South Dakota Farm and Ranch Recognition Program deadline approaching

Aug 06, 2015

Applications must be submitted by Thursday, August 13th

Agriculture is South Dakota’s premier industry, generating more than $25.6 billion of economic activity and providing more than 115,000 people with jobs.

One way officials from the South Dakota Farm Bureau are protecting, promoting and preserving the state’s agricultural history is with the South Dakota Farm & Ranch Recognition Program. It honors farms and families who have run farming operations for 100 or 125 consecutive years.

Centennial

For a farm to be eligible for the honor, it must meet three requirements:

The farm has been owned by a member of the same family or 100 or 125 years
The farm is at least 80 acres in size
The owners must have proof of the original purchase date

Since the South Dakota Farm Bureau introduced the award in 1984, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture has helped recognize 2,770 century farms and ranches, along with 250 quasicentennial (125 year) farms and ranches.

Applications must be submitted by Thursday, August 13^th and the winners will be honored during the South Dakota State Fair on Thursday, September 3^rd.

Oldest farms in the United States:

Appleton Farm, Ipswich Massachusetts – 373 years old
Shirley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia – 292 years old
Tuttle’s Red Barn, Dover, New Hampshire – 383 years old
Fieldview Farm, Orange, Connecticut – 376 years old
Barker’s Farm, North Andover, Massachusetts – 373 years old

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.