave and Cheryl own 11 different rigs that run in a number of different classes all summer long.

Romann calls the amount of rigs he owns “sickening,” but wouldn’t want to do anything else.

“I got a boat, but I use it

once or twice a year,” he said.

“We'd rather put our money into this and go have fun. It's just a different thrill.”

Rather than build them from scratch, Romann finds his rigs online and through friends sometimes traveling as far as Montreal, Quebec during a snowstorm to bring another rig into his garage.

Once they’re up and running, maintenance isn’t overwhelming, other than oil changes and spark plugs.

Tractor pulling isn’t for the faint hearted, even if it means just traveling in a straight line.

Last year, Romann’s rig “Joy Ride” started on fire twice after an oil leak ignited.

“I’ve got to tell the fire department, ‘don’t worry if I catch on fire,’” Romann recalls.

“It was a ball of fire, and I never let up on it. It’s unbelievable. A guy shouldn’t be driving it, but

Dave Romann's rig "Totally Tanked" runs on a 1959 V-12 Continental tank engine.

I knew it wasn’t going to hurt nothing.”

Other than the occasional fire, tractor pulling isn’t much more nuanced than putting the pedal to the metal.

“The faster you pull the skid, the less friction there is,” Romann said. “You want to go as fast as you can to pull that skid.”

Once the season is underway

in mid-June, Dave and Cheryl put up to six rigs on two semitrailers, traveling up to 600 miles each way.

With so much invested, Romann doesn’t take himself or the sport too seriously.

“95% of us are basically family. If we get first place with this, it’s like $225,” he said. “You don’t get rich, it costs about $100 to make a pass.”

(Submitted)

More than anything, Romann enjoys bringing the community together and taking youngsters behind the scenes.

“You get little 3, 4, 5-yearolds sitting on your tractor, their eyes get this big,” Romann says pulling his eyes back. “That means a lot, keeping them interested in something other than what they shouldn't be, all the drugs.”

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Roggenkamps haven’t missed a beat — in farming or music Rumpkump Ranch reaches Century Farm status family tree grew from a farm now owned by Eric and Kim Roggenkamp, north of Bluffton.

This year, they celebrate their Century Farm status as the third generation of continuous farming on that site.

These days, Eric Roggenkamp has most of the ground seeded into hay, which he harvests using some of the same tractors he drove in his youth. The farm has seen almost every type of stock, including prized horses, rabbits and chickens.

They’ve grown a large variety of crops, but what seems to consistently pay off and take the least upkeep are the 90 acres of hay Roggenkamp continues to raise and sell to his brother Kelly in Verndale.

The farm sports the original 1918 farmhouse and some original outbuildings, though the original barn, built in 1915, burned down in 1987.

The family history It was in 1919 that Joseph and Veronica Roggenkamp settled on the farm. They bought the land from Juel and A.J. Johnson, of New York Mills, who bought the 160 acres of land from the railroad.

The couple had nine boys and three girls while farming through the Great Depression.

One of their boys, Louie, eventually took over farming the place after returning from military service in 1946. Louie and his wife, Ellie, later bought the farm from his parents in 1961.

The couple had four boys and one girl, and kept the farm going until 1980, when they moved to Bluffton. At that point, their youngest son, Eric, bought the farm and moved his machinery sales business there, where he still continues services and sales of equipment today.

The farmsite was likely selected because it was two adjoining farms, a place where two brothers could farm with each other as they got started.

Getting started was interesting, as the families traveled from Westport, driving the horses and herding the livestock along the way. They sent the farm machinery by rail from Westport to Bluffton.

Eric married Kim in 1992 and the couple have added numerous features to the farm, including an apple orchard and several newer outbuildings.

(Michael Johnson / Rural Living)

Kim and Eric Roggenkamp pose between Eric's favorite tractors at the Rumpkump Ranch. The couple was celebrating their recent Century Farm status. Nearly 40 of those years have been under Eric's ownership.

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By Michael Johnson

mtjohnson@dlnewspapers.com It’s amazing how the senses can trigger specific memories, sending us back to another place in time. For Eric Roggenkamp, that time is his joyful youth on the farm he still calls home.

