I got fired up meeting Holly Hoffman. She ranches with her husband Charlie, near Eureka, S.D., and has become a professional inspirational and motivational speaker. If she is ever speaking at an event near you, take the time to go to listen to her. You won’t be disappointed. In 2010, Hoffman was looking for a new challenge when youngest of her three children entered college. The 44-year-old could have gone back to school herself, gotten a new job in town or even competed in a…

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Dawn Scheier, Salem, S.D., says decided to get more involved in advocating for agriculture when her daughter’s college economics professor told the class -- “you couldn’t you couldn’t find a family farmer if you tried” -- and her daughter stood up and told them about her family farm and spent the rest of the period answering questions about farming and food production. “It was a wake-up call for me,” Dawn told Agriculture United For South Dakota…

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Check out the video, “We Built This Country On Family Farms,” by Rachel Schartz and Liz Renner, of the West Central FFA. It’s my favorite video in South Dakota Soybean’s 2012 FFA Video Contest. South Dakota Soybean created the contest to involve youth in the advocacy of today’s modern agriculture and the soybean industry. The contest was open to all high school FFA students in South Dakota. South Dakota Soybean recently posted the top 10 submissions…

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Ted Smith, an engineer at Sioux Valley Energy, Colman, S.D., took vacation last week to volunteer at Farm Rescue – the nonprofit that plants and harvests crops for farmers who have suffered a major illness, accident or natural disaster. He was planting soybeans at the Gary and Linda Mark farm near Ypsilanti, N.D. Markhad fallen from ladder and broken his legs earlier in the winter. Smith didn’t know the Marks, but was more than willing to volunteer. “Farm Rescue helped a…

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I had the opportunity to meet Troy and Bobbie Uglem, of Northwood, N.D., the other day. They were recently named one of four National Outstanding Young Farmers by the National Outstanding Young Farmers of America Fraternity. The couple, who began farming in 1999, grow spring wheat, soybeans, winter bean, corn, black turtle beans, dry peas and spearmint. Both Troy and Bobbie are in their 30s. They have four kids. Troy is a North Dakota State University graduate, who farmed with his parents…

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It’s time to nominate a farmer or rancher you know for the Dakota Farmer’s Master Farmer award. Master Farmer is an award for men or women who are actively farming or ranching. It recognizes them for their farm or ranch management achievements and their involvement in their communities, schools, churches, industry groups or other organizations. Each year, two farmers or ranchers from North Dakota and South Dakota are recognized as Master Farmers. To download a nomination form, go…

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I’m always on the look out for the prettiest places in the Dakotas. The Doug and Christine Wevik farm near Beresford, S.D., certainly qualifies. Christine has turned part of the shelterbelt between their home and their grain bin site into a secret garden. Over the past 13 years she’s replaced the trees with flower beds, rock paths, ponds, gazebos, arches, benches and much more. The garden has the look of a Victorian sanctuary. Many visitors stop by to see the garden. Christine…

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I can imagine how the parents of a 2-year-old Plankinton, S.D., boy who recently got lost in a cornfield felt. The boy disappeared obne afternoon into a 340 acre cornfield and wasn’t found until the next morning. My son and his wife, and their four kids visited me and my wife over the weekend, and I lost one the twins. The two boys – Dylan and Jackson, age 3 -- were sitting in the living room playing with cars quietly one minute and the next minute one of them was gone. I…

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"So did you make it back from Brazil?" my brother emailed me the other day. He he had been reading my blogs and noted that I stopped writing after one of the last days we spent touring the countryside. I did make it back. I survived the 36 hours of traveling from Iguassu Falls to Sao Paulo, to Miami, to Chicago and finally to Fargo. Or at least my body's back. My head's still in Brazil -- somewhere out there in the jungle. I keep thinking about the things I saw -- the…

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Tomorrow I take off for Brazil. I'm representing Farm Progress Companies on a trip with a delegation from the Illinois Soybean Association. To prepare for the trip I did all the usual things -- packing, making sure I had everything on the list, etc. I also took one last ride on the snowmobile around the farmstead where I live and work outside of Fargo. I promptly buried the the snowmobile in a drift back in the shelterbelt and spent around two hours digging it out. By the time I was done, I…

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