By Dennis Morgan
Co-Publisher
There’s never a day that passes where one doesn’t try to learn something new. To do that, Australian farmer Daniel Dempster brought his family to Elgin this past Sunday and Monday.
A Nuffield Scholar from Australia, Daniel, wife Emily and sons Edward and Andrew spent Sunday and part of Monday learning about how farming works in Antelope County at the home of Jim and Anne Meis. Nuffield provides scholarships to select applicants in 15 countries for a two-year agricultural leadership program consisting of a global conference of scholars, group travel across six countries visiting producers and ag-related tours as well as 10+ weeks of independent travel to conduct independent research.
“I would compare it to the LEAD program in many ways,” Mrs. Meis said.
As part Dempster’s independent research, he chose to spend time here in the Midwest learning more about soil health and economics. The family’s trek across the Midwest began in Dallas, Texas with them working their way north through Oklahoma and Kansas then to Nebraska. From here they will work their way through the Dakotas before ending up in Bismarck, N.D.
“I’m looking at the financial implications of implementing soil health principles … I like the idea of minimum disturbance (no-till),” he said. “It’s got to pay for itself.
For more on this story, see this week’s Elgin Review.
