South Dakota Farm & Ranch - July 2016

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JULY 2 016

‘LIQUID GOLD’

AND THE DECLINING HONEY BEE

11

Knowledge of

SOIL HEALTH Sunflower oil markets may experience future growth 7

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Celebrating the homesteaders and agricultural of South Dakota 13

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FARM& RANCH SOUTH DAKOTA

INSIDE THIS ISSUE On the cover 11 ‘Liquid gold’ and the declining honey bee

Ricky Wurtz pulls out a honey comb from the beehive.

Features 4

Agriculture, related industries try to fill vacancies

7

Sunflower oil markets may experience future growth

13 Celebrating the homesteaders and agricultural heritage of South Dakota 24 Knowledge of soil health Publisher RORY PA L M Editor LUKE HAGEN Advertising Director L ORIE H A N S E N

THEY NEED YOU “HEAR” FOR THEM

South Dakota Farm & Ranch is a monthly agricultural publication dedicated to informing South Dakota area farmers and ranchers about current topics, news and the future of agriculture. This publication fits the niche of our unique farmers and ranchers of SD, and the diverseness we have in our state. Although the Missouri River divides our state, we are all South Dakotans and thank the land for supporting us each and every day.

You, our readers, may be livestock ranchers, or row crop farmers, and everywhere in between, however, we all have a common goal in mind. We feed and support the growing population, and want the next generation to find that same love, dedication, and support that agriculture can offer.

We’re all South Dakota Farmers and Ranchers, and with this publication we want to showcase your successes, new technology, upcoming events, FFA and 4-H club news and much more.

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Agriculture, related industries try to fill vacancies

BY SELENA YAKABE South Dakota Farm & Ranch

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South Dakota State University students getting hands on learning experiences in the Precision Ag Lab - Photo Credit: SDSU Ag Bio

outh Dakota may see a rising number of vacancies in agricultural jobs and related fields, but there will not be enough specifically trained students to meet the demand.

Approximately 58,000 annual job openings in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and environment fields are expected to occur across the U.S. through 2020, according to a study released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Specifically, jobs that will see the largest need for graduates are plant scientists, food scientists, sustainable biomaterials specialists, water resource scientists and engineers, precision agriculture specialists and large animal veterinarians.

Marcos Fernandez, a co-author of the USDA report, said 60 percent of those jobs will be filled by specifically trained graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

“With the other 40 percent, it’s not that it will go unfilled, it will just be filled by other non-specifically trained folks,” Fernandez said.

But, Don Marshall, the associate dean of agriculture and biological sciences at South Dakota State University (SDSU), said hiring specifically trained graduates is preferable.

“It gives the employees the best chance at being productive in that position and requires less on-job training,” Marshall said.

Fernandez agrees that hiring non-specifically trained graduates could set a company back. It could potentially lose a year to a year and a half of productivity if it has to train graduates in the area they are working. Fernandez said non-specifically trained graduates may even experience more stress to make up for lost time or knowledge This then puts the company at a “competitive disadvantage.”

“It’s not that new ideas aren’t good, they are,” Fernandez said. “Some companies keep a certain percentage of jobs open for fresh, new, non-conventional ideas, but they are also aware that they can’t slow productivity.”

Large animal veterinarians were one of the jobs listed as having a strong job market in the future. But, David Thompson, a veterinarian at the Creekside Veterinary Clinic in Mitchell, said he hasn’t had any issues finding veterinarians to hire and doesn’t have any veterinarians retiring in the next few years.

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Photo Credit: SDSU Ag Bio Continued from page 4 “It seemed like for a while there was quite a pull for vets to go into rural communities, and in some places there’s still quite a need for that,” Thompson said. “Here in Mitchell, we’ve been fortunate to have some good ones and are pretty well saturated. It’s nice because between all the different clinics, we can usually help out whoever needs to be helped.”

Though Thompson said he has not had any issues at the Creekside Veterinary Clinic, this is unusual, according to the USDA report.

Overall vacancies in the workforce, as predicted by the study, are being caused by the current generation of employees retiring and those planning to retire in the next four years.

“There is a generation that is exiting the field, and the industry didn’t have a generation of incoming students or younger people embracing the field,” Fernandez said. “So, now there’s a gap for the next generation to fill.”

Fernandez said he thinks graduates didn’t embrace agriculture and related fields because of the idea that agriculture was “outdated.”

“There’s sometimes a view that agriculture is antiquated or a career opportunity of the past, not of the future. (People with that view) don’t look at agriculture through eyes of technology or innovation,” Fernandez said. “Agriculture of

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today, and that of tomorrow, requires a level of expertise and innovation that is really quite amazing.”

Most jobs in agriculture and related jobs are projected to increase in central South Dakota through 2022, according to the South Dakota Department of Labor. But, these increases are by less than 1 percent. There is no data for the number of vacancies expected in these jobs.

Marshall did not have other specific data for South Dakota, but he believes South Dakota and the region follow the national trend of graduates versus job vacancies.

