AG UPDATE

F
A
L
L
Beekeepers Joe and
Harvey Buller
extract honey and
enjoyment from
100-plus hives
by MARIE ZIMMERMAN
Staff Writer
In the world of bees,
there are hobbyists and
commercial operations.
Then theres Joe and
Harvey Buller.
Theyre sideliners, mid-
size beekeepers. The Bull-
ers managed 144 hives
this year spread across 12
locations from St. James
to Brewster to the Iowa
border.
Harvey and his neighbor
started with a couple hives
in 1956.
Then he gradually got
bigger, Joe said. My sib-
lings and I grew up with
my dad being a beekeeper
and the whole nine yards.
It wasnt until a few
years ago when Joe start-
ed working with his dad
and the bees again that he
really started enjoying it.
Now Im hooked on it,
he said.
Its kind of the good
honey crops the harvest,
I guess, Harvey said about
what makes beekeeping
fun. Also selling it when
people really enjoy the
honey you produce.

Honey flow
Fall is the tail end of the
honey season for the Bull-
ers. Right now, theyre
gathering hives into a sin-
gle holding yard and giv-
ing the bees extra syrup
to prepare them for whats
ahead: A commercial bee-
keeper from Wadena will
pick up the bees and take
them to California over the
winter to pollinate almond
trees.
Two-thirds to three-
fourths of the bees will
survive the winter, and the
Bullers will get those back
in spring.
Fall is also the time to
order packaged bees from
breeders to replace the
ones that dont make it.
Packaged bees arrive in
spring.
From May to early June,
the Bullers keep their bees
in one location and feed
them sugar water. Then the
hives are spread out, which
ensures enough nectar-
bearing and pollinating
plants to sustain all the
bees.
You should have the
locations about four miles
apart or farther, Joe said.
The bees themselves will
Going with the honey fow
Something
different grows
into a business
by RYAN BRINKS
News Editor
A little extra time,
a little interest and a
high-trafc location re-
cently combined to jetti-
son Terri and John Svo-
boda into the business of
farm-fresh eggs.
Anticipating the nal
year of high school for
their last child in the
house and without any
equipment to try rais-
ing other animals, the
Svobodas brought baby
chicks to their acreage
on the south edge of
Jackson, just past Fed-
erated Rural Electric on
Highway 71 partly for
An eggciting
new adventure
See SVOBODA on C2
See LIEPOLD on C4 See BULLER on C2
Larry Liepold,
a successful pork
pr o duc e r and
longtime indus-
try booster from
rural Okabena,
is featured in the
most recent edi-
tion of the Farm
Market News,
a regional ag
publication
reaching nearly
18,500 homes
and businesses
across the tri-
state area.
Liepold and
a present a-
tion on pork industry
trends he gave recently
in Lakeeld are the sub-
ject of the Oct. 7 cover
story of the Farm Market
News. His presentation
was titled, Americans
Pork Producers: Doing
Whats Right, and was
developed and underwrit-
ten by the National Pork
Board, along with the
Minnesota Pork Board,
to inform the public as to
what the pork industry is
doing to address the pub-
lics concerns over animal
care, particularly in the
controlled environment
in which the majority of
pigs are raised today.
Liepold says he has
seen a lot of changes in
the industry in his years
raising pigs; but one of
the biggest changes he
is experiencing now and
one to which the industry
is positively responding is
accountability.
The most recent
change in the pork indus-
try I see is more account-
ability, he said. And that
is a good thing. It hasnt
changed the way we pro-
duce pork, but customers
want to know now how
we care for our animals.
That is rst and foremost
to them.
And Liepold indicated
it is first and foremost
to him, as a producer, as
well as to the industry as
Local pork booster
featured in regional
farm publication
402 N. Hwy. 86, Lakeeld, MN
507-662-6233
We Support
Our Area
Farmers!
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Have a safe harvest!
