Mark Kasten State Farm

Sami Nordmann showing “Boog,” the overall reserve grand champion at the South Dakota State Fair Open Show and reserve grand champion in the State Fair show. Boog has raised a national champion and a number of county fair champions. Sami and Denver show off their championship banners.

“When our son, Denver, was born; and then a year-and-amonth later our daughter Sami was born, I said ‘They will win the FFA livestock judging at the FFA state convention.’ And 17 years later, they did.” Sami (or “Brains” as Todd calls her) is a showman who can “stick it” when the chips are down. One year at the State Fair, she got beat with a great lamb the family thought was going to win it all. Todd said, “At the very next class, one of the biggest sheep producers in the country had two lambs in the same class and they asked Brains to show the other one. That lamb should have never won the class, but Sami basically outshowed everybody and beat the other good sheep. That was one of my proudest moments.” Towards the end of their children’s FFA show careers, the kids didn’t want Todd to train the livestock anymore because he has too much of a temper. “Denver is a livestock whisperer; he is so good with handling animals,” Todd said. “Denver can get anything to move or walk or roll over.” Denver captured the state’s FFA Star Award in swine proficiency one year.

SOME PEOPLE GO TO THE LAKE …

Coral said when the kids were younger, the family was at a show nearly every weekend of the summer. “Going to livestock shows was our vacation. We never took vacations otherwise,” she said. A trip to see the Denver Broncos for their honeymoon and another football trip to the Mile High City with the whole family a couple of years ago is the extent of their non-livestock-related travel.

Mark Kasten, Agent 180 N Main Ave Parker, SD 57053 Bus: 605-297-4747 mark@markkasten.com 180 N Main Ave. Parker, SD 57053 Bus: 605-297-4747

368 N Main St. Freeman, SD 57029 Bus: 605-925-7353

mark@markkasten.com

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Mission accomplished! A goal Todd Nordmann set for his kids when they were babies came true when Denver and Sami were part of the champion FFA Livestock Evaluation Team in 2017.

Todd Nordmann in the ring at an Ottenwalter Show Pigs auction. Ottenwalter’s is one of the largest show pig suppliers in the country and is based in California. sheep. All the years of showing taught the kids you have to be committed and dedicated, just like any sport. It was a lot of work. Towards the end there, when we were really big into showing and hitting it hard, by the time you rinse everything, walk them, suntan them, all the little things you needed to do, it would take us four hours in the morning and three hours at night just to do chores. With the pigs and the sheep, it was a pretty heavy part-time job just doing that. I kind of miss it a little bit. Yet, it’s good to be done.” Denver is a graduate of Lake Area Technical College and works with his dad at Sioux Falls Regional Livestock. Sami is majoring in ag leadership at South Dakota State University. She and Todd haven’t quite let go of competing – they’re preparing to show a Duroc gilt, a Duroc boar and a Hampshire gilt at World Pork Expo in June. Their small swine herd has had big results. They’ve had several national champions with pigs they’ve either shown or sold or raised. “Just last year, we got the reserve champion overall at the National Barrow Show and he was the high seller. It was a Duroc boar who went to a boar stud. We’ve had four boars now go to boar studs. That’s pretty good for a little herd of six sows.” The company name is Nordmann’s Chromed Up Show Pigs. Todd started judging livestock when he was a seventh grader. “I tagged along to a livestock judging contest with the Lennox FFA. They had seven teams but I wasn’t old enough yet. But my old ag teacher Tim Hooten put me on the last team because they were one person short. Long story short, I won the whole contest.” Todd assured the FFA adviser it wasn’t a fluke. Mr. Hooten took him under his wing and he later ended up winning the state 4-H and state FFA livestock judging contests in the same year.

2 MILLION SHEEP SOLD

After graduating from Mitchell Technical College, Todd was working as a herdsmen for a local show pig producer when Darry Pearson from the Sioux Falls Stockyards called to see if he’d be interested in working in a new sheep alley at the yards. “I said I’d give it a shot. Thirty-four years later, I’m still doing it.” In the early days, he’d get in his pickup and drive the gravel roads until he saw sheep. He’d stop at the farm, give them a business card, and encourage them to refer other producers to him. He worked at the Sioux Falls Stockyards until it closed in 2010. When Sioux Falls Regional first opened, they tried selling sheep, but total sales the first year were about 7,500 head. In a five-minute meeting, Regional’s owners asked Todd and Steve DeGroot to come in and run the sheep alley. They sold 8,000 head the first month – more than Regional had sold in a year. Over his career, he figures he’s sold more than 2 million sheep. Sales have grown consistently and now Sioux Falls Regional Livestock is one of the top three sheep sales spots in the U.S. “Our markets are watched by the world. You don’t think about