He fondly recalls the sound of the two-cylinder John Deere he used to drive down the driveway after a long day in the field. And the sound of his grandpa, Joe, and father, Louie, playing button-box accordion for the family. The smell of silage takes him back to the days of chipping frozen feed into pieces in the silo on a cold winter morning.

All these memories revolve around the life Roggenkamp has always enjoyed on what’s become the Rumpkump Ranch.

The Rumpkump name came from some kids at school who thought it was a good nickname for Eric and his brother, Kelly.

Rumpkump was perhaps easier to say than their German name of Roggenkamp, which means camp in the rye, or someone who lives by a rye field.

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RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

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RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

They still utilize an old smoke house that they say has seen more smoke than the Marlboro Man. While that piece of ground at the Roggenkamp farm has been the center stage for at least 100 years of farming, Eric mentions that there have always been ups and downs in farming that typically meant someone working outside the farm to make a little dough. For Eric, it was natural to tinker with machinery.

“This is the one way I found to do this without having to leave home,” he says. “I could stay here and work on tractors during the day and I can put a note on the door if I have to go bale some hay.”

He recalls one day he was baling hay and someone wanted to buy the baler he was using. He sold it and started using another one he had on hand. Another buyer came that afternoon and bought that one.

He was down to his last baler when yet another farmer came by in need of one. He had to tell the buyer “no” until he could get

his hay baled.

From about age 8, he started pulling run-down lawn mowers from the rock pile and bringing them back to a life of cutting acres of grass. His mechanical aptitude impressed his father, who never was much of a mechanic. Eric used to run off into the willow patch with his father’s tools and pull apart different machinery to see what he could create from it. Much to his father’s frustration, he often left the tools out there in the farm equipment graveyard.

Eric’s father eventually left the mechanics to the boys while he would stay busy doing construction work and tuck pointing in the area, when there was time between the chores.

While the farmers may have had their differences, they all loved music. Eric recalls evenings where the whole Roggenkamp clan would come together (most were only separated by a large field) to play music and dance after a hard day of sweating in the hay loft, picking rocks or harvesting pickles.

Eric continues to play music, though mostly at various locations in central Minnesota under the Eric’s Dance Band name. He and a drummer play mostly polka and waltz music for a devoted crowd of dancers.

Eric was even inducted into the Minnesota Rock and Country Hall of Fame in 2007 for his years of entertaining.

Between wrenching and farm chores, he’ll often take a break to learn a new song in his shop, not far from the chickens.

The Century Farm is still a great place to produce crops, Roggenkamp says. He’s unsure who will continue the farm after he’s ready to retire from it, but for now, the 58-year-old still has a passion for driving his 19528N Ford and a 1950 model A John Deere, cutting and baling hay, mowing grass and keeping the farm as clean looking as he can. He still plans to fix and sell machinery, and you’ll likely have to bury him with the button-box accordion as he’ll be playing it for as long as he lives.

(Submitted Photos)

The original barn (top left, moving clockwise), a family musical gathering, Louie and Ellie Roggenkamp and the kids enjoying a picnic on the farm.

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RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

Otter Tail County Rural Rebound Initiative gains national interest The Otter Tail County Rural Rebound Initiative is continuing to make strides in its efforts to promote rural living, reaching across state lines to share insights and ideas with leaders from other rural areas.

The initiative’s coordinator, Erik Osberg, recently joined Ben Winchester, a University of Minnesota research fellow, to present at a seminar in northern Maine. The event was hosted by the Northern Maine Development Commission and other strategic partners working to increase the population in that area.

The goal of Osberg’s work is to make Otter Tail County top-ofmind when people are looking for a place to relocate.

For the past few years, Winchester has been traveling around the Midwest and rural areas of New York and North Carolina to share the story of “Brain Gain” — the migration of people ages 30 to 49 to rural areas.

The Otter Tail County Rural Rebound Initiative is working to capitalize on this in-migration.

According to Winchester's research, the top three reasons newcomers move to rural places

are for a simpler pace of life, safety and security, and lower housing costs.

