Today's Farm - Fall 2023

Today’s Farm

Luke Gordon to receive American FFA Degree Award to be presented during 2023 national convention

BY JULIE BUNTJER The Globe

WORTHINGTON — A 2022

Worthington High School graduate will receive the highest honor in the FFA organization during the National FFA Convention in early November in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Luke Gordon, now a junior at South Dakota State University, recently learned he will be among the 2023 recipients of the American FFA Degree. He will be the 28th individual in the history of the Worthington FFA Chapter to receive the award. He is also the first in his family to earn the American degree, which comes with a gold FFA emblem and certificate.

“I was pretty excited,” Gordon said of learning in mid-August that he would receive the honor. WHS FFA Advisors

Matt Tripp and Katie Christopher shared the news with him. “It meant a lot to me that I was chosen; being the

first one in my family was a pretty cool accomplishment for me.”

While Gordon isn’t sure if he will be able to accept the American FFA degree in person in Indianapolis, he can be assured his name will join the high school’s coveted list of recipients on a display in the ag room. It’s a display he’d admired as a student and, much like others who go through the program, was challenged by.

“When I first started FFA, I was really passionate — really excited — to get involved,” Gordon shared. “We have a big chapter and a lot of my friends were involved (in the organization).

“There’s a state degree wall and American degree wall,” he added. “Finding family members’ names on the state degree wall was really good motivation to want to do that as well.”

GORDON: Page 15

Contributed / Luke Gordon

$500M soybean plant breaks ground, while announcing joint ownership

State, local dignitaries celebrated as plant officially broke ground under its new name

BY MARCUS TRAXLER Mitchell Republic

MITCHELL, S.D. — State and local dignitaries celebrated Tuesday as the $500 million soybean processing plant 2 miles south of Mitchell officially broke ground under its new High Plains Processing name.

As part of the Tuesday event, High Plains announced its will co-own the facility with BP Products North America as a “joint venture.” Chicago-based BP Products North America is a subsidiary of global oil and gas company BP.

South Dakota Soybean Processors CEO Thomas Kersting said there’s been more than two years of planning for the project, which only intensified over the last two months to sign agreements with BP and bankers, and with contractors on the project.

“It’s very real now,” Kersting said. “There’s been a lot of buildup to this day, not just the planning for it but all of the work over the last two years and the last two months have been off the hook.”

SOYBEAN: Page 12

From left, High Plains Partners board members Mark Hyde, Jonathan Kleinjan, Craig Weber, Gov. Kristi Noem, Tom Kersting, Mark Hagan and Carl Odde break ground of the High Plains Processing soybean processing plant on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, near Mitchell. Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

Kuhl has high hopes for the future as she heads to veterinary school

BY STEWART CHISHAM The Globe

WORTHINGTON — In the rural climate, one thing that brings us together are the critters we care for. While we do a lot for our animals, our animals do a lot for us in return, bringing love, support and fun to our lives.

There’s no wonder then why many aspire to help our furry friends along the way, and Worthington High School graduate Layne Kuhl is no exception, the young woman now continuing her long journey of becoming an area veterinarian.

As a child, Kuhl had seen herself becoming a teacher like her mother. After all, she’d

always been helping out in the classroom for as long as she could remember.

However, those initial prospects changed with time, as another passion quickly developed in the young girl.

Bonding with the family dog Charlie, a miniature poodle, and later the spunky Shih Tzu mix Nino, it was evident from the start that she had a deep appreciation for animals.

In the third grade, Kuhl had shown Charlie in the 4-H dog show, but other than that, it was more of a hobby than anything else, due to her busy lifestyle.

Our Version of Crop Rotation

farmers feed the world, we quench the world’s thirst!

Layne Kuhl smiles for the camera with two lambs in tow. Contributed / Layne Kuhl

KUHL: Page 10

Farm toys help keep farm memories alive

Two displays at a recent farm toy show in Wisconsin will be featured at the 46th National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa

BY NOAH FISH Agweek

CASHTON, Wis. — Harvest season is around the corner and that means this year’s farm toy show season is underway.

One of the early shows of the year was held recently at Cashton High School by the school’s FFA chapter. Cashton is a village in Monroe County that’s nestled in the Ocooch Mountains on Wisconsin’s western border.

Kori Blank is the agriculture instructor and FFA advisor at Cashton.

“Every year during our fall fest, the Saturday after Labor Day, we have vendors come in and we have a toy show,” Blank said on Sept. 9. This year, the show featured 52 tables filled with toys and farm memorabilia. Blank said the toy show has been a tradition for the FFA chapter since she was in middle school.

“At least 15, and closer to 20 years now,” she said of the annual

show. “My brother is actually one of the former founders that began having the toy show.”