SDSU has seen an increase of about 50 percent in its agricultural and related programs over the past few years, which is good news, Marshall said.

Since it is a strong job market, Marshall said overall job placement for SDSU graduates in these fields is more than 90 percent depending on if the student is flexible about the location and nature of their first job.

Animal science currently has the largest enrollment at SDSU within the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, Marshall said. And though job markets are strong in areas like agronomy and agricultural systems technology, they do not Continued to page 23

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Sunflower oil markets may experience future growth

BY SELENA YAKABE South Dakota Farm & Ranch

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fter the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would be banning partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) from food products, the sunflower industry in South Dakota is hopeful sunflower oil will take its place in food products.

South Dakota had the highest amount of sunflower production in the country for 2015, producing more than 1.2 billion pounds of sunflowers, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

In June 2015, the FDA determined PHOs as “not generally recognized as safe.”

PHOs are manufactured trans fats, which the FDA has linked to coronary heart disease. The agency gave food companies a compliance period of three years to remove all PHOs from their products and “reformulate” them or petition the FDA for specific uses of PHOs. This could be good news for South Dakota’s sunflower market since sunflowers are a stable substitute.

“I think it opens up some opportunities for the sunflower industry, because it is an oil that does not have to be partially hydrogenated to be stable to be used in food products,” said John Sandbakken, the executive director of the National Sunflower Association (NSA). “So, it really opens up a new set of opportunities for us solely for sunflower oil or in a blend that would need that extra stability.”

The state’s conditions are conducive to growing good, high-yielding sunflowers, Sandbakken said. But, there are still other oils that could potentially replace the partially hydrogenated oils.

It is because of this that Rick Vallery, the executive director of the South Dakota Oilseeds Council, said the industry does not know how it will be affected.

“We’re just kind of in wait-and-see mode to see how it affects markets,” Vallery said. “You would think it would, but we don’t know.”

Vallery said the increase in the sunflower market has been through exports of oil and confectionary sunflowers while bird seed has also remained as a strong market.

Sandbakken said other potential replacements could include canola oil, corn oil or palm oil, though they are higher in saturated fats than sunflower oil.

Safflower and soybean oil are also contenders, Vallery said.

“The other side of that is the soybean industry has already come up with an oil that has lower hydrogenated fat,” Vallery said. “So, the soybean industry is already trying to protect its own market share. That’s why we don’t know how much (the ban is) going to affect sunflowers.”

A good example of this is Nestlé. Liz Caselli-Mechael, the manager of corporate communications at Nestlé, said the company is in the process of removing trans fats from its products and has replaced the trans fats in Coffee-mate with high oleic soybean oil.

But, Sandbakken remains optimistic that sunflower oil markets will increase.

“Any time you gain more customers, you obviously have to sell more oil, so it adds to the potential for growing more acres,” Sandbakken said. “Being a good alternative for replacing partially hydrogenated oils makes it more of a premium oil and then that translates to better prices for growers.”

Sandbakken said the National Sunflower Association has been conducting a domestic campaign to promote the sunflower industry through various publications.

Since the announcement from the FDA and the efforts of NSA’s advertising campaign, Sandbakken said he believes some major companies have been looking at sunflower oil as an alternative.

“It’s definitely on everyone’s radar,” Sandbakken said. “Some have

probably already converted to other oils and others are still deciding which route they’re going to go.”

Sunflower oil is competitive because, unlike other oils, it has a lower percentage of saturated fat. Palm oil, for example has about 50 percent saturated fat, Sandbakken said. Linoleic varieties of sunflower oils have about 11 percent saturated fat and high oleic have six to seven percent.

“One thing we’ve found in any of the research is people want to eat the same amount of food, they just want it to be better for them,” Sandbakken said. “(Sunflower oil) fits the bill for that.”

Because of the consumer demand for a healthier product, Sandbakken said the industry is following suit and changing to meet the “commands of the consumer” by converting acreage from linoleic varieties of sunflowers to high oleic.

But, like Vallery, Sandbakken said he does not know how much the sunflower industry will increase.

“I’d love to say 100 percent,” Sandbakken said. “But that market will have to shake itself out.” 

JULY 2016 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 7

Advisor tribute recipients chosen Students receive scholarships to attend FFA summer leadership retreats SOURCE: SD FFA FOUNDATION

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ATH — Agriculture education teachers/FFA advisers make a world of difference for the students they teach. This spring students put into words, as part of an FFA adviser Tribute Scholarship application, how their ag teachers/FFA advisers have impacted their lives. Nine outstanding examples of amazing teachers impacting their students have been chosen and submitting students will each receive scholarships to attend a SD FFA Leadership Retreat this summer. Lacey Wipf, Freeman; Sydney Hoffman, Bridgewater-Emery; Becca Bauman, Deuel; Taylor Runoff, Rapid City; Shayleene Rogers, Rapid City; Kyle Ericson, Rapid City; Tyler Zuschlag, Rapid City; Nate Rendon, Rapid City; and Moriah Flanagan, Garretson, earned scholarships.