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nutrition : 1-888-327-8799
Darren Kalvig, Commodities Manager; 40212 510th Avenue Bingham Lake, MN 56118
4
7
5
9
Photos by Marie Zimmerman
Top: Not honeybees but tiny sweat bees crawl on jars of
honey bottled by the Bullers.
Above: Joe Buller (left) and his father, Harvey Buller,
showcase some of the paraphernalia needed to raise
their Italian honeybees and harvest honey.
Photos by Ryan Brinks
Terri and John Svoboda,
with granddaughter Baylie
Gordon, are turning their
egg collecting experiment
into more of a business by
building a new hen house
on their edge-of-town acre-
age.
C2 Thursday, October 17, 2013
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Springeld Parkway, Jackson, MN Larry and Sandy
Phone 847-3939
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4704
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P.O. Box 416 308 Main St. Lakeeld, MN 56150-0416
507-662-6636 Fax: 507-662-5311
Email: marge@mlocpa.com
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travel up to two miles to
gather nectar.
The Bullers continue to
feed the bees until nectar-
bearing plants are ready,
about the second or third
week of June.
The major honey ow
isnt until about July. Thats
where they really put the
pounds in the hive itself,
Joe said.
Toward the end of July
or early August, bees cap
their honey with wax, and
by the beginning of August,
the honey flow is mostly
over.
Usually by the second
week of August were start-
ing to go out to the different
locations to gather the box-
es, Joe said. Well leave
the bees at the location,
but bring the top boxes of
honey back to our extract-
ing house.
Harvest time
Inside the boxes of each
bee hive are eight frames
where the bees put their
honey. To get the honey out,
theres a de-capper that
takes the top coat of wax off
and an eight-frame extrac-
tor that uses centrifugal
force to spin the honey out
of its comb. It then ows
down the inside of the
bucket-shaped machine
to a spigot. Because of the
size of their operation,
the Bullers equipment is
mainly mechanized.
A hive can have one to a
number of boxes. This year
we extracted about 450
boxes times eight frames
in a box, Joe said.
Thats 3,600 frames. It
took Joe and Harvey about
two weeks to complete.
They worked four days per
week, nine or 10 hours each
day. Thats in addition to
Joes job as an insurance
agent in Mountain Lake.
Some of the Bullers hon-
ey is sold locally, mainly by
word-of-mouth, but most
of it is put in 55-gallon
drums and sold to whole-
salers. This year, the rate
for wholesale honey is $2
per pound.
Two dollars is respect-
able for bulk honey, Joe
said. (Its been) fairly
consistent over the last few
years.
Safekeeping
The Bullers raise Ital-
ian honeybees, one of the
most common types in
America known for be-
ing only mildly defensive
(easier to work with) and
less prone to disease, while
also being excellent honey
producers. Other major
breeds are Russian, Ger-
man, Caucasian, Carniolan
and Buckfast.
No matter what the
breed, a beekeeper has
to contend with various
threats to stock. Theres
swarming, where the bees
up and leave to live some-
where else; bee mites that
feed on bee larvae and
adult bees and can trans-
mit diseases; and foul-
brood, a contagious bac-
terial infection affecting
larvae. The Bullers do give
their bees some medica-
tions to prevent diseases.
Joe and Harvey have
not experienced Colony
Collapse Disorder, where
seemingly healthy bees
simply abandon their hives
en masse, though it does
affect them.
When we order bees
in the fall to be delivered
in the spring, they come
from down south or Cali-
fornia. Its more costly to
purchase them and the bee
breeders are experiencing
more difculty in getting
the bees ready, Joe said.
Dont forget threats to
personal safety.
Were no strangers to
stings, Harvey said.
Some days are worse
than others, Joe said.
BULLER: Beekeepers extract honey, enjoyment from 100-plus hives
Continued from C1
SVOBODA: Something diferent to do grows into successful business
Continued from C1
the eggs they could provide
the family and partly to
entertain their grandkids.