Blank, who was born and raised on an area farm, said the farm toy show was a tradition she was excited to continue when she became FFA advisor. She said there’s a lot of attention around farm toy shows in the area and in the Midwest.

“There’s definitely a group that collect them and love it, and I have some family members that are very into it as well,” Blank said. “There’s a few vendors here that go all over the place, and in this tri-state area.”

Two of those individuals were Harvey Miller of Holmen, Wisconsin and Greg Rand of Melrose. Both were at the Cashton show in preparation for this year’s National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa, known as the “Granddaddy” of all farm toy shows.

TOYS: Page 13

Noah Fish / Agweek

Greg Rand, right, explains to visitors at the Cashton FFA Farm Toy Show on Sept. 9, 2023, his 90s scale model farm.

Study takes deep dive on cover crop data

BY JEFF BEACH Agweek

FARIBAULT, Minn.

— Which cover crops provide the most benefit to a farm’s bottom line?

That’s what a Minnesotabased research project is trying to figure out.

“The objective of our research isn’t to persuade farmers to adopt cover crops,” said Vincent Gauthier, manager for climate-smart agriculture with the Environmental Defense Fund.

“Our objective is to answer the economic questions that farmers have about cover crops. We want farmers to have solid financial data on

climate-smart practices like cover crops to inform their management decisions,” he said.

The Environmental Defense Fund, in collaboration with the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota State Farm Business Management program, and the University of Minnesota Extension’s Southwest Minnesota Farm Business Management Association, has completed the first year of a three-year study on how cover crops pencil out in different situations.

For Tim Little of Faribault, all he had to do was give permission for the study to access his data from South Central University in Mankato, said Little, who this year employed a drone service to fly on cover crop seed.

“Everything gets a

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cover crop, and nothing gets tilled,” said Little, who started going no-till in 2005, adding cover crops in 2013.

“We were kind of on the front end of this cover crop movement in our area,” said Little, who has used the Farm Business Management program at South Central to help manage his farm.

“It (the study) really didn’t change anything for us, because we’d been doing our bookwork with South Central, and so they just ear-tagged us as no-till cover croppers. We keep pretty good records as to what we put into each crop and then they’re kind of taking it from there.”

The study breaks down the data, taking into account things such as the cost of the cover crop seed and the herbicide used to kill it off, fuel use and savings, the farmer’s

time and labor, and various other factors. It also would factor in any revenue from the cover crops, and differences in yield.

It also differentiates farms in southern Minnesota, such as Little’s, with the northern part of the state.

In 2022, the study gathered financial data from 83 farms and 195 fields that are implementing cover crops and removed information that would identify the farms where the data came from.

“This spans almost the entirety of the ag production regions of Minnesota,” Gauthier said.

The group outlined three findings from the first year of the study: ► Farms planting cover crops are similar to the average Minnesota row crop farm.

► 2022 cover crop costs varied significantly based on their intended purpose: higher costs for crops intended for livestock feed and lower costs for non-feed cover crops.

► Net returns of commodity crops the year after cover crops were lower than the average Minnesota farm, except for wheat.

“Overall, we found that

farms not using cover crops on average had higher net returns per acre for corn, soybeans and corn silage than farms that were using cover crops,” Gauthier said. “On the flip side, wheat fields with cover crops had higher net returns than average wheat fields not using cover crops.”

STUDY: Page 6

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Vincent Gauthier

Gauthier said the study is making two types of comparisons.

“One is that we are comparing the 83 farms that are planting cover crops ahead of their corn, soybean, wheat and corn silage crops to the average Minnesota farms growing that are not using cover crops. But we’re also evaluating the difference within the group of farms that are planting cover crops. So within that group, they have fields where they are planting cover crops and then they have fields where they’re not planting cover crops so we can evaluate the financial performance of the fields on the same farm that are using cover crops and those that aren’t,” he said.

BREAKING IT DOWN

The study categorized five types of cover crop systems:

► Rye

► Rye used for silage

► Cover crops used for forage

► Cover crop rye mix

► More diverse cover crop mix

The big difference in profitability? If the cover crops could be used to feed livestock.

Gauthier said those that used rye silage had gross returns of $191 per acre on average. Meanwhile, the crops that

were used for soil health purposes had lower revenues but could still count some revenue from cost-share and incentive programs.

PRICELESS

Little doesn’t have livestock at his farm but is still an advocate for cover crops. He said he hasn’t taken a hit on yield and especially has seen benefits on soil moisture penetration.

He routinely carries a shovel through his fields to dig and check for earthworms, which loosen the soil and stimulate microbial growth.