The students wrote essays about how their FFA advisers have made an impact on their lives. Each of these student’s thinks their adviser is one of the best there is, and is happy to say so!

• Taylor Runoff and Shayleene Rogers, both juniors in Rapid City, nominated Mrs. Lisa Steinken, and comment “She encourages us to challenge ourselves, and regardless of how well we do, she’s our biggest cheerleader. I can count on her to have my back and correct me when I’m wrong. She has shaped me and left an indelible mark on my life. … She has inspired me to become an ag teacher! She helped start a chapter garden to provide member SAE opportunities and her work ethic and focus rub off on members.”

• Nate Rendon and Tyler Zuschlag, Rapid City FFA juniors express their thanks to adviser Mrs. Bobbie Jo Donovan, “She pushed me to do my best – in class as well as FFA. She even had to push hard for me to join. … She has given up many hours to help me and others with public speaking and leadership skills. She is patient when I need help, sets high expectations and holds me accountable. … With her persistence, I found my passion, have set big goals, placed in natural resources, became chapter president, and want to do more. Her encouragement will impact my entire life.”

• Kyle Erickson, Rapid City FFA senior shares, “I’ve always wanted to be a rancher, and Mrs. Genetie Hendrix gave me the opportunity to learn about livestock, teaching me about quality. She built a judging team that worked together, committed to practicing nights and weekends.”

• Becca Bauman, Deuel FFA senior shares, “Mrs. Marie Jacks is the only teacher I’ve ever known that treats you like her own. She tries to new things and lets our ideas combine with hers. Few teachers strive to see leadership in one individual and watch it spark among a group of students, like our chapter officers this year. She has made me a dependable, 8 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH JULY 2016

confident and honest leader not only in FFA but as a community member.”

• Sydney Hoffman, Bridgewater-Emery FFA member shares, “Being an FFA adviser is not easy, yet Mrs. Karen Roudabush, does an awesome and detailed job of it while juggling two little girls at home and being a farmer’s wife. This makes her an excellent role model. She demonstrates and has taught me to keep calm and manage my time better; being calm in a stressful situation relaxes the mind, allowing you to problem solve faster and easier.”

• Lacey Wipf, Freeman FFA member comments, “Mrs. Jessica Ronning is a first year FFA adviser who already hugely impacted me. Only five feet tall, she always stands up for herself and her students, not letting anyone push her or us around. She is passionate about teaching life lessons in addition to class. She not only wants members to do our best, but does anything she can to ensure we excel. I am glad to have met and gotten to know her.”

• Moriah Flanagan, Garreston FFA member says thanks, “Mr. Ed Mueller taught each of us that even though we may outgrow our jackets, we will never outgrow the experiences we had the opportunity to be part of through his leadership. He develops excellence in students by setting a good example. He shares his love for agriculture, gives us confidence to advocate for the industry, and teaches us leadership, teamwork and the importance of service. We are sad to see him retire after 22 years, but know he will continue to encourage kids to “live to serve”.

Scholarships are made possible through the SD FFA Foundation

by West River Electric Association, Sioux Valley Energy, and the Walt Johnson Memorial Fund; in memory of two past FFA advisers: Leonard DeBoer and Walt Johnson. Both men led by example and their advice was truly ripened with wisdom. Mr. DeBoer spent his life teaching young people about agriculture and the leadership skills that would make them successful in their career choice. He was the FFA adviser in Chamberlain for almost 40 years where he lived FFA’s mission by making a difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. Mr. Johnson served as the SD FFA Foundation President, as well as on the SD FFA Foundation board, in Newell as an ag teacher, community supporter and coach for FFA career development events. He was devoted to agriculture education and earned his Honorary American FFA Degree in 2007.

For more information about the South Dakota FFA Foundation and South Dakota’s FFA programs, visit www.sdffafoundation.org. 

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Ricky Wurtz checks on one of his eight sets of beehives around the houses.

‘Liquid gold’ and the declining honey bee

BY SELENA YAKABE South Dakota Farm & Ranch PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT GADE South Dakota Farm & Ranch

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ONTROSE — Ricky Wurtz isn’t phased by bee stings anymore. It’s just part of the life of a beekeeper.

Wurtz, who says he’s stung five to 10 times daily, usually wears a veil and gloves to handle his bees, so that he doesn’t get stung on or around his face, but getting stung is inevitable. He uses a smoker to help calm the bees down and make them less agitated. But even then, taking care of approximately 10 million bees results in stings.

In 2002, Wurtz’s father started with about 10 colonies, but now Wurtz helps take care of the 180 hives that are part of the Orland Hutterite colony’s hobby honey farm. The farm is located about 10 miles north of Montrose.

“We started out with bees just so we could have honey on the table, but we got more and more and more,” Wurtz said. “Now we make like $20,000 to $30,000 not trying real hard.”

