SDARL members gathered in Yankton at the First Dakota National Bank Conference Center for Session 7 November 8, 9, and 10.  We began with each member giving a five minute presentation on high points in their lives since we were last together in June, fund-raising for SDARL, and impressions of the book, Who Moved the Cheese by Spencer Johnson. Many members reported surprising harvests in spite of the spotty rain.  Most members also reported having made initial contacts with potential donors to SDARL,  with follow-ups needed to "seal the deal."  Comments on the book ranged from self- identification with the characters Sniff, Scurry, Hem or  Haw, to prognostications of the ending by those who hadn't quite finished it, to acknowledgments that its theme of change hit home and promises of getting other members of their family/operation to read it.  All agreed that everyone was making progress in their ability to speak in front of the group.

 Larry Ward of Broin Enterprises was the first to address the group.  He gave pointers on effective boardsmanship.  To him, "initial structure and the players make all the difference."  Having members who were local leaders, not adversarial, have the right motives, and have business experience were all important traits he listed of effective board members.  He said the most common board mistake is micro-management of day to day activities, but that, on the other hand, the board must be astute enough to choose management that accepts responsibility for protection and advancement of the assets of the company.  He described the typical organization of their ethanol plants as a Section 521 co-op with a separate LLC to run the plant, but they have recently begun organizing as solely an LLC with varying classes of stock.

 Dan Gee presented the New Zealand/Australia agenda and reviewed a list of things to do to get ready for the trip.

 Thursday evening the group had supper at the Quarry Steakhouse.  After the meal Jim Petrik reported on a meeting he had attended in Yankton sponsored by  Waterkeepers, an environmental watchdog group that got its start cleaning up the Hudson River in New York.  Jim was quite concerned about the negative connotation the group was giving livestock operations as a whole and had written two letters to the editor in the local paper to try to clear up some of the issues the meeting had raised.

 Friday morning's main event was a debate and discussion among several of the most active participants in Yankton County's current zoning dispute. Denny Everson, First Dakota National  Bank,  began the morning with a recap of some of the events that led up to the current situation. A feedlot was proposed by the Heine brothers to be located 10 miles northwest of Yankton.  In response to the proposal, a zoning initiative passed 69% to 31%  March 20, 2001, that restricted 1500 head feedlots to a one mile setback from existing residences, and disallowed any feedlots over 7500 head.  On May 1, 2001, the Circuit Court rejected the legality of the initiative, and that has been appealed to the South Dakota Supreme Court.  In the meantime, a County Planning Commission was  reactivated on February 7, 2001, and it met for the first time in May of 2001

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 Each of seven participants had the opportunity to address the group, and then to rebut comments made by other members.  Ron Heine commented that the cost of public services increases when rural sprawl is allowed, and that "the primary purpose of rural areas is not to accommodate residential growth.  To keep our young people here we need to be able to use our ag land for agriculture."  Defending the rights of citizens to the initiative, Bernie Hunhoff pointed out that "people have a right to set our own laws." Todd Van Maanen, an engineer who has worked with several livestock projects said  "We've worked on cleaning up the sewer, water, and underground gas tank problems.  Now it's ag's turn."   He pointed out that obtaining the necessary permits from DENR is "the easy part; the county is the tough part."  He used Turner County as an example of a county where zoning has been used to kill a project rather than to promote one.

Dennis Michael, local farmer, past Pork Producers officer, and local planning commission member, blamed much of the local rancor on bad timing and rued the fact that Yankton County had not been prepared for this because they didn't have a zoning ordinance in place.  "There are lots of burned bridges in our community," he said.  "True zoning is the best use of the land; true zoning is when everyone is affected."

Joyce Franklin retired to a small farm from Pennsylvania close to the proposed feedlot.  She considered the new feedlot a new usage of the land.  "No one has the right to do something that's a detriment to their neighbor.  Yankton County isn't the right place for industrial agriculture," she said.  Guy Larson said big agriculture has to expect the same regulation as other industries.  He believes that development either must be suitably isolated or have the blessings of its neighbors.

When the discussion was over, Denny Everson was pleased that those seven players had all been in the room for an extended period of time without anyone getting into an argument.  Session Moderator Todd Bushong led a discussion of how effective each of the participants had been for their cause.  Opinions were not universal: some viewed the convictions of some participants  as very persuasive for their cause, while others perceived the approach as too abrasive to win converts.  Appreciation for calm attention to the facts by several members of the panel was expressed.