“We’ve noticed our infiltration is way better,” Little said. “My organic matter is starting to creep up. I’ve cut back on my fertilizer costs.”

It was a year of heavy rains and thinking about weather extremes and erosion that inspired him to look into cover crops.

“My big thing is you can’t put a price on soil loss,” he said.

He said he also spends less time and money running for parts with less wear and tear on his tractors and equipment. But there are trade-offs.

“You don’t spend as much time hanging onto a steering wheel because you’re not making all the passes,” Little said. “But use that time to manage. With these cover crops, there’s more management.”

STUDY: Page 14

Jeff Beach / Agweek

Jordan Stickle, left, and Jeff Jirik fill a drone with cover crop seed north of Faribault, Minnesota, on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Stickle flies on cover crop seed with the drone.

Rural Fulda farmer earns Ag Water Quality certification

Jared Arens is 17th Murray County farmer to be certified

BY JANE TURPIN MOORE The Globe

FULDA — A commitment to leaving the land in the best possible condition for future generations motivated Jared Arens on his journey to becoming one of Murray County’s most recent water quality-certified ag producers — a designation he achieved in July.

“I believe in the importance of soil conservation, and that water quality is directly correlated with soil health practices,” said Arens. “For my operation, this means I implement reduced tillage practices to control soil erosion and build soil health.”

Danielle Evers, the Southwest

Minnesota Area Certification Specialist covering 11 counties for the Pipestone Soil and Water Conservation District, applauds Arens for the steps he’s taken to ensure soil and water quality.

“A lot of Jared’s property was already at a high level of management to mitigate risk, but with the water quality certification process, we identify any potential risks to water quality,” said Evers.

“There were only a couple of things Jared needed to do (beyond the changes he’d already made), like treating and closing his open tile intakes.”

FULDA: Page 8

Contributed / Jared Arens Jared and Morgan Arens are shown with their three young children: seven-year-old son Rhett, three-year-old daughter Raina and four-month-old son Rustin.

The Minnesota Ag Water Quality Certification Program, initiated in 2015, is voluntary and available to any producers in the state, with some potential benefits in the form of state and federal dollars to help make the conservation changes.

As of Sept. 5, 1,384 state producers were certified, including 212 in southwest Minnesota. Arens is the 17th certified farmer in Murray County, Evers reported.

“We’ve done a lot of economic studies on this and learned that farmers who are water qualitycertified have been showing a better return on investment,” said Evers.

Arens, the son of Michael and Julaine Arens and a 2008 Fulda High School graduate, currently manages 700 acres of row crops

and about 150 acres of pasture on property about four and a half miles southwest of Fulda. His father functions both as his landlord and fellow farm worker.

In addition, Arens is a sales agronomist with Country Pride Services in Fulda.

“In my line of work, I’ve found there can be some reluctance among producers to make changes,” said Arens.

That tendency extended to his own father, who was initially hesitant to try some of the soil- and water-friendly tactics Arens was interested in employing.

As a result, Arens gradually implemented no-till and strip-till farming over the last 10 years, starting with just a few acres and increasing the involved acreage little by little as it became clearer the process was tenable.

“My yields have either maintained or climbed

in that time,” said Arens.

“I can’t attribute all of it to the changes in tilling — yields have been generally higher due to genetic improvements — but my yields have been no different from some surrounding producers who are still using traditional tillage methods.”

No-till and strip-till farming isn’t always pretty, Arens admits, but he finds his reduced-till fields are more resilient and retain moisture better.

“In the springtime after planting, my fields might look a little shaggy and baggy because no-till crops don’t look quite as perfect and even, but by the time July rolls around, good things seem to emerge from that ugliness,” said Arens. “The fields tend to hold in the moisture better, but there’s some give and take because that same quality is what can sometimes make planting a little

more difficult.”

On the other hand, no-till and strip-till farming require less labor and equipment.

“It saves us about two or three trips across the field each year,” said Arens.

GROWING CROPS, CATTLE AND KIDS

Arens, 33, and his wife Morgan, 32, have three young children: sevenyear-old son Rhett, threeyear-old daughter Raina and four-month-old son Rustin.

Morgan grew up on a farm near Redfield, S.D., a small town located about 40 miles south of Aberdeen. The pair met in college at South Dakota State University, where Arens earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy. Morgan taught first grade for the past nine years but is currently concentrating on the home front.

“Some of the things I’m implementing I picked up on in college, some in

my job and some from my father-in-law in South Dakota, where these practices are a bit more common,” said Arens, listing his agricultural influences.

As a young farmer, Arens heard area producers attest that southwest Minnesota’s heavy clay soils, which can be quite heavy and wet in the spring, were not great candidates for no-till and strip-till.

“But there are ways to make it work, and I’ve found those ways,” he said.