The ‘bee yards’ and the hierarchy Wurtz has eight areas where he keeps the bees with about 25 hives per bee yard. He tries to space them at least two to three miles apart since bees travel up to 2 miles from their hives, according to the South Dakota Department of Agriculture.

Wurtz feeds his bees corn syrup until plants bloom. After he no longer has to feed them, Wurtz checks on the colonies weekly.

Each hive has its own queen, and each queen lives for about two to three years.

When the bees have a diminishing queen, Wurtz said the colonies get smaller, the bees don’t forage and they don’t make honey.

Once the queen of the hive dies, Wurtz has to buy a new queen. But, there is a process if the colony is going to accept her. Within the hive boxes, there is a wooden cage for the queen. Wurtz places a sugary candy in the cage for the worker bees to eat, and once the candy is gone, the queen is usually accepted.

During the “heat of the summer” in June and July, Wurtz said there are about 60,000 bees per hive, but that decreases during winter.

After the summer is over, Wurtz ships his bees south to Oklahoma during the last part of September and into October depending on the weather. But, like with any other livestock, transportation is stressful on them.

Once spring comes, his bees are used for a month in California to pollinate the almond groves at the end of February, and then they are brought back to South Dakota.

Continued on page 19 JULY 2016 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 11

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Celebrating the homesteaders and agricultural heritage of South Dakota

BY SELENA YAKABE South Dakota Farm & Ranch PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT GADE South Dakota Farm & Ranch

M

Prairie Village is dedicated to showing the histor y of the 19th centur y in South Dakota.

Top to Bottom: Village Church, at Prairie Village, still holds ser vices on Sundays between June through August. People can even have marriages inside the church. The Socialist Hall, also known as the Lawrence Welk Opera House houses entertainment shows throughout the summer. Equipment of Dr. P.M. Rensvold is on display in the Dentist Office. Rensvold was one of Madison’s first dentists.

ADISON — South Dakotans had the chance to travel back in time 100 years during the Prairie Village 50th anniversary and Railroad Days.

Railroad Days, held July 9-10, took place in Prairie Village west of Madison. It is a historical preservation site that depicts what life was like in the 1900s for pioneers homesteading South Dakota.

The entire property covers about 120 acres and includes campgrounds, a railroad, an opera house, a chapel car, a carousel as well as various historic houses and businesses.

Faron Wahl has always had a deep love for South Dakota, especially rural South Dakota and agricultural heritage. That is how he found himself become the new manager of Prairie Village. “(Prairie Village is) all era correct,” Wahl said.

“And it’s unique in that we can offer the whole package experience of what happened on the Dakota plains.”

The historic site houses several rare artifacts, including one of the few remaining chapel cars

left in the United States and a steam-run carousel, Wahl said.

A majority of the buildings in Prairie Village were once legitimate businesses. Some of the buildings in town were originally on the lot and some were brought in from other South Dakota towns.

The site opens Mother’s Day and runs through Labor Day, during which time it hosts several events throughout the year. The village is known for its Railroad Days in July and the Steam Threshing Jamboree in August.

To the south of the village, the Prairie Village grows wheat specifically to harvest during the jamboree. And for special occasions like the Railroad Days/50th anniversary celebration and Threshing Jamboree, the carousel is powered by steam.

The number of visitors has been increasing during the past few years, but during Railroad Days and the Threshing Jamboree, the number of visitors has always been high.

Continued on page 14

Main street in Prairie Village JULY 2016 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 13

The GE 80T 8 wheel Diesel Electric US Air Force #1687 Locomotive pulls passenger cars on the loop around Prairie Village back in June in Madison.

Continued from page 13 “Campers are jammed in every square nook and cranny of this place,” Wahl said.

Since Railroad Days and the 50th anniversary coincide, extra activities were planned for the celebration. The celebration also offered train, motor car and doodle bug rides all day and activities for kids, including face painting and coloring contests. Rick Mills from the South Dakota State Railroad Museum was a featured speaker, and there was a commemorative service to honor the groundbreaking ceremony attended by Gov. Nils Boe and Senator Karl Mundt in 1966.

Admission to the historical site on July 9 was free in honor of the 50th anniversary.

“It’s our birthday if you will,” Wahl said. “We’re not going to charge people to come celebrate with us.”

‘The crown jewel’ With roughly 120 acres and 40 historic buildings, Wahl said between repairing roofs and mowing the lawn, there is too much in Prairie Village to have everything complete at once.

“You never catch up,” Wahl said. “It’s a perpetual process.”

The village is in the process of raising funds to renovate the carousel, Wahl said.

Although the carousel has undergone small-scale maintenance over the years, Wahl said he does not think the carousel has ever undergone a complete restoration.

“When the carousel was brought here in ’66, it was already aged,” Wahl said. “It’s not going to last much longer if it’s not restored.”