I wanted to do some-
thing different, but I didnt
think it would grow this
big. I didnt imagine that
many people would want
eggs, Terri said.
It all started in the spring
of 2012 with 60 chicks that
yielded 26 hens and the
rest roosters. As those hens
matured last fall, it got to
a point where the family
couldnt eat all the eggs,
so they texted their friends
and coworkers and put up a
sign offering eggs for sale.
The resulting demand now
outpaces a much expanded
supply.
It got to where we
couldnt even keep up.
They werent giving us
enough eggs, she said.
This spring the couple
bought 160 new chickens,
again a mix of hens and
roosters, and this summer
John built a new henhouse
after discovering the new
hens were laying eggs all
over the yard rather than
in the overcrowded pair of
older chicken coops.
Construction started
about early September
and is just now being n-
ished up with nesting for
the roosts; siding will wait
until next spring.
The new building will of-
fer plenty of room, as it was
built to house 200 hens, and
once they get used to laying
inside yet this fall, the Svo-
bodas are expecting to col-
lect 25 to 50 eggs per day.
Were hoping for it to
become more of an egg
business, Terri said.
From t he i mmi nent
sales, they plan to put the
egg money into a savings
account for their grand-
children and the money for
butchered chickens the
roosters and unproductive
hens back into the op-
eration.
New chicks will con-
tinue to be bought each
year, housed in one of their
old coops until they can
tell apart the hens from
the young roosters. With
the expanded space, next
spring could bring as many
as 300 to 400 chicks, they
said.
And that springtime ar-
rival is one of the high-
lights of raising laying
hens.
The best part is getting
the new chickens, that yel-
low ball of fuzz, and watch-
See SVOBODA on C3
ing them grow, John said.
So far most of the chick-
ens are Production Red
and Rhode Island Red
breeds, with some Califor-
nia Whites and Rainbows
as well.
They are fed corn screen-
ings from a local farmer, as
well as crumbles and bean
meal from the elevator,
John said, plus leftover
vegetable scraps from the
family kitchen and a fa-
The Svobodas egg money is earmarked for their grand-
childrens savings while the roosters will be butchered
for meat to help keep the operation going.
C3 Thursday, October 17, 2013
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SVOBODA: Something diferent to do grows into successful business
Continued from C2
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4731
vorite tradition for both
Terri and the chickens
of serving a daily batch of
spaghetti noodles.
When I go out there,
they just swarm around
me, she said, and some
have even jumped to peck
the noodles from her hand.
Though scattered across
the yard and grove dur-
ing the day, the chickens
know their bedtime, and
they go to bed no prob-
lem. I just have to shut the
door, Terri added.
The eggs, most of them
brown in color, are col-
lected morning and night,
though the majority are
laid before noon, she said.
And at the stove, they
are noticeably different
from store-bought eggs,
John said, in that they hold
together better and dont
spread across a frying pan.
The Svobodas now have
labels that read TJs Hen
House and the date they
were collected, but most
customers bring their own
cartons to ll up with eggs.
Regulars include about
15 families from town, as
well as ve or so families
from the Twin Cities that
occasionally stop when
they drive through. One of
them, with relatives in the
Iowa Great Lakes, cleans
the Svobodas out by taking
four to ve dozen eggs each
time they stop.
Its kind of neat, John
said. We get to meet dif-
ferent people.
Father and son
build new hog barn
by LAURA DeKOK
Staff Writer
Many farms in Jackson
County have rich family
legacies stretching back
decades or longer, and the
Kazemba family is no dif-
ferent.
Local farmer Paul Ka-
zembas grandfather start-
ed the farm in 1934. It was
then passed on to the next
generation, Pauls father,
who retired in 1996. Paul
had joined the operation 10
years earlier, in 1986, and
is now working with his
own son, Brendan.
Today the farm covers
many different aspects of
agriculture, including the
production of 100 acres of
corn and soybeans, but the
Locals expanding the family business
newest addition is a 2,400-
head swine feedlot.
