Jackson County farmers give Sen. Smith a crash course in soil, water conservation
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By Justin R. Lessman

Jackson County farmers Jerry Ackermann, David Pomerenke and Zach Post are always ready to talk about the benefits of cover crops and no-till farming.

Recently, they were able to do so with U.S. Sen. Tina Smith.

Smith visited Jackson County this past spring to learn more about local soil and water conservation efforts under way at present and how federal funding freezes might affect them. On her visit, Minnesota’s junior senator heard about how important certain federal conservation programs are to both local farmers and the environment and how any funding freezes or cuts to them could devastate farm operations and landscapes.
Ackermann, who farms near Lakefield, said programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program have been instrumental in incentivizing farmers to integrate into their operations practices that not only help the environment, but also benefit the farmer.

“There are some good programs,” Ackermann said, though they never seemed to be adequately funded — or to adequately fund — even before talks of funding freezes and cuts began.
Ackermann, Pomerenke and Post gave Smith a crash course in the benefit of environmental practices programs like CSP and EQIP promote, including cover crops and no-till farming.

“It does make a real difference,” Ackermann said of the approach, listing moisture control, yield gain and reduced herbicide costs as benefits.

Additionally, Mark Gutierrez, executive director of the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, said cover crops improve water quality, sequester carbon, prevent soil erosion and reduce nutrient leaching.
That’s a public benefit, Pomerenke said, warranting a public investment in such incentive programs.

“It’s an incentive — a carrot — that a lot of guys need in order to give it a try,” Pomerenke said. “It’s a way to allay concerns and make people more willing to try it.”

Smith pledged her support for the local ag economy and resistance to any policy that poses a threat to it.

Ackermann also pitched Smith on an idea to promote conservation practices through federal crop insurance. He suggested a discount on crop insurance premiums for farmers who integrate conservation practices like cover crops and no-till farming into their operations.

“Guys who are doing it get a crop insurance discount, and guys who don’t want to do it pay more,” he said. “It’s saying to farmers, ‘If you want to do it the right way, we’ll help you out; but if you’re not going to do it the right way, we won’t help you as much.’”

Smith said she would keep the suggestion in mind as talks on the federal farm bill progress.
Schulze cousins are
this year’s Dairy Ambassadors
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Kyle Kuphal | Staff reporter
kkuphal@pipestonestar.com

Cousins JordynBre Schulze and Kady Schulze are this year’s Pipestone County Dairy Ambassadors.

JordynBre, 13, is an eighth grader at Pipestone Area Schools and one of three children of Dean and Kristina Schulze. Kady, 12, is a seventh grader at Russell Tyler Ruthton and one of five children of Devin and Becca Schulze. They both live on farms near Holland, but on opposite sides. JordynBre said her family has horses, chickens and cats at their farm. Kady said her family has pigs and chickens, and her dad and uncle have a dairy. 

Becca, who serves as the Pipestone County Dairy Ambassador coordinator, said ambassadors and princesses don’t necessarily have to have a dairy farm, but can qualify if they show dairy cattle at the fair, which they both do, or work on a dairy.

JordynBre was previously a Pipestone County Dairy Ambassador last year and this is Kady’s first year as an ambassador.  Kady said she was interested in the title because she wanted to help people learn more about the dairy industry.

“I always thought that people don’t really know much about it, so I thought it would be fun if I became a dairy ambassador and helped teach people about the dairy industry,” she said.

The cousins will be doing plenty of that this summer. Their schedule, so far, includes appearances at the Water Tower Festival parade in Pipestone on June 28, Ruthton’s Fourth of July parade, the Dutch Festival parade in Edgerton on July 11, the Aebleskiver Days parade in Tyler on July 26 and the Pipestone County Fair in August.

Dairy ambassadors are similar to dairy princesses in that they promote the dairy industry, but they are younger and can’t compete to become Princess Kay of the Milky Way. Both Kady and JordynBre said they are interested in becoming dairy princesses in the future.
FFA chapter churning out prospective dairy industry leaders
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The Jackson County Central FFA Chapter is churning out prospective dairy industry leaders.

The chapter this year fielded state-qualified milk quality and dairy evaluation career development event teams that went on to fare well in state-level competition. In fact, both teams struck silver at the 2025 Minnesota State FFA Convention earlier this spring in the Twin Cities, with the JCC FFA Chapter’s milk quality team finishing 31st in the state and the chapter’s dairy evaluation team landing 37th overall.