In the fall when Prairie Village is closed for the season, the plan is to have the carousel taken apart and shipped to Ohio, where Carousel Works will restore it and return it by spring 2017.

Most information that Wahl has on the steam carousel says that it was built in 1893. The carousel is still capable of being run on steam, but for everyday activity, it is usually run with an electric motor.

Continued on page 15

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14 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH JULY 2016

Continued from page 14 “We’re told it’s the only remaining carousel of it’s type,” Wahl said. “There’s nowhere else you can go to and ride a carousel powered by steam.”

Because of this, Wahl said taking care of the carousel is a priority. When people think of Prairie Village, they traditionally think of four attractions: the railroad, the opera house, the chapel car and the steam carousel.

“You can call (the carousel) the crown jewel of Prairie Village,” Wahl said. “Or one of a couple crown jewels.”

Top to Bottom: Bill Nolan drives the Locomotive at Prairie Village and has been volunteering there for 29 years. Volunteers Robert Gehringer, left, and Bill Nolan sit on a bench outside of the Wentworth Depot after taking a group on a train ride.

Riding the rail For Robert Gehringer and Bill Nolan, trains and other locomotives have been a lifetime fascination.

Nolan, a retired tool-maker, has volunteered with Prairie Village for 29 years helping maintain the railroad and conduct the train while Gehringer has been volunteering for about eight years.

A portion of the track that the Prairie Village rail line uses was once a part of the Milwaukee Road that went from Jackson, Minnesota, to Wessington Springs.

For Nolan, it’s about preserving the history of railroading.

“At one point, it was everything in the United States...it was how the U.S. advanced in the world,” Nolan said. “During World War I and especially World War II...they needed to get stuff and people back and forth, and the railroads were up to the task.”

The 1.5 mile-long railroad that encircles Prairie Village is maintained and run by volunteers. One of their most recent tasks has been working on railroad track maintenance.

“The original people who built the track did a poor job,” Nolan said. “They put the railroad ties right on the mud and dirt. So, when it rains, the track sinks and you have problems.”

Nolan said even some of the railroad ties were starting to rot and deteriorate. But, they have been laying down crushed rock underneath the track to prevent this.

Locomotives are a different story.

“Sometimes to get the steam engine to run for two to three hours, we’ll spend weeks, even months,” Nolan said. “I think an airplane is easier.”

Continued on page 17

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The 1893 steam driven carousel is a popular attraction at Prairie Village. Hand car ved wooden horses on the 1893 steam driven carousel are one of the top attractions. During the offseason the entire carousel will be taken apart and sent off to Ohio where it will be fully restored and back for next season.

Prairie Village features five locomotives, a doodle bug and a motor car. They also have a velocipede on display — a small one person contraption that moves along the rails through a man-powered, pumping action. All of the running locomotives get inspected by a state inspector for safety.

“Prairie Village has been very conscientious of sending people to different steam schools,” Gehringer said. “It’s not just one or two people that have the knowledge. It allows you to cross check against each other...it’s not a static pool of learning.”

Gehringer is appreciative that the village places an emphasis on sending people to steam schools because a broader knowledge base prevents accidents. From learning about trains to working on them, Gehringer said it’s a lifetime passion.

“I won’t work on my own truck, but I’ll work on the steam locomotives,” Gehringer said. “What does that say?”

Nuts and bolts Prairie Village has eight paid employees to help with the “nuts and bolts” of the operation, Wahl said. But, Prairie Village has a countless number of volunteers that help out every year.

For years, there wasn’t a paid staff to run Prairie Village.

“It was founded on a few folks who wanted to have a threshing demonstration,” Wahl said. “Those volunteers eventually evolved into a business, but that business still doesn’t leave out the need for volunteers.”

With so many moving pieces at Prairie Village, Wahl said it really comes down to balancing employee and volunteer efforts as well as prioritizing what needs to be done.

Taylor Bird first became involved with Prairie Village when she competed in the Miss Prairie Village Pageant and won in 2012. After spending a summer as Miss Prairie Village, Bird started working in the gift shop, and has been an employee there the past three summers.

“Employees and all the volunteers put their heart and soul in this place,” Bird said.

For Bird, working at Prairie Village doesn’t “feel like a job.”

“It just feels like cleaning the house with mom on Sundays,” she said. “There’s such a family atmosphere here.”

Bird said the family atmosphere and the love of agricultural heritage is what keeps employees and volunteers coming back every year.

“We need the staff to continue the nuts and bolts of the operation, but on a broader scope, we need the volunteers,” Wahl said. “You have to know the volunteer base to know who has what skills and marry them up with the right tasks.”

Volunteers help with everything from threshing wheat during the Steam Threshing Jamboree in August to constant upkeep of the railroad.

“We need them all,” Wahl said. “We would not be able to do what we do everyday without them. God bless the volunteers and employees because without them we could not pull this off.” 

