Volume CIX, No. 6 Huron, SD SEPT/OCT 2024
A PUBLICATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA FARMERS UNION
SERVING SOUTH DAKOTA’S FARM & RANCH FAMILIES SINCE 1915.
NFU President Visits West River
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2024 Farmers Union Day at the State Fair
Co-op Supports Communities
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Farmers and Ranchers Urge D.C. Policymakers to Pass a Farm Bill
NEW Farmers Union Ag Expo Center
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Farmers Union Celebrates Harding County Buffalo Producers
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ass a Farm Bill. This is the message several South Dakota family farmers and ranchers delivered to D.C. policymakers during the 2024 National Farmers Union Fly-In, Sept. 9-11. “A Farm Bill ensures the stability of farming and ranching,” explained Ryan Urban, a fourth-generation Pukwana crop and cattle producer. “It is scary the dollars it takes to produce food. The price of seed, price of machinery, price of livestock feed – the Farm Bill provides risk
Fly-In Continued on Page 18 The Limpert family ranches in Harding County raising buffalo: (left to right) Brodie, Roman, 9; Jacki, Tyden, 6; Sandy, Zoey, 13; Halona, and Zaylee, 12.
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ocated between the ranching communities of Buffalo and Bison, Slim Buttes Ranch is home to one of the nation’s largest buffalo herds. And the family who raises them say these majestic animals saved the ranch that has been in their family since it was homesteaded more than a century ago. “Before we got the buffalo, we had sheep and cattle. It was a constant battle to keep them alive with coyotes and weather,” explained Sandy Limpert, a third-generation Harding County rancher. “We can’t compete in the marketplace with Brazil producing beef. We were working ourselves to death and not making a profit. We needed to make a change to something with more of an upside.” Sandy and his wife, Jacki, had heard that unlike cattle, buffalo calve on their own, can defend themselves and their young from predators and they thrive in the weather extremes of the Northern Great Plains.
Limpert Family Continued on Page 2