There’s a lengthy agricultural heritage in Arens’ lineage and farming became his passion before he’d even hit kindergarten.

“My dad farmed on a smaller basis so it wasn’t his main thing, but I’ve been all about farming since I was three or four years old — from the moment I was big enough to get up in the cab and ride,” said Arens, who

has two older sisters. “I wasn’t interested in sports or hunting — just farm, farm, farm,” he laughed. “I do it for work, for fun, everything, and I’m always trying to learn more about farming and try to make things work well.”

Arens’ agricultural involvement was accelerated when his dad was hit by a cement truck in a 1999 accident that required rehabilitation time, both physically and from the traumatic brain injury he suffered.

“I was only nine years old when that happened, so I got more responsibility than an average nine-year-old might have otherwise had,” said Arens. “Dad rented me his farm when I was fresh out of high school — my first crop was when I was 20 — and he gave me a lot of free rein, more than I see some other young people getting.”

Goats, sheep help conservation efforts at Sherburne County park

BY TRENT ABREGO

St. Cloud Live

ZIMMERMAN, Minn.

— In an effort to restore native prairie habitat at Grams Regional Park, two Sherburne County organizations have collaborated to receive a grant that has been used for a number of different restoration efforts.

That includes conservation grazing by 200 to 400 goats and sheep.

“(It’s) an organic method of preparing a site for native prairie restoration is conservation grazing,” said Gina Hugo, parks coordinator for the Sherburne County Parks and Recreation Department. “So we, essentially, want the animals to wreck a pasture to help by eating it down to just the nub.

“They ate it right down to the soil and we did that three times now.”

The program focused on restoring and enhancing diverse native habitat while benefiting pollinators and insects.

The first grazing was in mid-August 2022 and that continued for a number of other instances, according to Hugo and Frances Gerdes, who served as the project organizer and planner with the Sherburne County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Most recently, those animals returned in the spring to trample in native seed that was installed and graze down any of the unwanted vegetation, according to Gerdes.

And, there’s a possibility that the goats and sheep will return next spring to open up the canopy and allow for further germination, Gerdes said.

While the prescribed burn, three conservation grazing sessions and seeding has been completed, the project will

continue to develop.

“Prairies evolved over many, many years and they are always changing. They’re really dynamic and they always need that disturbance regime, and so that’s something we’ll continue to monitor,” Hugo said.

BENEFITS OF GRAZING

Grazing is thought to be re-emerging, according to Hugo.

“(Grazing) is something that maybe used to be done before we had synthetic chemicals and before we had gas-powered cultivation. I think animals were probably

application and can’t do mechanical site prep.”

The park is highly used by people walking their dogs or children playing, Gerdes said.

“It’s just too steep of ground to work or mow or do anything with equipment. So this was a great way because goats and sheep are pretty agile. They can work steep slopes without any problems,” Gerdes said.

Throughout the process, Hugo said they saw more benefit with sheep grazing as opposed to goats, because the former typically does a better job on grassy types of vegetation.

The animals used for conservation grazing were contracted by Minnesota Native

Hugo said.

Before the grazing took place first last summer, a prescribed fire burn was conducted in July of that year, to prevent bush and trees from overtaking the prairie and the buildup of dead vegetation that encourages weeds.

“Once a prairie is more established, we usually say that’s about three to five years. Then after that, some kind of disturbance regime happens … So a fire one year, grazing one year, maybe mowing one year and continuing on throughout the life of the prairie,” Hugo said.

EFFORTS AIMED TOWARD HELPING AT-RISK SPECIES

This past spring, planting took place

Animals sit during a grazing session as part of the Grams Park Prairie Restoration near Zimmerman. Contributed / Sherburne County

GOATS: Page 10

“There were a lot of general projects,” Kuhl shared. “I played piano, did dance for a long time; when I was in high school, I played hockey and volleyball. I was busy doing all sorts of activities and trying to be as broad as I could.”

However, when she first discovered the world of veterinary medicine as a high school freshman, it was love at first sight.

“My first job, when I was 14, was working at the vet center in Worthington,” Kuhl said. “I really just fell in love with it.”

Putting in the hours at the Veterinary Medical Center VMC for much of high school, she found inspiration in one Dr. Connie McNab. “I love how she approaches everything in vet med, allowing me to help with different things, she’d probably be my biggest (inspiration),” Kuhl shared.

After having a pleasant experience working with McNab, Kuhl further pursued animal sciences at South Dakota State University, where she remembers the sheep unit particularly fondly.

“It was a very cool experience, one I hadn’t been around before,” Kuhl said.

Having spent a few more summers

shadowing and working as a veterinary assistant, Kuhl is ready to move on to the next step of her journey, seeking her doctorate in the Twin Cities.

