Fulda farmer shares his R.E.A.L. story during tour
Bangasser participates in Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council campaignFULDA — Living in southern Murray County, or anywhere in southwest Minnesota for that matter, there’s a certain expectation that your neighbors know something about agriculture. It could be that they farm themselves, have parents who farmed or even grandparents.
By: Julie Buntjer, Worthington Daily Globe
- Farm tour
- Hog talk
FULDA — Living in southern Murray County, or anywhere in southwest Minnesota for that matter, there’s a certain expectation that your neighbors know something about agriculture. It could be that they farm themselves, have parents who farmed or even grandparents.
As each generation is removed from the farm, and as the method of farming continues to evolve, the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council has taken an active role in establishing connections between consumers and those who produce the food.
Two years ago, the MSR&PC launched the R.E.A.L. (Responsible, Ethical Agriculture for Life) Story campaign to introduce real farmers and their messages through videos, billboard messaging and short stories. Now, the campaign has grown to include VIP farm tours.
On Friday morning, more than 20 invited guests attended a tour at the Craig Bangasser farm east of Fulda. It was the third such event in the state in the last month. The first was conducted on a farm near Goodhue and the second showcased a turkey operation near Blomkest. Other tours are planned in the coming weeks near Blooming Prairie and Northfield through a partnership with the United Soybean Board.
Bangasser joined the MSR&PC board a little more than a year ago, and said Friday’s event is important —even in a community as rural as Fulda.
“Most of those (here) aren’t that removed from the farm, but even one generation off the farm doesn’t understand how food is produced,” he said. “Even for a retired farmer, things have changed a lot. Anyone that isn’t actively involved in farming can get confused by what’s in the media about what farmers are doing.”
Bangasser returned to farming about a dozen years ago, and works with his older brother in their fourth generation farm growing corn and soybeans. He also has a hog barn on his farm, where pigs are custom finished for rural Currie farmer Steve Schreier.
“Pigs come from a sow unit six miles east of me,” Schreier said, adding that they are cared for by local people and fed feed purchased locally.
The pigs spend their first 50 days, approximately, in a nursery barn, and are then moved to a finishing barn at about 60 to 65 pounds.
The finishing barn on the Bangasser farm can hold 600 head of swine, which are raised to about 260 to 282 pounds before going to market.
“In the last 10 years, we’ve gone from marketing at 240 pounds to 285 pounds,” Schreier told the farm visitors. “The plant wants to handle x-amount of pounds per hour. (Consumers) want larger cuts, larger loins.”
He not only talked about the pigs, but the barns in which they are housed. The environmentally-controlled facilities include automatic feeding systems and an alert system in case the temperature gets too high, too low, or an electrical problem surfaces.
Bangasser admitted he didn’t know much about pork production until the barn was built on his farm, and even now, when the alarm system alerts him to an issue — usually at 4 in the morning on a minus-20 degree day, he joked — he relies on Schreier to help solve the problem.
After hearing about pork production, the tour group learned about farming implements, from tillage equipment to tractors, as part of a “chronological order of a growing season” that also included a stop at the grain bins and ultimately to a corn field where he talked about conservation, including the Conservation Reserve Program and Conservation Stewardship Program, both of which he is involved in.
Bangasser was pleased with Friday’s tour and anticipates the program will grow in the coming years.
“I’ve always been immersed in agriculture, immersed in Murray County,” Bangasser said. “I love doing what I do and wouldn’t want it any different.
“We want the consumer to know where their food comes from … and we want you to know it’s done in an ethical way,” he added. “I want to show the consumer our side of the story and how we do things. We care about the environment.”
Friday’s event was open only to invited guests, including township officials, city council members, chamber of commerce staff, county commissioners, soil and water conservation district staff, Scouting groups and the Big Brother-Big Sister program.
Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer may be reached at 376-7330.
Tags: news, fulda, farm, agriculture
More from around the web
RSS Feeds