Because land is such
a limited resource, Paul
Kazemba said, and because
he desired to keep the farm
growing and get his son
involved, they decided to
expand by building the
new feedlot.
Many companies are
looking for younger guys
to farm in the area, he
added, and they are espe-
cially interested in father-
son teams, where the son
can learn from his father
and eventually pick up the
operation when the father
retires.
After navigating through
the proper channels and
necessary permits for a
new facility, the hog barn
was just recently nished
and is now up and running;
its 2,400 pigs have called
it home for the past seven
weeks.
Its not the family rst
foray into the swine busi-
ness, either. They had a
swine feed operation of
their own until 2002 and
then began custom feeding.
The barn they have now
is 100-feet-by-192-feet
with two rooms and 1,200
pigs in each room.
Among the leading ben-
ets of the venture is the
prospect that when the
returns on the barn cover
the cost to build it, they
will provide an income for
Kazembas son and family
into the future. Another
benefit to the new barn
is the result of the latest
advancements in ventila-
tion technology, making it
a much healthier environ-
ment for both the hogs and
the people working there.
Photo by Justin Lessman
Feeding the farmers
Jackson County Central FFA Chapter members Grace
Rossow (center) and Sydney Eddy (right) give local
farmer Mark Holmberg a free hot dog last week at the
FCA Co-op elevator in Lakefield, part of the chapters
annual show of appreciation to local farmers.
Left: One of two old chicken coops, currently overcrowded with laying hens, will
house next springs growing chicks until the hens among them can be separated
from the roosters.
Photo by Ryan Brinks
Jackson County
Central FFA members
Marcus Hinkeldey and
Bailey Schneekloth
grab a water and hot
dog for a local farmer
who stopped at the
FCA Co-op in Jackson
last week. The free
gift was a harvest-time
thank-you.
C4 Thursday, October 17, 2013
To sell corn, call Kelly Grams: 507-728-4020
4662
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A Century Bank
One of the few independent banks in the state continuously owned and operated by the founders family
F.W. Striemer, Founder Helen Striemer Meium, Pres i dent
507-847-3620
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Independent and locally owned for 102 years
Its our privilege to work with our local pork producers.
We thank them for their important contribution to our local economy.
A Salute To Americas Pork Industry!
A Salute To Americas Pork Industry!
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a whole.
We are well aware of
the necessity of food avail-
ability to feed the world in
the next 35 years, he said.
Modern pork producers
are using both science and
technology to produce saf-
er, more affordable food.
And we continue to work
to help protect the environ-
ment, increase the palat-
ability of our products and
care for our animals.
It is more than likely ev-
ery producer and packer
will begin assessments and
go through an audit as part
of new accountability mea-
sures, Liepold said.
The packers are al-
ready responding to the
consumer, those they sup-
ply to, he said. It takes a
fair amount of time docu-
menting what you do to see
that you are doing what you
say you are doing.
Liepold sees the account-
ability issue as requiring
all producers to become
better at time management
in the process. But he also
sees the varying scale and
number of players in the
industry down at this time.
That leaves room for a lot
of people to potentially en-
ter the industry, he noted.
The international mar-
ket is huge, he said. The
Chinese market is huge in
itself. Although they raise
a large amount of the pork
they consume, they are
still the largest producer of
pork on a global scale. It is
the remainder of the Asian
market places like Ko-
rea and Taiwan that are
large importers of pork.
The number-one customer
for the pork we produce in
the United States is still
Mexico, however. Exports
are huge to the U.S. pork
industry.
Although the United
States is among the top 10
pork-consuming countries
in the world, consumers
here are eating less meat,
he added.
LIEPOLD: Local pork booster featured in regional farm publication
Continued from C1
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Photo by Mike Jordan
Larry Liepold, a successful pork producer and longtime
industry booster from rural Okabena, is featured in the
most recent edition of the Farm Market News. He and
a presentation on pork industry trends he gave recently
in Lakefield are the subject of the Oct. 7 cover story.
