agland quarterly - winter 2015

December 2015 December 2015 KANSAS AGLAND

December 2015 KANSAS AGLAND

Jacob Byk/The Hutchinson News

Pigweed sprouts in Jud Hornbaker’s soybean field on Oct. 1.

By Amy Bickel

Kansas Agland

With “bulletproof” weeds like palmer amaranth and kochia becoming ever more resistant across the Great Plains, farmers must focus on rotating modes of action, using pre-emergent herbi-cides and following the label when mixing products, experts say.

For 25 years, kochia and other weeds were successfully controlled by glyphosate, a broad-spec-trum herbicide initially sold under the brand name Roundup. Now, these weeds are showing resistance to the herbicide in fields from Texas to Canada, according to Kansas State University.

“We were in the hon-eymoon period of weed control in the late 1990s and early 2000s when glyphosate was working,” said K-State weed scientist Curtis Thompson.

TillageSome farmers are pulling

out the tillage equipment, said Thompson. But if they can, there are more advantages to sticking with a no-till system.

Research conducted by Dr. Alan Schlegel at K-State Southwest Research and Extension Center at Tribune shows 13-year average yields of wheat/sorghum/fallow benefit from a straight no-till sys-tem, Thompson said. The research compares three systems: conventional, reduced tillage (ground is only tilled as needed between sorghum harvest and wheat planting), and complete no-till. Sorghum hybrid, soil fertility and in-crop weed control re-main the same in all three systems.

The results: the 13-year average yield of wheat that was conventional – 13 bush-els an acre; reduced tillage – 16 bushels an acre; and no-till – 21 bushels an acre. The 13-year average yield for sorghum was: conven-tional – 18 bushels an acre; reduced till – 30 bushels an acre; and no-till – 58 bushels an acre.

“I do think it is going to require a higher level of management in all phases

of crop production,” he said of sticking with no-till. “I think it can be done.”

“Timeliness of effective herbicide applications is key so successful control,” he added. “It may mean that we apply herbicides in late fall or in January or February to control a severe kochia population, or perhaps fall applications to manage marestail.”

Crop rotation is also a key component, which allows the use of multiple modes of action of herbi-cides and different timings of application based on the crop planted, Thompson said.

“We aren’t ready to throw out the no-till technology and go back to the mold-board plow,” he said.

Pre-emergent herbicidesTerry Faurot, a Scott

County farmer and chem-ical applicator, said his business has been busier due to the growing resis-tant-weed problem – and he’s busier earlier in the season.

“Farmers are jumping

in early,” he said. “In the January to March range, I’m putting on pre-emer-gents.”

He advises farmers to follow a course of action that catches the weeds before they come out of the ground.

“What farmers are doing, they are coming in February and March and putting something like Dicamba and Atrazine, and creating a barrier. So, when the ground warms, it blocks (the weeds).”

Then, he said, as the her-bicide wears out and it gets closer to planting, farmers can come back with another pre-emergent herbicide.

“The whole thing is to keep it from seeding out,” he said. “The biggest thing is to not let those weeds go to seed.”

Killing a growing weed crop

If kochia does emerge, don’t wait until the weeds are tall to try to kill it, he said. “Then they are really hard to kill.”

The best time to kill

growing kochia is when it’s between 3 and 8 inches in height. Once it gets too tall, the stem gets woody and the plant won’t take in the chemical.

For palmer amaranth – or any weed – the earlier farm-ers catch them, the better.

Other modes of actionFaurot also recommends

that farmers change up their mode of action.

“I usually spray with three modes of action to at-tack weeds,” he said, adding many farmers use a com-bination of 2,4-D, Dicamba and glyphosate.

But there are others. For instance, mixing atrazine and paraquat is a good combination for controlling weeds in the fall. Paraquat is a potent chemical and it defoliates the plant, Faurot said.

“I wouldn’t go with the same stuff all the time,” he said.

He also recommends mix-ing in ammonium sulfate to the tank mix, as well as surfactant, an additive that will help farmers get better

coverage.Also, don’t cut back on

chemical. Follow the label. Once you damage the weed, it becomes even tougher to kill.