On Friday afternoon Ron Williamson addressed the group to explain his "Great Plains Public Policy Institute," a nonprofit 501(c)(3) think tank group he is spearheading.  He is hoping it can be used to make decisions that are based on information rather than a lack of it.   "We respond to crisis well, but we don't plan for the future well," he said.  Issues they have researched so far include state funded honor scholarships for all college students including private schools, the cost of remedial education, wind energy, and the costs of the lack of an energy policy.  He reviewed his personal history with South Dakota, which has included stints with the Legislative Research Council, South Dakota League of Municipalities, National Guard, Gov. Janklow's Chief of Staff, Adjutant General, and Sioux Falls Citibank CEO.  He advised that in working with communities we should "look for a success, get as many people involved as you can, and then brag about your success."  He also observed, "those communities that have reached down and worked with the younger generation are the successful ones."

Williamson also is hoping to begin a Great Plains World Trade Center that is going to test the effectiveness of the internet to do their job, i.e. trading online.  He also plans to use only the internet for communicating the issues on which they will be working.

Representatives from the Miner County Community Revitalization Project next addressed the group. Miner County has done some extensive work in community revitalization that has involved a very large segment of the population, and in doing so has developed community interest that helps them work together toward their common goal.  They were recognized for their efforts by being awarded a Northwest Area Community Foundation grant of $500,000.

As a 30 year teacher in the Howard school system, Mr. Parry began much of this work with a readings project at SDSU.  Two titles he recommended were Broken Heartland  by Osha Gray Davidson, What We Teach Rural Children  by Grukou, and Bowling Alone  by Robert Putnam  "We teach our students how to migrate outside the state," he said.

A few tangible results of their work include construction of new housing units, the opening of South Dakota Fish Producers Corporation, funding of a revolving loan fund, establishment of an arts council, and the construction of a small wind energy plant.  They used the skills of a hometown boy who had developed expertise in this field while away from Howard, and several local contractors were involved in its installation, so that they are creating their own knowledge base from which to draw for future similar projects in the area.

To complete the afternoon, group member Nate Franzen made a presentation on a feedlot cattle financing project he's been working on for First Dakota National Bank, which they call CattleMac. CattleMac works with feedlots that have passed the Bank's qualifications to finance cattle placed in that feedlot by other owners.

Friday evening the group was treated to a picnic at member John and Jackie Smith's farm shop.  There Bill Aeschlimann provided grilled lamb kabobs and Farm Credit provided the grill and the buffalo burgers.  After the meal Bill Aeschlimann made a short presentation on Bridgewater Meats and its owner Ilan Parente, who was unable to be with us.  Bridgewater Meats has found a niche in slaughtering animals for the kosher market. After the meal Wanda Blair entertained the group with a marvelous story presentation of ranch life, recreating for us a humorous look at a winter experience of pulling a stubborn tractor that won't start around the farm yard.

Saturday morning the group drove northwest of Winner to visit the Lakeview Hutterian Colony.    The Colony specializes in turkey and pork production.  Colony Secretary Joe Hofer first took us to the colony's modern machine shop, where several metal working machines are used to construct the modern grain  handling facilities needed by the colony.  Then we toured the modern feed mill, complete with overhead hopper bins,  trace mineral hoppers, grain handling options, mixers, and  computerized ration mixing controls. We  toured the turkey nursery, which is managed by Joe's son. The turkey nursery is heated with coal, which they explained was more cost-efficient than LP.  The colony hauls corn to Sheridan, Wyoming and hauls coal back on the return trip. The manager reviewed the detailed program of starting the turkeys, including complete disinfection of the barn between batches, barn temperature gradually decreasing from 100 degrees during the first days of life, a sophisticated ventilation control system from the Netherlands, and a health surveillance system based on constant monitoring of the weight of the  turkeys. The manager said that based on this weight information, they could tell within 30 minutes of when the turkeys became ill, whereas visually, disease wouldn't be detected for three days.  After one month in the nursery, the turkeys are moved to the naturally ventilated finishing barns, where they grow to a weight of 40 pounds.

The group viewed the hog finishing barns and new cattle pens.  Then we toured the colony's modern elementary school, where Mike, an official with the Hutterian conference, explained to the group some of the principles behind Hutterite education and social life, and the new approaches that some colonies are taking to education.  He noted that the Hutterville colony at Stratford is beginning a high school. Members of the group saw several modern classrooms, including a gymnasium, which, Mike explained, was quite unusual for a Hutterite school.  Several excited little girls proudly read their schoolbooks aloud to us.  We were next treated to a dinner of roast duck in the colony's dining hall,  followed by a capella vocal entertainment by the colony's young women, and adjournment to the colony chapel, where Mike further explained Hutterite philosophy and some of the trends he saw coming in their colonies' lives.  In his view, the colonies need to branch out into other enterprises besides agriculture, because the capital cost per job is so high in agriculture.   The group adjourned for trips home about 2:30 p.m.