Learning by doing

GOODWIN, S.D. — Greg Moe has been receiving help on his farm, MoDak Dairy, from the Lake Area Technical College for 11 years.

Alexis Stinton, a professor at Lake Area Technical College in Watertown, interned at MoDak Dairy in 2012. She was asked to bring help from the college the following year.

“We asked if they would come out and they have been ever since,” Moe said. “Stinton said it is almost a requirement to graduate.”

Each year the students assist the farm in covering the 250- by 400-foot corn silage pile. This year there were 19 students and two instructors helping.

MoDak Dairy is a 2,500-cow dairy that raises their own youngstock.

“Everything we do … (is) because of everyone who we have here,” Moe said. “It says a lot about the people.”

The college has received requests from other farms in the area wanting help, but they keep it limited to MoDak Dairy because of the connection between the farm and the college.

“We put together a list of people who just wanted to make some extra money,” Stinton said. “Then we got the idea to limit it to the second-year livestock students because this is what they learn about the entire year. 2014 was the first year it was just livestock students.”

Kennedi Gerjets is one of the students who helped at the farm this year.

“We have been out to the dairy before and they have a nice operation,” Gerjets said. “It is nice to be able to come out and help. I was a little nervous about how big the pile would be. It’s going really well though. Teamwork is kind of the name of the game today.”

Besides getting hands-on experience, the students also take work with them back to the classroom.
The students are challenged with the task of figuring out the tonnage of the pile by considering the slope and how many tires are used to cover it.
They are also tasked with determining the value of the pile based on silage yield, plastic and tires.

“I think most of the time the students really enjoy the experience,” Stinton said. “They see a different way of doing things. I think at their farms or their family operations, it’s not quite as big, or if it is, they have a different methodology.”

Moe said there will be students at the farm almost weekly throughout the school year to do a range of hands-on learning like giving a cow an IV, drawing blood or handling a cow. Of the different visits made, covering the silage pile gives the students a bonding experience early in the semester.

The students are given a shirt after the pile is covered.

“The shirts show up all over the U.S.,” Moe said. “We have had people call because they saw the shirt and they wanted to know where MoDak was.”

Moe said it took six days of chopping to make the pile. MoDak Dairy will hire a custom chopping crew who will bring out 2-3 choppers, 12-14 hauling trucks and five packing tractors.

“When we start chopping, we notify the school, our workers and some neighbors who might want to help,” Moe said.

The hired hands at MoDak Dairy also bring out family members to help and neighbors as well. 

“Community is the biggest reason we do this,” Moe said. “Our new culture is not what it was 20 years ago. We are mix and match and make it so everybody has a nice way to live.”

Moe said it is nice to see the students’ work coming full circle when they return to the farm after graduating from college.

“Last summer we had a new nutritionist come out here and she remembered coming out when she was at Lake Area Technical College and covering pile,” Moe said.