Kuhl is now attending the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

For the next four years, she will be spending her time learning the ins and outs of animal medicine.

“My undergrad was really focused on animal science and large animals, taking care of them in a production sense and the like,” Kuhl said. “Here it’s a lot more medical, focusing on anatomy and disease, treatment — small animals too. I’m really excited to learn some more practical skills specific to what I’m gonna be doing.”

During her days off, Kuhl said she hopes to walk the numerous trails and parks of the Twin Cities with her one-year-old labradoodle Frodo. Her quiet time will also include plenty of reading, yoga and kayaking.

Following school, Kuhl plans on coming right back to Worthington, interested in practicing for the VMC or providing shelter medicine.

“If anybody is interested in pursuing vet med, I think it’s definitely a challenging course,” Kuhl said. “But if you stick to it and work hard, through a LOT of school, but if it’s truly what you want, you can definitely do it.”

When thinking about the seed mixes, Gerdes said they were intentional in choosing seeds that are beneficial to at-risk species. Such as the rusty-patched bumblebee, the first federally endangered species, Gerdes said.

“We know it is within Sherburne County, it has been identified in the Sand Dunes State Forest … So we know some specific species that it really likes,” Gerdes said.

Other species included the Uncas skipper, which is confined to a large complex of sand dunes restricted to an isolated population in Sherburne County, according to the Minnesota Department of Resources. To keep that butterfly, which is considered small with a robust body in the area, Gerdes said Hairy grama was planted.

“There’s a lot of thinking when you’re

creating a seed mix. You really have to think about ‘OK, what kind of insects and wildlife do I want to attract?’ ” Gerdes said. “... So a lot of thought went into planning these seed mixes that are going to be very diverse and have flowers blooming really early in the spring, all the way to late in the fall.”

ABOUT THE GRANT

The grant, a Habitat Enhancement Landscape Pilot, is a program focused on restoring and enhancing diverse native habitat on conservation lands and natural areas strategically located across Minnesota to address declining pollinators and other beneficial insects, according to the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources.

The grant was proposed to be used for site assessment, vegetation removal,

seedbed preparation, seeding and planting, establishment and aftercare and long-term management.

“That’s kind of the one thing about the grant funding we received, they’re very interested in kind of bringing back these more organic methods because there’s a lot of research coming out about the negatives of using so much chemical herbicides,” Gerdes said. “We’re really lucky we are kind of able to experiment on using this type of method with this funding that we have available for us.”

Funding was made possible through an appropriation from the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

Grams Regional Park is northeast of Zimmerman.

Reporter Trent Abrego can be reached a trent@ stcloudlive.com.

GOATS From Page 9

FULDA From Page 8

In addition to his 700 acres of row crops, Arens actively experiments. After all, he has 80 cows and their accompanying calves (plus, “I own 3.5 bulls,” he joked) to satisfy.

“I’ve started to dive into specialty crops more,” he said, noting that he planted oats for feed last spring, then used the field for dry hay and later planted millet.

“That made a second crop of feed,” he explained.

He’s also planted winter rye as a grazing feed, and he intends to

soon plant triticale, a wheat/rye hybrid that makes “really good forage” and is frequently used as a cover crop.

“My plan after that is to plant a second grazing cover crop mixture with a bunch of different grasses and some turnips and radishes,” Arens said. He uses another method with his cattle that he says isn’t as commonplace in the area.

“I try to keep the cows out in the field all winter long, and I drive the tractor out to the field to feed them there,” he said. “That spreads the manure around the field, which also reduces my costs and improves

the cattle’s health since they’re not confined in a small space.”

Admittedly, last winter’s heavy snowfall made that more challenging, but it was successful enough otherwise that Arens intends to keep it up.

“Every year I try something new,” said Arens. “There are always things I’d like to change and improve on, but everything takes time and money so I do what I can, step by step.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Arens looks to the future — including pondering whether or not any of his young

children might eventually follow in his agricultural footsteps — by considering the past.

“I do think about the Dust Bowl from time to time,” he said, recalling the enormous black dust cloud that blew across the area a few years ago when 70 mile-per-hour winds prevailed.

“That was just dirt in the air, but my soil stayed put. And when you see dirt in the ditches during the winter, that’s wind erosion,” he continued.

“The things I’m doing are a bandaid to slow down erosion — they won’t necessarily fix it — but we’ve had so much soil erosion over the last 100

to 150 years of farming that the least I can do is try not to make it any worse.”

His motivations are clear, both to him and to outside observers.