Hadleigh Nosbusch of rural Jackson paced the chapter’s milk quality team, finishing as a gold-ranked individual. Other team members were Julia Bidne, Paige Benda and Jess Dvorak.

Joshua Thompson of rural Windom led the chapter’s dairy evaluation team, finishing as a gold-ranked individual. Other team members included Levi Thompson and Nicolas Haley.

As members of the milk quality team, Nosbusch, Benda, Bidne and Dvorak were asked to complete a written exam on milk production and marketing, evaluate milk samples for flavor and quality, identify cheeses, evaluate sediment pads and milker parts for defects and demonstrate problem-solving skills in distinguishing real and artificial dairy foods, merchandising dairy foods and current issues in marketing dairy foods.

As members of the dairy evaluation team, the Thompson brothers and Haley were asked to complete a written exam relating to the dairy industry, evaluate dairy cattle on physical characteristics, give oral reasons explaining their placing of a class and analyze a herd record as a team.

Laura Bidne, JCC FFA Chapter advisor, said most chapter CDE teams prepare for competition with the assistance of community members who volunteer their time and expertise.
“Almost all of them have help from our community,” Bidne said.

For example, JCC FFA Chapter alumnus Noah Thompson helped coach the chapter’s dairy evaluation team this year.

“As always, we are grateful for the many community members that help us prepare the kids,” Bidne said. “Almost all of them have some community help along the way.”
Diners select the best burger
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Kyle Kuphal | Staff reporter
kkuphal@pipestonestar.com

Staci’s Bar and Grill in Woodstock was recently crowned grand champion of the 2025 Pipestone County Burger Battle organized by the Pipestone County Cattlemen’s Association. The winning burger, called the “Dubliner,” included a one-third pound burger with grilled corned beef, melted Swiss cheese, “pot of gold” sauce and coleslaw.

Seven restaurants in Pipestone County participated in the burger battle. They included the Tally Ho Koffie/Gray Wolf Saloon in Edgerton; the Hatfield Roadhouse; Kor’s Korner Pub in Holland; the Pipestone Country Club, the Stonehouse & Quarry Lounge, and Bole-Mor Lanes Bar & Grill in Pipestone; and Staci’s Bar and Grill. Each participating business created its own special burger for the burger battle.

“They put some real work into it and it was fun to get the responses in just to see what they came up with,” said Teresa Zeinstra, a member of the Pipestone County Cattlemen’s Association, before the burger battle started. “I think our county residents are going to have fun making it a goal to see if they can get to all seven places.”

Diners were asked to rate the burgers on a scale of one to five, with five being the best, on presentation, creativity and taste during the contest, which lasted from March 7 to April 27. Ballots were available at the restaurants and those who tried the burgers could turn their completed ballots in to their server.

According to the Pipestone County Cattlemen’s Association, 1,487 ballots were cast during the event.  The winners were announced on Friday, May 2. Staci’s Bar and Grill also won best presentation with the “Dubliner.” The Hatfield Roadhouse won first place in the taste category with its burger called the “Prime Dip Burger.” It included a one-third pound patty, thinly sliced prime rib and Swiss cheese with au jus on the side. The Pipestone Country Club won first place for creativity with its burger called “The Morning Meat Monster,” which included a one-third pound hamburger patty between two handmade tater-tot waffles, jelly, peanut butter, American cheese, bacon and a fried egg, topped with maple hot honey syrup.

Zeinstra said burger battles have been popular in other counties in the area and the Pipestone County Cattlemen’s Association thought it seemed fitting to organize one in Pipestone County. She said the group’s goals with the burger battle included promoting beef in partnership with businesses in the county and encouraging people to support local businesses and enjoy what they have to offer. It seems to have accomplished that as the group estimated that the burger battle generated between $25,000 and $35,000 in revenue for the participants, including just the single burger orders.

The Pipestone County Cattlemen’s Association plans to make the burger battle an annual event.
Tewes a rising star in the beef industry
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By Justin R. Lessman

McKade Tewes of rural Jackson is a rising star in the beef industry.

And he’s got the hardware to prove it.
Tewes, son of Jeff and Jen Tewes and a senior at Jackson County Central High School in Jackson, was named Minnesota FFA Star Farmer at the Minnesota State FFA Convention in Minneapolis late last month. The star farmer award is one of four top individual designations given to Minnesota FFA members, with star awards also given in categories of production placement; agriculture, food and natural resource sciences; and agribusiness.