Osberg said they have researched the cost of living data provided by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and have found that a family of four, with two full-time employed adults, can live for roughly 65 cents on the dollar when compared to the Twin Cities Metro Area.

“I'd argue that the quality of life in Otter Tail County is hard to beat,” says Osberg. “Rather than planning that next vacation, we are looking for folks who want to build a life they don't feel the need to escape from.”

“Hopefully this event will spark new ideas to solve an ongoing issue in Aroostook (Maine) and Washington County,” says Jon Gulliver, director of investor and community relations for the Northern Maine Development Commission. “The presentations

by Ben Winchester and Erik Osberg provided valuable information on how to tackle the daunting challenge. I believe all the attendees benefited from the insights of our visitors from Minnesota.”

Osberg has served as coordinator for the Otter Tail County Rural Rebound Initiative since January of 2017.

“At the end of the day, our job is to write our own narrative,” he says. “For far too long, the local, regional and national narrative about rural living has been negative. While it is true we have obstacles to overcome, people want to move here for what we are right now, not what we used to be. We believe that by focusing on our strengths as a region, people will begin to see all the opportunity that exists here.”

“We are thrilled Erik was able to join us in Maine to talk about his work with resident recruitment,” says Jill Henrickson of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, who helped organize the event and invited Osberg to speak. “Participants loved his approach to his work and were very engaged, asking lots of questions. Erik's energy and passion for this work and rural communities are contagious.”

Learn more about the Rural Rebound Initiative at ottertailcountymn.us/department/ economic-development.

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RURAL LIVING JUNE 2019

We don’t want your old recliners: Please don’t dump your junk in the country

one is sure whose When you’re out it is or what to do driving around the with it. As time countryside, looking has gone on, I’m for stories in yet-tofairly certain it has be-planted fields, stopped being a there are things recliner and started you expect to see. being a home for a Tractors, maybe. number of critters.

Farmers. Barns. But Acquaintances as I was out driving Jenny Schlect have sent me a quiet gravel road Forum News photos and the other day, I saw Service Columnist anecdotes of the something I most junk they’ve seen. certainly did not One photo was of a television expect. tossed in a slough, or as the An elliptical machine. lady wryly described it, “a Yes, a piece of exercise wild TV in its natural habitat.” equipment was just sitting Another woman explained there. Unless this is the start how, while working for the of some kind of weird theme park service at Knife River gym, it seems pretty likely Indian Villages in high school, that someone was using this staff would find water heaters remote stretch of road as their along the river shore. Not one personal dumping ground.

This isn’t completely unusual water heater, mind you — water heaters. for rural areas. Up the road What possesses people to from our farm, someone once drive out to an open area and dumped a recliner in a borrow just dump their garbage? I’ve pit. It still sits there in part; no

never had the urge to drive into town and toss things I don’t want into someone’s yard. The dusty elliptical machine in my basement will stay there, mostly unused, until the day I haul it to the dump.

I’m not going to throw it into the hay field down the road.

And, I should explain, many of us in rural areas don’t even have garbage service. We burn what garbage we can burn and sometimes have to take items that shouldn’t be or can’t be burned to the dump, where we pay to leave our garbage.

We don’t want to have to haul and pay for anyone else’s garbage.

It isn’t, of course, just inanimate objects that get dumped in the country. People assume their no-longerwanted cats and dogs will find happy homes on farms if they dump them on the side of the road. At least I assume that’s what they assume. I’m giving

(Jenny Schlect / Forum News Service)

An elliptical machine sits discarded along a rural roadway in North Dakota. them the benefit of the doubt that they don’t realize they may be relegating their pets to starvation and death.

We once took in a dog that apparently had been dumped by the interstate and made her way up to the farm. She was a sweet dog. After checking with neighbors and veterinarians and others for lost dogs, she became a farm dog. She lived

out her days with us, much loved.

But I always wondered where she came from. Was someone moving and didn’t want to take her to a new home? Had they tired of the responsibility of having a dog? Dixie, as she came to be known, was kind and gentle, good with kids and generally inobtrusive. Was she missing

the family that left her?

She, of course, was lucky.

We fed her and cared for her.

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RURAL LIVING June 2011