“If my kids want to farm someday, I want to keep the soil in the best shape that I can, and expand the farm so it could hopefully be an option for them,” said Arens, noting that his oldest son currently loves “playing” farm — building his own wooden toy farm buildings, looking forward to 4-H participation and riding in the tractor with his dad and grandpa Mike.

“And water quality? It’s

just obvious to me we’d want to protect the water as best we can, because this is where we’re living and breathing,” Arens added.

Evers confirmed that every farmer who takes the necessary steps to become water quality certified is helping everyone.

“By voluntarily adopting these conservation measures, they’re mitigating risk to our water quality and protecting our rivers, lakes and groundwater,” said Evers. “Everybody wants clean water to drink and recreate in, so it’s all to the public benefit.”

“Every year I try something new. There are always things I’d like to change and improve on, but everything takes time and money so I do what I can, step by step.”

Jared Arens

High Plains Partners is the new limited liability company that was formed for the new soybean processing plant’s business.

Kersting is on the board of directors for the new company, as are a number of former or current South Dakota Soybean Processors farmer-leaders.

“We initially thought we would try to do it under the South Dakota Soybean Processors name. But when we looked at our bylaws and operating agreement, we were limited on the size of any one investor and in order to get a project this big, it’s out of our capabilities to make this happen. We had to set up a different business structure to get the larger investors like BP.”

Kersting said maintaining local control of the project and having

Tuesday’s invitation-only event, which included the rollout of High Plains Processing’s branding, with a howling coyote logo and blue text, with Hors d’oeuvres on hand for attendees. High Plains Partners Board President Jon Kleinjan said following Tuesday’s event that the SDSP leaders took suggestions on the name and decided on High Plains over a Mitchell-centric name because of its regional and broader appeal.

this project is we have the opportunity here to look at every person here who might be an owner,” the governor said. “The owners are local. They’re also going to hold people more accountable when you’re local and I think that’s wonderful and why we’re such a success here in South Dakota.”

to an SEC filing, offering up to $230 million in investments into the business.

local leadership was important.

“We didn’t want to turn it over and just be a part of somebody else’s project,” Kersting said.

“We wanted to have that producer-type feel and involvement. We had to set up the agreements as such. But when you get guys putting in big dollars, they want to have an understanding of the project and they want to have some say in how it goes.”

The facility is being built on a 296-acre piece of land south of Mitchell along State Highway 37. The project is expected to be completed in late 2025, with the capacity to process 35 million bushels of soybeans each year, with the ability to process oilseed plants, as well. South Dakota produces about 200 million bushels of soybeans each year.

More than 300 people were on hand for

“We’re going to have producers within a 100-mile radius hauling their products here to this plant in Mitchell,” Kleinjan said.

The program included an unannounced appearance from Gov. Kristi Noem, who spoke for about 5 minutes and left at the end of the public program following the ceremonial shovel-and-dirt photo opportunity.

Noem said she appreciated the investment, which will help not only the community but the workforce needs and diversifying the economy to “stabilize every single family and every single person that lives and works here.” She also spoke about her regret in not investing in the initial SDSP facility in Volga, which opened in 1996.

“This is what I wish we could do every single day in South Dakota. … What’s so neat about

According to filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, SDSP entered into a guarantee agreement regarding investment into the plant on Sept. 7. In it, South Dakota Soybean Processors will guarantee certain financial obligations of High Plains Partners, which has committed to investing at least $192 million into High Plains Processing. A total of $80 million has been raised from regional investors into the project, surpassing Kersting’s goal of $20 million when the project started. The minimum investment into High Plains Partners was $25,000, according

Economic development incentives have helped support the project. A tax-increment financing district of $21.2 million was approved in 2022 by Davison County to help cover roadwork, infrastructure and parking, and a reinvestment payment program was approved by the South Dakota State Board of Economic Development earlier this year for $6.6 million (not to exceed the sales and use tax on the project), which will offset upfront costs associated the project. Last week, the James River Water Development District approved a request from High Plains Processing for funding a retention pond on the site for $38.750.

Kersting said some site and dirt work is already underway, while the substantial construction phase will

be able to begin later this fall when High Plains receives its air quality permit from the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He is hopeful that structural concrete pillars will be able to be built into the ground by the time winter comes. The facility is expected to employ 85 full-time employees when it opens, and those employees are expected to be part of a $5.6 million payroll. Mitchell development leaders dangled a recruiting incentive as part of the event, as well, as part of the announcement. Starting Oct. 1, new workers who move to and live in Mitchell from out of state can earn a up to a $1,000 bonus from the Mitchell Area Development Corporation, the MADC’s Executive Director Geri Beck said, who noted the organization has joined Noem’s out-of-state workforce marketing campaign to recruit workers.