Tewes plays a vital role in his family operation, Tewes Cattle Co., where he purchases cattle and embryos to develop his own show herd, in addition to completing daily chores, administering medications and overseeing sales of cattle.
Though he grew up on a 100-head cattle farm, Tewes traces his own involvement in the business to a grant he received in 2021 through Security State Bank’s Junior Herdsman Project. The grant facilitated the purchase of five bred heifers, which Tewes said kickstarted his own cattle herd and led him to start his own business.

“I started Tewes Cattle Co. my freshman year of high school,” he said. “Now, I breed with embryos and live cattle to build the quality and quantity of my herd. I use an embryo transfer program to raise show cattle that will be marketed at a national level.”

Part of his marketing strategy is showing his own cattle. Last year, Tewes exhibited the reserve champion breeding heifer and reserve champion market steer at the Jackson County Fair’s 4-H beef show and earned a purple ribbon with his registered black Angus summer yearling at the Minnesota State Fair’s 4-H beef show.
Tewes has a long history with the FFA organization. He competes in the livestock evaluation career development event and parliamentary procedure leadership development event and has served as a chapter officer.

Outside of the FFA, Tewes is also an active member of his school and community. He volunteers with the local Foods 4 Kids effort, at local food shelves and with ditch cleanup efforts and is an active member of the National Honor Society and local 4-H club and 4-H livestock judging team.
In the future, Tewes plans to become an embryologist within the field of livestock genetics.
“I plan to attend Butler Community College next year to major in animal science and compete on the livestock judging team,” he said.

In addition to being named 2025 Minnesota FFA Star Farmer at this year’s Minnesota State FFA Convention, Tewes also received his state FFA degree. He credits his success in FFA — and in life — in large part to his FFA advisors past and present, his parents and his sister, Meta.
Nelson brothers excel at showing sheep
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Sirrina Martinez
Multimedia reporter
smartinez@pipestonestar.com

Around five miles south of Pipestone sits the sheep operation owned by Andrew and Kiah Berg. Berg, a native to the area, grew up on a farm with Red Angus, and just down the road, his grandfather, Marlin Berg, raised sheep.  Marlin, who is a retired Ag teacher from the Jasper and Pipestone school system, raised Suffolk sheep, and eventually, Berg bought his first few head from him. The sheep operation he currently runs is around five miles east of his grandfather’s farm. The Berg’s started their sheep adventure around the time they were married, he said.

“My wife and I bought the place in about 2021, I think, then we bought our first ewes that fall,” Berg said. “It was kind of a crazy year, we ended up getting married, buying a place, and buying some sheep all at the same time.”

Currently, Kiah works as a nutritionist at Pipestone Systems, and Andrew is a consultant in the wean-to-finish side of the business. The couple has one daughter, Harper, who is almost two, and another child on the way, who is expected to make an appearance in the next two weeks or so, Berg said.
While he was raised with cattle, Berg decided to start raising sheep because the infrastructure on his farm allowed him to run more head with sheep.

He started with around 50 ewes, which he bought from his grandfather.  He has since grown his flock.
“We are probably at about 120-125 ewes now that we lamb out,” he said. “We started making our own replacements and bought the purebred Suffolks and started selling some rams.”

The majority of what the Bergs raise are white-faced commercial ewes, and the rest are Suffolk ewes. While their herd is sold primarily for meat, the Bergs will sell the majority of their lambs through the Pipestone Lamb and Wool Management Program at Minnesota West. The couple practice accelerated lambing, aiming for around 2-3 lambings a year.

“One group in January-February, one group in April-May, kind of late spring and one group in the fall,” he said. “I had about 30 to 40 head last year that lambed twice.”

One of the biggest challenges of raising any animal, Berg said, is time management and keeping feed costs down.

“My wife and I both work in the pig world and so we try to keep it (their sheep operation) as structured as we can,” he said. “So, at this time we do this and that, we try to keep it repeatable. For us, it is continuing to do time management with both of us having full-time jobs. We also try to reduce feed waste, which is the biggest cost associated with raising any animal.”

In the next few years, Berg hopes to continue to grow his herd of purebred Suffolks and, down the road, work more with club lamb producers (show lambs) on selling “recip”(recipient) ewes. A recipient ewe is one that is chosen to carry an embryo from a donor ewe.

For those who are considering raising sheep, Berg has one piece of advice.

“Find animals that are going to do what you want them to do and find producers that have like-minded goals when purchasing that first set of females,” he said. “I’d say that’s probably the most ideal, and that is what I have tried to do.”