JULY 2016 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 17

18 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH JULY 2016

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Continued from page 11 Top: Wurtz has hives at eight different locations that produce the honey for his Orland Honey Farms products. Right: Ricky Wurtz takes the lid off one of the beehives.

Bottom Left: He lights a smoker to use when checking on the combs in a beehive. The smoke helps calm down the bees. Bottom Right: When taking the lid off of the hive he uses the smoker on the bees.

The Hutterite colony not only keeps bees. They also own hogs, turkeys, cattle, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, hens and have 3,500 acres of crops. In addition, Wurtz said they own a large garden and do steel work.

Declining honey crops Wurtz, like many other apiarists, aka “beekeepers,” around the country, has seen a decline in both bee population and productivity.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are 40 percent less apiarists with five or more honey bee colonies compared to 2015.

“I used to make 200 pounds (of honey) per hive per year,” Wurtz said. “But, now I’m down to about 70 pounds per hive. We’ll be pretty lucky if we get 70 this year.”

If they average about 70 pounds of honey per hive, they will harvest about 12,600 pounds of honey at the end of July.

Wurtz said his honey crops started diminishing around 2004-05. For Wurtz, the biggest issues his bee colonies face are nosema, a bee gut disease; habitat destruction and varroa mites, blood-sucking parasites.

According to the USDA, varroa mites were the top stressor of honey bee colonies in South Dakota.

The state bee inspector inspected Wurtz’s colonies last year. And so far, for 2016, Wurtz said his colonies seem to be “pretty clean” of varroa mites. The mites tend to be an issue near the end of July and beginning of August right after he harvests.

Continued on page 21

Above Left to Right : Wurtz pulls out a honey comb from the beehive. Ricky Wurtz pours honey into a bottle inside his workshop near Montrose.

JULY 2016 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 19

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Continued from page 19 Statewide, July through September 2015 had the highest colony losses for the year with a decrease of 18 percent, according to the USDA. “You see bees sitting around on the grass and you know they’re sick and there’s something wrong,” Wurtz said. “They don’t have the energy and don’t want to fly. It’s a big challenge to keep under control.”

Being a caretaker has increased in difficulty since Wurtz became a beekeeper.

“It used to be that beekeepers set (the bees) out wherever and forgot about that, then had a crop in the fall,” Wurtz said. “It’s not simple anymore, but you know, it’s a learning experience. You learn as you go.”

Wurtz said treating bees for nosema isn’t always successful.

“To treat them for the nosema it’s not cheap, it’s expensive stuff,” Wurtz said.

“It works a little, but what we’re finding is we might be able to do more with probiotics, so we’ll see.”

Wurtz has also faced issues of not enough flowers for the bees to pollinate and chemicals used for farming and roadside maintenance. Farmers cut their alfalfa or other crops before they flower, which the honey bees need to successfully produce honey, Wurtz said.

Wurtz was able to talk to the county, and they agreed to stop spraying the roadsides with chemicals around his area, but farmers in the area still use various herbicides and pesticides.

“With all this chemical farming, it’s not doing us any justice,” Wurtz said.

separate out the light honey from the dark between harvests, but usually, they combine the two.

Once the honey is extracted, it is placed in a tank to be separated into the different bottles. The tank has a water jacket that keeps it warm, at a temperature of 120 degrees, so the honey is easier to bottle.

They sell honey in several different sizes ranging from 6 ounces to gallons and buckets. They also sell cream honey, though they do not make it at the colony.

Orland Colony sells honey to several stores and convenience stores in Sioux Falls, Madison, Salem and Canistota as well as at the colony’s vegetable stand.

Wurtz said the Brick Oven restaurant in Canistota was one of the first stores he ever sold honey to and he has been supplying them with honey ever since.

Ed Thomas, the manager of the restaurant and Ortman Hotel, said they have been buying the colony’s honey for at least three or four years for retail sales.

“It’s a good, quality product,” Thomas said. “We like to support local communities as much as possible, and it’s good honey.”

The Orland Colony also sell pails and drums of honey to other Hutterite colonies. Since bee colony populations have been going down, Wurtz said the price of honey has gone up.

“I don’t eat a lot of honey, but I like to see a crop,” Wurtz said. “You see it run out of the tank into the pails, and it makes you feel good. It’s liquid gold.” 

Harvest For Wurtz, the most exciting time is when they bring in the honey for harvest.

When the colony harvests the honey, about two to three adults help carry the boxes since the boxes average around 100 pounds. After that, women in the colony help with the extracting. It takes two to three days to collect and extract the honey.

“That’s a sticky and hot business,” Wurtz said.

The Hutterite colony usually harvests honey twice a year depending on how full the boxes are. The first harvest is a lighter honey, and Wurtz said sometimes they

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Continued from page 5 have as high of an enrollement.

Fernandez said areas like these “struggle to attract the attention of students” across the country.

Dairy manufacturing and food science are also areas that have high job placement percentages, but there are very few students enrolled in the program, Marshall said. He attributes this to students potentially not understanding the opportunities in those fields.

