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A Supplement to the Star Shopper
Friday, March 16, 2018 • Edition 3
Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Farming and they grow it Peterson Farm Bros’ videos reach 50 million viewers By KATELYN ASFELD Staff Writer BRANDON – Internet plays a vital role for the millions of people in their everyday lives. It is used for research, entertainment, work, to connect with friends and family, to find ideas, resources … the list goes on. From the internet came social media platforms which made it easier for people to connect and share information with others about things going on in their everyday lives. For Greg Peterson, what started as a basic narrative video for friends has evolved into a series of musical parody videos that educate, inform and entertain millions of people. As a student at Kansas State University, Peterson, 26, wanted to show his friends, who grew up in the city, what life was like for him growing up on his family’s 2,000-acre beef farm near Assaria, Kan. He decided to create a video called “Wheat Harvest on a Real Family Farm in Kansas.” The video, narrated by Peterson, explains the process of harvest-
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
The Peterson Bros, Kendal (from left), Greg and Nathan Peterson have created 13 parody music videos about farming and have over 50 million views on YouTube.
ing wheat on Peterson Farms and it was uploaded in March of 2012. Shortly after his first video, Greg decided to create another one – this time, it would be a musical parody. Greg rounded up his brothers Nathan, 24, and Kendal, 21, and sister Laura, 17, to help him create it. The video, called “I’m Farming and I Grow It,” was a parody of the song
“I’m Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. It was filmed throughout the month of June 2012 and was uploaded to the Peterson Farm Brothers YouTube channel June 25, 2012. Within two weeks, the video received over 5 million views. The Petersons were astonished at how popular their video became and it instilled the motivation to create more. “People in the cities don’t want to
watch videos on farming unless there’s something that draws them in and that’s the music,” Peterson said. “People know the original songs and they watch the parodies.” The Petersons select songs based on their popularity; from there, they
FISHY BUSINESS Lake L k C Country t R Replicas li captures t es d detail t il off aquatic ti species i By KATELYN ASFELD Staff Writer HAWICK – Imagine yourself in a boat on a lake enjoying the calmness of the landscape as you fish and suddenly, you catch a whopper. You wrestle with it as you reel it in and finally get it into the boat. A rush of excitement runs through you as you hold up your trophy for a photo. After taking the measurements and admiring your beauty, it is time to release your catch. As you watch the fish descend back into the depths of the lake, you imagine how nice that fish would look mounted on the wall in your living room. One business helps to make that happen. Fred Roguske is the owner of Lake Country Replicas in Hawick. His business provides replicas to over 1,500 taxidermist customers each year. As a Wisconsin native and the son of a bait dealer, Roguske grew up fishing
and always had an interest in fish. Several years later, as an adult, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from Emory University, Atlanta, and went on to be a business man. “I’ve been involved in at least a dozen businesses and start-ups over the years,” he said. “I’m an entrepreneur.” Roguske owned a landscape business in the Willmar area for several years; he decided to sell it to engage in other opportunities. During the holidays in 2003, Roguske took a set of deer horns to a taxidermist for mounting. When he went to pick them up, he asked about the process of fish taxidermy. “The taxidermist showed me what he was doing in terms of molding fish to make replicas, and I looked at the quality,” Roguske said. “It was so much better than what the industry was doing. I thought that would be fun to market.” Roguske decided to finance the taxi-
dermist in his business of fish replicas and from that, Lake Country Replicas was founded in 2004. “I have a deep appreciation
FISHY BUSINESS continued on page 6
PHOTOS BY KATELYN ASFELD
Fred Roguske, owner of Lake Country Replicas in Hawick, holds a painted peacock bass replica March 8 in Hawick.
PETERSON BROS continued on page 5