SDARL Class IV Seminar 7

Milbank/Aberdeen

November 14-16, 2007

Dairy Industry/Expanding Agriculture in SD

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Our seminar was kicked off with a great lunch at the Milbank Dairy Institute (MDI).  After some opening comments from Dan Gee, we learned more about MDI. Howard Manlove the Dairy Farm Manager at MDI talked about the MDI operation.  Currently they milk 1900 cows three times per day.  The herd consists of ¾ Holstein and ¼ Jersey cows.  MDI is owned by the Milbank Community Foundation.

The next speaker at MDI was Jeff Loutsch who is the energy manager.  Jeff’s job is to operate the methane digester which takes animal waste from the cattle and converts the waste to methane gas which powers a large generator that provides electricity.  The bi-product from the methane digester provides bedding for the cattle.

Mark Leddy CEO of Valley Queen Cheese in Milbank was our next speaker.  Valley Queen Cheese was founded in 1929 and now employees 160 employees. Valley Queen produces cheese, lactose products and whey products.  Valley Queen is in the process of doing a plant expansion which will increase capacity 30%. After Mark’s presentation we all tasted the great cheese made at Valley Queen.

After supper, Dick Shane and Dr. Ding Du, who are both from the SDSU Economics Department along with four students, shared their experience about a recent trip they took to China.  China is the destination of Class IV SDARL.  Their information and tips were very good and appreciated by all.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

We kicked off the day at 7:30 a.m. with a tour at the Valley Queen Cheese Plant in Milbank.  Our group was broken into four groups and received an excellent tour.  We were able to see how the cheese, whey and lactose processed.  Valley Queen currently processes the milk from 55,000 dairy cows.  We finished the tour with some cheese and crackers which was excellent.

At 9:45 a.m. we departed for Aberdeen to continue our seminar.  At 1:00 a.m. we met with Norg Sanderson from the Student Loan Finance Corporation and Steve Tye from IKOR.  Norg talked about the Student Loan Corporation and free enterprise.  Norg also shared some thoughts about creating new ideas and solving the needs of people.  Steve talked about the IKOR company which is working on extracting blood from cattle at slaughter to make vet medicine and help humans who need blood.

Next we presented book reports on “Uphill Against Water” by Peter Carrels.  We were fortunate to have Peter Carrels at our meeting.  Peter listened to our book reports and made some of his own comments on the book.  Peter was very interesting to listen to.  This book was a classic David vs. Goliath.

At 5:00 p.m. we met the Rural Leadership North Dakota Class III, SDARL alumni and guests for a reception and an excellent dinner at the Flame Restaurant. Following diner we all viewed a film called “King Corn”.  This film was a documentary about corn.  After the film was over, we had a good discussion about the movie.  No one seemed to be very impressed with the film.
 

Friday, November 16, 2007

We kicked off the day with our leader, Dan Gee, discussing our international trip to China in February 2008.  After Dan told us everything we needed for the trip to China, we all agreed that we have a lot of work to do.  Everyone is excited about our trip to China.

At 9:15 a.m. Joe Senger, Senior Vice President for Dacotah Bank in Aberdeen, SD spoke to our group.  Joe talked about the Dacotah Bank system.  He also talked about the global demand for farm products.  Ethanol production & corn consumption in South Dakota were discussed.  Joe said land values and land rent costs continue to increase along with the need for larger lines of credits for the banks customers.

Our group then left Aberdeen and went to the Hutterville Colony located near Stratford, SD.  George Walder, the minister at Hutterville, gave us a excellent tour of their school.  The Hutterville Colony has the first colony high school in South Dakota.  We then had lunch at the colony.  Following lunch, George discussed the history of colonies and gave some information about the Hutterville Colony.  We also toured their new fish operation which is a new venture for Hutterville Colony.

The Hutterville Colony was our last stop for seminar 7.  We all left for home after another enjoyable and informative seminar.

Reporter: John Anderson