SOYBEAN From Page 2

Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

An aerial view of the groundbreaking of the High Plains Processing soybean processing plant on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, near Mitchell.

Miller started collecting farm toys in 2008.

“When I originally started going to these shows I could probably fill one 4x8 table, and now I can fill four, pretty easily,” Miller said.

He said he buys most of his toys from estate and rummage sales along with antique malls.

“My brother and I, we go out to South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and make the routes,” Miller said.

His favorite pieces are tractors he grew up with, and Miller said most antique collectors have that in common with him. The pieces that are

most special to them, or what gets them hooked on farm toys, are the ones that ignite personal memories.

“I never thought I’d be a collector,” Miller said. “But when my brother and I were out in Mitchell, South Dakota, of all places, I spotted a Massey-Harris 44.”

That was the tractor loaned to his family when another one of their tractors had to be sent to the shop for repair.

“We ended up doing a lot of work with that,” he said.

So he bought the toy version of it. And when they got to the next antique store, he saw more memories on the wall.

“That was in Tea, South Dakota, where my brother knew of a bigger antique store,” Miller said. A wall of farm toys greeted them. He ended up buying an Allis Chalmers D17 and a McCormick-Deering, because he had those on the farm.

THE CIRCUIT

Miller said the fall is the beginning of the farm toy show circuit. He had two more shows in Wisconsin he was selling at before the big show in Dyersville, which he said he was on the vendor waiting list for three or four years before getting in.

“I’ve sold there for six years now, and I’ve got clientele built up,” he said of the Dyersville show. “One guy comes all the way from Texas, and he buys something from me every year.”

He said the show brings people from all over the world. Miller has sold toy tractors that have went back to England, the Netherlands and Germany.

FAMILY MEMORIES

Greg Rand of Melrose, Wisconsin, found out just before the Cashton show that he’d been accepted to the Dyersville show for the first time this year, to

display his 90s scale model farm.

“This took about 15 years to build,” Rand said of the farm modeled after his family’s, which caught the attention of basically everyone passing through the farm toy show on Sept. 9. “Things that are displayed are farm machinery I had in the early ‘90s.”

The model is set in October, when corn was being picked and a third crop hay was being put in the silo for the last time of the season.

“The reason there’s multiple units of the same tractor is that it’s not just one day,” he said. “We’re not picking corn and trying to fill silo the same day. This might’ve been Friday, and that might’ve been Monday.”

Rand said they raised corn, oats and alfalfa on the farm along with milking about 50 cows.

“This is a bit of a relic now,” he said of the

diversified farm.

Rand and his wife, Dawn, have two daughters who are represented on the model farm. He pointed to the back of the house where there’s a basketball hoop.

“I’ve got a girl shooting a basket over there on the backside, that would have been my daughter, Emily, who was 7 or 8-years old, and would’ve been chucking a basketball by then,” said Rand, whose other daughter, Abby, is represented on the trampoline in front of the house.

He said his family was actively farming until 2000 and moved off the operation in 2010.

The model farm is a way to not only keep his memories alive of farming, but remind his children of their upbringing on the farm.

“Our daughters looked at it and got teary eyed,” Rand said. “They grew up on that.”

TOYS From Page 4

Noah Fish / Agweek

A scene in the 90s scale model farm made by Greg Rand at the Cashton FFA Farm Toy Show on Sept. 9, 2023.

“We’ll see how this plays out,” Little said, “but we’re definitely going to need a rain to get it started.”

BIG VARIATIONS

In the study, the expenses for the cover crops themselves varied significantly, from $14 an acre to $310 an acre, which correlated as to whether it was meant for silage and forage or if it was meant solely to improve soil health on the farm.

Overall, across all the cover crop fields that were evaluated, the direct expenses for the cover crop, on average were $74 per acre and a median of $52 per acre.

In most cases, the direct expenses of the commodity crop that was following a cover crop were lower than the average field that was not using a cover crop. In most cases, the cover crop group’s fields that had cover crop had higher yield than those same farm’s fields that did not have a cover crop.

“Which, you know, is interesting, since you’d expect and other research has found

that farmers oftentimes will plant cover crops on their lower producing fields as a way of managing the risk associated with trying a new practice,” Gauthier said. “But in this case, we were finding that, in Minnesota at least, the yields of the commodity crop following the cover crop was higher for the cover crop group than their fields that did not have cover crops.

“So that’s an interesting finding that we’ll be evaluating over the next few years to see if that’s a trend that continues.”

NORTH VS. SOUTH

Gauthier said there were more farms in the study in southern Minnesota than in the north, but the differences in the region were still interesting.