But research has shown
that as the developing na-
tions become more afu-
ent, the first thing their
people do is try to provide
an education for their chil-
dren, Liepold said. Then
they try to improve their
diet, eating more protein,
particularly meat. So the
demand worldwide contin-
ues to increase for pork.
Liepold said hog farm-
ers are using 41 percent
less water and 78 percent
less land to raise pigs than
they did 50 years ago on
somewhat less feed.
Substantial water re-
duction raising pigs has
been achieved by using
bowl water instead of nip-
ple watering, which results
in a lot of waste due to
things like leaking out of
the pigs mouths, he said.
But the biggest thing is
still water consumption.
We use less land keeping
the animals indoors in a
controlled environment.
Raising pigs outside re-
quires greater space and
results in damage to the
environment due to root-
ing that destroys grass,
opening areas of black dirt
to wind erosion. Having a
concentration of pig ma-
nure, which has huge value
and is rich in nutrients,
makes it easier to access
from a controlled envi-
ronment to apply to elds
as fertilizer for the local
farms. Pigs are healthier
out of the constantly chang-
ing weather in a controlled
environment, too, and away
from predators.
Liepold spoke of the
modern barns in which
the pigs are raised and how
using those facilities allows
farmers to focus on animal
care and nutrition.
Today pigs live healthi-
er lives than they ever did
before the use of controlled
environments and healthy
pigs means healthier food,
he said. Today pork ten-
derloin is leaner than ever
before. And that has been
done through genetic se-
lection with animals that
are predisposed to putting
on lean meat. In fact, the
pork industry has actu-
ally turned around and
gone back to adding good
fat to pigs. The result is
even more palatable, tasty
pork.
But timing plays a big
part in that as well. Liepold
said harvesting an animal
at the right time opti-
mum to when the animal
is fully grown, mature and
ready for harvest adds
to its being leaner and a
healthier choice for con-
sumers.
To back up his state-
ments regarding leaner
pork, Liepold cited a U.S.
Department of Agriculture
study done at the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Madi-
son and the University of
Maryland completed back
in 2006 that found pork ten-
derloin is as lean as skin-
less chicken breast and the
seven most common pork
cuts are now 16 percent
leaner than they were 25
years prior, while saturat-
ed fat in pork had dropped
27 percent generally.
In January 2012, the
American Heart Associa-
tion certied pork tender-
loin as a heart-healthy food
choice.
In Minnesota alone, pork
production generates $7.8
billion of economic activ-
ity and has created 22,500
direct and support jobs.
We have an increas-
ing responsibility to help
feed the world, Liepold
emphasized. The price
of meat in other countries
hurts demand. By increas-
ing the amount of available
production, we will in turn
drive prices down a little.
And other cultures use
other parts of an animal
for food than we use here.
Increasing the amount
of pork produced can be
an even greater value to
them.
Liepold considers pro-
moting U.S. pork overseas
and exporting it there great
ways to enhance those
markets and create good-
will. Liepold personally
made a trip with Minne-
sota Gov. Tim Pawlentys
contingent to China and
has witnessed the Chinese
market firsthand, where
backyard production of
farm products has now
moved even more toward
commercial production
there.
Farmers continue to
use technology and inno-
vation in their production
to provide healthier food,
Liepold said. And that re-
sults from healthier, safer
care for the animals we
raise while continuing to be
good stewards of our natu-
ral resources. Presently
there are 9 billion people
in the world. Even though
we have increased our food
production by 100 percent,
we need to teach the world
to feed themselves. Every-
one is entitled to food and
to choose what they want
to eat. By 2050, we will
be producing food on an
even smaller footprint. We
really need to freeze the
footprint of food.
Minnesota is the third
largest producer of pork in
the United States.
Liepold retired in March
of this year from the Na-
tional Pork Board Council,
but is still active with the
Minnesota Pork Producers
Association.
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