ountry C cres A
A Supplement to the Star Shopper
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Friday, Nov. 17, 2017 • Edition 17
The presidential turkey flock Wittenburgs prepare for journey to White House By ALLISON NORGREN Freelance Writer
ALEXANDRIA – Many would say visiting the White House would be an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity. Their hope would be to be honored for a great achievement. Carl and Sharlene Wittenburg will fulfill that dream this Thanksgiving, when they present two turkeys to President Trump for the annual National Thanksgiving Turkey Pardoning. Carl is the incoming chairman of the National Turkey Federation. After 10 years of service, the chairman has the privilege of raising and presenting the turkeys during the traditional ceremony the week of Thanksgiving at the White House PHOTOS BY ALLISON NORGREN
Sharlene and Carl Wittenburg are pictured with a few of the presidential flock finalists in their barn near Alexandria.
CORN PICKERS
PRESIDENTIAL FLOCK continued on page 4 PHOTOS BY KATELYN ASFELD
Ken Jenc picks corn using a John Deere 300 corn picker. The machine picks and husks the corn, leaving the kernels on the cob. Jenc picks around 20 acres of corn on his farm.
Jenc family carries out long-established harvest practice By KATELYN ASFELD Staff Writer
ELROSA – The corn crib; it is one of agriculture’s many historical structures. Throughout the countryside, empty corn cribs can be spotted on farms. Some may remember when mom and dad, grandma or grandpa had corn cribs stocked full of cob corn. Some may even remember picking corn and filling the cribs themselves. Most corn cribs sit empty and unused, but not all. Drivers passing by the Ken and Delores Jenc farm during harvest time may see Ken picking corn in his field with his John Deere 300, three-row narrow corn picker. They fill their corn cribs with cob-corn every year. Ken grew up on a dairy farm in Todd County and Delores grew up on the farm the Jenc family calls home now. They are the fourth generation of farmers on the land.
Throughout the years, Ken has had a variety of different jobs. He worked at a grain elevator in West Union, as a mechanic for John Deere in Long Prairie and went on to build silos with Hanson Silo Company for some time. Building silos required a lot of travel, which became taxing on the new family. Delores and Ken have five children – one son and four daughters. For Ken, it was not a family life for Delores to care for the kids alone when he was away for work. “When you live on the road like that, you never eat in the same restaurant twice, never sleep in the same bed twice,” Ken said.
Ken was able to leave his job building silos and work full-time on the farm. Ken is one of the few farmers that still picks cob-corn and stores the cobs in corn cribs. “It is not as hard of work as everyone thinks,” Ken said. Prior to galvanized steel grain bins, corn cribs were the method of storing and drying grains. Whole-cob corn could be dried easier and kept longer than shelled corn in corn cribs. Farms were smaller in the past and most farmers planted, harvested and stored corn primarily to feed their animals. Very little corn was hauled off the farm and sold to an elevator.
Ken likes to use cob corn for feeding his heifers, steers and calves. Prior to feeding the cattle, Ken grinds the cobs and kernels. “It is healthier for the animals. I put some shelled corn in with it,” Ken said. Ken explained that the cobs add substance that is not present in shelled corn alone. The Jenc family picks about 20 acres of corn depending on the yield. The rest of the corn is combined and stored in the bins.
CORN PICKERS continued on page 6