“We do have a growing dairy manufacturing industry in the state, so it’s really important to increase the number of students going into that area. It is something we have identified as a priority,” Marshall said. “We’re working hard to increase the number of students in that field.”

Even though it is preferable to hire specifically trained students, Marshall said the goal of the university is to train students to be lifetime learners, so they are able to learn on-the-job.

“A lot of jobs that will be available to (students) are ones that don’t even exist today,” Marshall said.

Another factor to consider is that food production will need to increase considerably in the future due to projections of the world population reaching 9 billion, Marshall said. Future generations will have to find ways to produce food that are sustainable and protect natural resources in a way that is acceptable to the public.

Fernandez said food security is of the utmost importance, and with a growing population, its importance increases.

“I think we as a country or South Dakota as a state or the Northern Plains as a region can not lose sight of that, that food security in the long run can be translated to national security,” Fernandez said.

Agriculture and related fields allow students to have an impact with their careers, and there are a large amount of opportunities in these fields, Fernandez said.

“This is an incredibly opportune time for students to be studying agriculture and seeking careers in agriculture and related sciences,” Fernandez said.

“It’s not self serving, it’s just a fact that there’s these great opportunities. It’s a great time to be part of agriculture.” 

Photo Credit: SDSU Ag Bio

This is an incredibly opportune time for students to be studying agriculture and seeking careers in agriculture and related sciences.

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Knowledge of soil health NRCS has developed 17 indicators for soil quality

BY ERIN BECK South Dakota Farm & Ranch PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIN BECK

S

oil health: it’s the latest buzzword steamrolling its way through agriculture.

While soil scientist Anthony Bly understands attraction to new fads, he hopes interest in soil health doesn’t fall by the wayside.

“So many things come and go, and this one doesn’t need to go,” Bly said.

“The reason why it’s so important and why it can’t die is that societies are built on their resources. Food resources are a huge part of that. Without a good soil resource, that falls apart.”

Soil health is a term that’s often used but not understood. The concept stems back to a basic knowledge of the soil. Bly describes soil as a dynamic body that incorporates biology, chemistry and physics in

its role of supporting life. The Natural Resource Conservation Service has developed 17 indicators for soil quality that revolve around carbon, water filtration, nutrient cycling and soil structure. All of these factors are negatively impacted when tillage is introduced into the system.

“It’s all about producing food, and it comes from the soil,” Bly said. “Soil is not a medium. It has to be maintained and taken care of. The trend lately has been towards depletion.”

Dwayne Beck manages an extensive no-till operation at the Dakota Lakes research station near Pierre and has invested his career into creating agricultural systems that rebuild organic matter in the soil.

“The way we do agriculture is a mining system,” Beck said. “Long-term we can’t do what we’ve been doing.”

Beck believes that healthy soils can’t be built on tillage practices. In order to retain the natural cycling of the soil’s nutrients and imitate the native environment, his focus has shifted to reintroducing biodiversity into a no-till landscape.

Continued on page 25

Al Miron examines a shovelful of soil in one of his no-till cornfields. Since he started no-till farming in 1988, Miron has seen a noticeable increase in his soil’s organic matter and has dedicated his time spent farming to improve his soil.

24 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH JULY 2016

Continued from page 24 “The biggest challenge is to mimic the natural ecosystem processes, such as the water cycle, mineral cycles and energy cycles,” Beck said. “In farming we’ve forgotten that.”

Beck’s goal at Dakota Lakes is to replicate the biodiversity originally seen in the prairie. Through no-till, diversified rotations and cover crops, he has developed a versatile system to retain nutrients in the soil and build up organic matter. Beck is also beginning to experiment with integrating livestock back onto crop ground. All of these practices are strategies to prevent soil erosion and plant material from leaving the land.

“Ecosystems aren’t designed to leak,” Beck said. “They’re designed to cycle.

The ultimate goal has to be eventually to close the loop on the cycle of nutrients entering and leaving.”

Al Miron farms about 1,500 acres with a neighbor near Crooks using no-till.

Miron, an animal nutritionist and consultant, started farming in 1972 using conventional farming methods.

“I was a part of that at that time,” Miron said. “We were doing extensive tillage. I could see what was happening to the soil even at that time.”

Miron’s concerns with wind and water erosion motivated him to transition to no-tilling in 1988. Despite the dry conditions, Miron’s yields turned out better than the national average.

“I basically never looked back after that with respect to no-till,” Miron said.

Since switching to no-till, Miron has seen an increase in soil organic matter.

Soil tests dating back to 1975 showed an average of 2.5 percent organic matter on his property, with some tests reading as low as 0.7 percent on eroded hillsides. Now Miron’s soil samples are averaging 4.5 percent.

Miron has discovered that the amount of organic matter in his soil impacts water retention. A 1 percent increase in organic matter increases the soil’s ability to retain 0.5 to 1 inch of additional rainfall and also sequesters additional carbon and nitrogen in the soil. Tillage does the opposite, with each pass leading to a loss of approximately half an inch of moisture.