“Cover crops grown before corn were more successful in southern Minnesota than in northern Minnesota. But northern Minnesota farms that were using cover crops were spending more on machinery and other expenses. That made it

less cost-effective than the cover crop fields in southern Minnesota,” he said. “But we see a completely different story when we look at cover crops that are grown before soybeans. They were more successful in northern Minnesota than in southern Minnesota.”

He said the cover crop costs were actually higher for northern Minnesota, but the soybean yields after cover crops were higher in northern Minnesota, making them more financially profitable than in southern Minnesota.

Gauthier said the study data isn’t just for farmers, but for farm policy development, lenders and other advisers.

“We know that cover crops have soil health, erosion reduction and water management benefits,” he said. “And we want to develop financial solutions that allow farmers to use cover crops profitably, and we think that gathering solid, trustworthy financial data on the practice is critical in developing those solutions that are profitable for farmers.”

STUDY From Page 6

Jeff Beach / Agweek Jordan Stickle controls a cover crop seeding drone at the Tim Little farm near Faribault, Minnesota, on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023.

GORDON

From Page 1

For FFA members to get their name on either wall takes a lot of work. Each must be actively involved in the organization by attending chapter meetings, volunteering in community projects, selecting a Supervised Agricultural Experience, participating in Career Development Events and maintaining records of both chapter involvement and hours worked and dollars earned through their SAE.

Gordon served as the WHS FFA Chapter’s officer-at-large as a sophomore, followed by the COVID-19 year, in which there was an officer slate but no individual officer titles given, and then secretary of the chapter during his senior year. He was also the Region 6 FFA Treasurer as a junior.

“That was a really good experience, despite the fact that COVID ruined that,” he said.

Aside from his officer roles, Gordon was on the chapter’s Farm Business Management CDE team, which made it to state competition all four years he was on the team. He also took part in the Dairy Products CDE team.

Gordon explained that to earn the American FFA degree, a member must have previously earned the Greenhand, Chapter and State FFA degrees. Those awards are typically distributed as a sophomore, junior and senior in high school, respectively. They must also continue to maintain records of all FFA events they participate in at the region and national level.

In addition, the member must have earned $10,000 or more — or invested $7,500 or more — through their SAE, and invest a certain amount of hours in it.

Other requirements for

achieving the American FFA degree include having outstanding leadership abilities, a good scholastic record, and doing a minimum of 50 hours of community service that are unrelated to school.

“I get to go on a lot of mission trips through my church, volunteered at the food shelf (while on) the football team, made foster care bags through the FFA,” Gordon shared.

“I ended up with a lot of community service hours just by volunteering during high school.”

In addition to that, he had several different SAEs, including working on the family farm; getting a job with Ling Drainage, where he learned field drainage and tiling systems; working in concrete construction for LT1 doing sidewalks and parking lots, among other jobs, and then working alongside a veterinarian in a swine barn, where he learned more about the swine industry, including how to give medication and deliver piglets.

“My last SAE was working as a sales intern with C&B Operations in Worthington and Jackson,” Gordon said. “I learned the sales process, how equipment gets valued when it’s traded in, and why they price it the way they do.

“It was a really good experience to be in the ag industry and learning the process,” he added. “I really like agriculture.”

It was Gordon’s experience at C&B Operations that led him to his chosen major at SDSU — ag systems technology with minors in precision agriculture and ag business. He hopes to one day work in the precision ag field with John Deere, and help develop future technology and test it out.

“Precision ag is all about being more efficient in agriculture,” he explained. “We’re fortunate enough to have good equipment. A big thing is the yield

monitor — it tells you moisture content and yield on the go when you’re in the combine. It tells you what the crop is yielding at different points in the field.

“During planting, it tells you what variety you’re planting, along with information from the tractor and planter,” he added. “I like to work on the online platform where all that data comes into and analyze the data — what variety did the best and where in the field. It gives you a lot of information.”

On the farm outside of Worthington, Gordon said they use the John Deere software, but other manufacturers have similar programs.

Gordon, who earned his Associate of Arts degree from Minnesota West Community & Technical College in Worthington just weeks before earning his high school diploma, anticipates graduating from SDSU in May 2025.

He has three younger siblings, two of whom are currently in the Worthington FFA Chapter — Lance is a senior and Anna is a freshman. Brother Liam will likely follow in his older siblings’ footsteps and be in the FFA as well.

Gordon said reaching the level of the American FFA degree took a lot of work — paperwork, to be specific, but his FFA advisors at WHS kept working with him to help him reach his goal.

“The advisors do a good job of keeping up on us in case we want to do this someday,” he shared.

Gordon has several friends at SDSU who will also be receiving their American FFA degree this November — students who attended high school in either South Dakota or Minnesota.

American FFA degree recipients must be one year past high school, and be age 21 or younger to receive the award.