Volume CX, No. 5 Huron, SD August 2025
A PUBLICATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA FARMERS UNION
SERVING SOUTH DAKOTA’S FARM & RANCH FAMILIES SINCE 1915. Ready Set Grow
A Look Ahead at Fly-In 2025
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Rural Youth Learn Policy
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Youth Get Hands On With Renewable Energy During Farmers Union Camp
Coloring Contest Winners
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Get to Know Insurance Agent Todd Nichols
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South Dakota Farmers Union Celebrates Minnehaha County Farm Family
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hat do paper plates, straws, water bottles and balloons have to do with renewable energy? Quite a bit if you are 12-year-old Carter Semrau. Working with fellow campers, the seventh-grader from Hartford used these items to build a model wind turbine and understand how corn ethanol is made.
State Camp Continued on Page 8
Farmers Union Day at the South Dakota State Fair SATURDAY, AUGUST 30
Join Us in the FARMERS UNION TENT by the FREEDOM STAGE Events begin at 11:30 Free Admission Available to Farmers Union Members just call Samantha Olerud at 605-554-3023 or email solerud@sdfu.org Turn to Page 6 to learn more.
John and Stacy Zomer with daughter and son-in-law Samantha and Taylor Zeutenhorst on the family’s Minnehaha County farm.
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n a Monday evening in April 2023, the Minnehaha County Commission approved a request to build a 450-head hoop barn for calving and feeder cattle. “When it was time to vote, the chair of the commission asked his fellow commissioners, “when was the last time that we had a young man come in here asking for a building permit because they wanted to be in the cattle business?” This made me think in Minnehaha County they don’t see young people getting into the cattle business anymore,” said John Zomer, of the request he and his son-in-law, Taylor Zeutenhorst made. “Cow/calf producers are a dying breed. We did not hide the fact that we need this
Zomer/ Zeutenhorst Family Continued on Page 2