President Bill Frei welcomed the Wagner Rotarians to their first meeting of the month of September on Wednesday, the fourth. Labor Day in Wagner signals the beginning of fall for residents and the consensus was that it was a great Labor Day celebration.

Prayer was offered up by Pastor Laurie Kidd who gave thanks for the gorgeous day, and the blessings of servicing our Wagner Community. She also prayed for healing for Rotarian Joe Stedronsky and for the safe of those in the path of Hurricane Dorian.

Guests for the day were Golby Uhlir who was introduced by Ken Cotton and Amanda Bechen introduced her mother Mrs. Harold (Connie) Steele.

Rotarian Ken Cotton used the Membership Minute time slot to familiarize the club members with some “Rotary Firsts”.

The first Rotary club meeting was in Chicago, Illinois, on February 23, 1905.

The first regular luncheon meetings were in Oakland, California, in 1905.

The first Rotary convention was in Chicago in 1910.

Rotary established the Endowment Fund in 1917, which became the Rotary Foundation.

Rotary first adopted the name Rotary International in 1922 when the name was changed from the International Association of Rotary Clubs.

Rotary first established the Paul Harris Fellow in 1957 for contributors of $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation.

The Rotary emblem was printed on a commemorative stamp for the first time in 1931.

The first Rotary club banner from the Houston Space Center to orbit the moon was carried by astronaut Frank Borman, a member of that club.

The first Rotary International convention held outside the US was in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1921.

The first head of state to address a Rotary convention was US President Warren G. Harding in 1923 at St. Louis.

Rotarian Laurie Kidd led the club in singing Happy Birthday to the September Birthday Gang which was Bill Heermann, Jordan Weber, and Kathe Henke. The members sang “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” and a rousing two verses of “Viva La Rotary!”

Mrs. Steele drew Craig Krsnaks ticket number from the can for the Queen of Hearts drawing. With only 10 cards left Craig came close by drawing the Queen of Spades. Sec./Treas. Patty Frei reported two makeups for Dave Isebrands, one miss on Pastor Bill’s Team and two misses on Pastor Laurie’s Team bringing the totals to 10 misses for Heermann and 11 misses on the Kidd Team. $24.00 was collected for the Queen drawing bringing the total to $866.00

Jamie Soukup was Program Chairman and introduced his speaker, Ty Kjeldgaard who is an Ag Specialist for the Pioneer Seed Company. Ty gave a little background on himself and members were surprised to find out that Ty and his wife Kendra and their four children have been Wagner residents for 17 years already. Ty was born and raised in a small Nebraska town of Tekamah. After graduating from high school, he attended SDSU on the advice of a former classmate. He met his wife Kendra who had received her teaching degree from Dakota Wesleyan, and they lived in Mitchell briefly. He started out working for Syngenta and they moved to Wagner in 2002 and he began working for Pioneer.

The Pioneer Company was started by Henry Wallace and was the first seed company to hybridize corn. They now sell many kinds of corn, soybeans, and many other farm products. He stated that the ag economy is in a very low spot right now. Agriculture has many ups and downs; every year seems to be different. Our lives depend onagricultureregardlessof where you live, farm, country, or city. Pioneer does everything it can to help maximize the profitability for every farmer.

Ty opened his presentation by asking for questions. One of the first was what does Hybrid Seed really mean? The old way of saving seed for next year’s planting was done by the farmer himself by picking out the biggest kernels of corn in the fall harvest. That was called “open pollinating”. Now there are several types of hybrid corn which is accomplished by the company planting four rows of female corn, and then 1 or two rows of male corn. When the corn is tasseling, the tassels are pulled out of the males and this is how hybrid corn is pollinated. It also explains how they come up with so many kinds of corn. When asked when hybridizing began, he thought it was in the late 30’s or early 40’s. Open pollinated corn was also risky for being poisonous, but Ty said that even hybrid corn can become toxic if it is damaged by hail or becomes wet and moldy.

Tye explained how the chemicals used today for treating soybeans is not as excessive as people assume. He demonstrated with a small saltshaker from the table. Jamie treats soybeans himself at his Pioneer location. When water is mixed with the chemical powder the beans are sprayed and it treats a huge amount of beans. Kjeldgaard commented that people are under the impression that seed is drenched in poisonous chemicals which isn’t true.

This led to a discussion of Roundup or Glysophate which has been in the news especially in commercials as of late. All fertilizers and pesticides are under more scrutiny than ever. An interesting point of information was that the United States at one time imported a great deal of Glysophate from China and China had no regulations on their products. The US Environmental Protection Agency is very strict and monitors the chemicals and pesticides in our country. Some of the health problems people are experiencing today could well be from the time period when China was exporting an unsafe product.

Ty stated that Pioneer has $150 Million invested in every bag of corn by the time all the growing trials and the yields are tested. There are 77 seed plots across the State of South Dakota alone.

Time ran out for Ty and the club members. He was thanked for a very informative program for farmers and the public.

We adjourned in the usual fashion by singing America.