The biological activity within Miron’s soils has also increased since his switch to no-till. Earthworms and microbial activity enhance the soil’s ability to filtrate water and cycle nutrients more efficiently. A faster infiltration rate has reduced erosion on Miron’s land.

“Tillage destroys macropores and fills up those pores,” Miron said. “If those pores are sealed off, they can’t absorb water.”

Though a common misconception is that no-till results in a weed patch for a field, Miron has learned that with proper management, weeds are no more a problem than they are with tillage. The weeds he controls have changed, but Miron combats this with appropriate herbicides and timing of his applications.

“I don’t feel I use any more herbicides now than I did when I was doing tillage,” Miron said.

While Miron has successfully implemented no-till practices and is now experimenting with cover crops in his never-ending quest to improve his soil, some farmers are still skeptical of the benefits of no-till, especially in areas that are already wet. But with the technology that is available to control water in the soils, Bly has seen successful farmers increase organic matter in their soils using no-till even in wet conditions.

“It’s a mind shift,” Bly said. “You have to be somewhat educated and do your homework and understand that it has its challenges like tillage farming.”

Bly admits that farmers closing in on retirement age are less willing to change to no-till. Rebuilding soil health is a slow process requiring several years to see marked improvement, but it isn’t only about impacting tomorrow. It’s about thinking ahead to future generations. Bly believes the key to improving the momentum of soil health lies in investing in younger farmers.

“There will be a tipping point someday,” Bly said. “If we continue to look at crop production on an annual basis without looking at soil maintenance costs, which is soil health, someone’s going to pay for that in the end.” 

Top: Miron conducts a filtration test on his soil by pouring water into a metal ring driven into the ground. In his no-till field it takes approximately six minutes for two inches of water to soak in, compared to a neighboring tilled field that required five and a half minutes for one inch of water. Middle: Al shows the earthworm activity and even distribution of moisture across the soil after the water has soaked in. In tilled fields the soil will still remain dr y and compacted around the outer edge of the ring.

Bottom: He points out the earthworm activity taking place in his soils thanks to no-till practices. Disturbing the soil not only increases compaction but eliminates microbial processes and earthworms that improve water infiltration.

JULY 2016 SOUTH DAKOTA FARM & RANCH 25

CLUB CONNECT The following is a roundup of events and activities by various FFA and 4-H clubs in the region:

iLead SDSU Extension will host a showmanship training event on July 13 at the Davison County Fairgrounds in Mitchell, SD. iLead is dedicated to the vision that agriculture is for everyone and all should have the opportunity to learn, grow, as well as advocate for the industry. Through this event special needs youth will have the chance to show either a lamb, pig, or goat alongside two 4-H or FFA mentors. All youth involved, both participants and volunteers alike, will have the opportunity to further their leadership skills and have a voice for agriculture. For more information on the event please feel free to contact Amber Erickson at amber.erickson@sdstate.edu

the summer to complete LEGO construction challenges and learn about robotics in Burke.

Tripp 4-H Tripp County 4-H members were able to practice showing pigs while receiving feedback from 4-H alumni and experienced 4-H showmen.

On June 27th, Tripp County 4-H hosted an event covering swine health, and fitting & showing for swine, goats and beef. The sessions were led by a local vet, 4-H alumni and older 4-H members.

Aurora County 4-H

Above: Back row: Cortney Olinger, Megan Gillen, Kirstie Munsen, Shyla Tobin. Front row: Sidney McCord, Angela Munsen, Kyza Johnson, Josie McCord. Photo submitted by chaperone, Cristy Olinger (Country Kids 4-H Leader).

Aurora County 4-H kids attended Camp Bob Marshall in Custer, June 22-25. Educational sessions during camp included: waterfront/culture corner, craft, hike, pasta, international games and geo-jeopardy. The kids’ favorite sessions were the 1.4 mile hike around camp and making the African mask and Australian dot art crafts. The kids also enjoyed the waterfront where they were able to canoe, swim or fish!

Gregory County 4-H Gregory County 4-H’ers built and ran robots during a weekly engineering group workshop. Two groups of 10 youth will meet six times throughout Right: Gregory 4-H’ers showing off their robot.

Rright: Tripp 4-H members practice showing their pigs.

Mitchell FFA Chapter The Mitchell FFA selected its 2016-17 FFA officer team for the coming school year.

These six individuals will start their term with a weekend leadership retreat at the Black Hills, goal-setting and planning events and leadership activities for the coming school year. They also completed a dairy food promotion event at Davison Feed Supply to promote June Dairy Month on June 4.

Feed Supply to promote June Dairy Month on June 4.

Right (left to right): McKenzie Patton, President; Adrionna Long, Sentinel; Leah DiPippo, Secretary; Natalie Buckley, Treasurer; and Hailey Axemaker, Vice-President. Not pictured is Reporter Tegan Stunes.

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