“You just can’t skimp on chemicals,” Faurot said. “You have to kill those weeds the first time around. If you damage it, you won’t kill it the second time around.”

Sometimes it is better to invest in more expensive chemical, he said.

“Sometimes it it is cheaper to put on the expen-sive stuff the first time than come in and do a rescue treatment later,” he said.

What other producers are doing

In Reno County, farmer Jud Hornbaker is using different mixes of chemi-cals to combat weeds. That includes the herbicide Sharpen for pre-plant burndown. For post emer-gence, he uses Anthem and Roundup.

Next year he will have Liberty in the tank mix, another post-emergent

herbicide. He also uses Warrant, 2,4-D and Dicamba. He uses about 17 to 20 gallons of water an acre.

“The main thing is to get the weeds small, not wait until they are 3 feet high,” he said.

McPherson County farmer Monte Dossett also has several different modes of action to combat Palmer amaranth pigweed, including pre-emergent herbicide Authority and Zidua.

He has also used Fierce and Warrant. The chemi-cals work best when he can maintain soil moisture. The water in the soil helps make them work.

He applies a pre-emergent a month before planting and right after planting – along with Roundup once the plants emerge.

Some chemicals have gone up considerably, Dossett said.

“Before the weed resistance, I’d do one pre-emergent, and a lot of people wouldn’t do any,” he said.

Wresting unwieldy weeds

Jacob Byk/The Hutchinson News

Jud Hornbaker poses in his soybean field on Oct. 1.

Lindsey Bauman/The Hutchinson News

A field of soybeans, cleared of weeds by roguing, is ready to be harvested by Dossett Farms on Oct. 12 in rural McPherson County.

Farmers use multipronged approach to fight growing herbicide resistance


By Amy Bickel

Kansas Agland

HITSCHMANN – Time af-ter time, Pete Krier admits, Mother Nature has taken him back to square one.

For nearly 30 years, the Barton County farmer has been trying to renovate this old ghost town, sinking money into the half dozen paint-stripped homes that dot the two-street town.

But just as he makes progress, another storm sweeps through. Tornadoes and strong winds have dam-aged the homes here and knocked down trees. Even a hailstorm pierced the tops of what was once a bounti-ful milo crop, which grows in front of the closed-up brick school.

On top of that, vandals have caused him to put up cameras around town. They have broken out windows and ransacked some of the homes.

For some, it would be more than enough to dis-courage them to continue efforts. But for some reason, for which Krier can’t give a straightforward answer, he keeps pressing on – talking of his dreams for fixing up what still is left.

“Passion, I guess,” he said simply as he stood in the middle of what remains of Hitschmann, Kansas.

Krier owns the entire weather-beaten oil town that once thrived here in the northeast corner of Barton County. He bought it from his great uncle, Frank Hoffman, in the late 1980s.

At one time, he said, there were people living in every household. The town had the general store and fuel stop, along with a lum-beryard. The brick school across the road educated students from first through eighth grade.

There was even a dirt race track, which on weekends brought dozens

of folks to the acreage just north of town to watch cars zoom in a circle. But it all dwindled away as progress marched forward and the oilfield boom busted.

Today, Hitschmann’s population is one – the lone resident who lives in the only house that Krier has made habitable. Despite the setbacks, Krier hopes to have a couple of more houses ready by the end of winter. “We want to fix it all up,” Krier said, though adding aloud that tearing some of it down “might be more sensible.”

A story of a townLike many a town

in the American west, Hitschmann popped up with the advent of the railroad.

According to a written record maintained by the Barton County Historical Society, Elfrieda Wydziak recounted how Hitschmann

was born. It was 1917 and the Santa Fe Railroad wanted to lay a line from Little River to Galatia.

Railroad officials started to contact all the farmers. But when they came to the first residence, J.A. Hitschmann, the farmer said he didn’t want his land divided in two.

Officials continued to meet with Hitschmann, ac-cording to Wydziak. Finally, they asked him if he would allow them to put the rail line across his land if they named the town for him in his memory. He agreed.

The little town struggled in its early years. Frank and Bertha Hoffman took over the Hitschmann Cash Store in 1927 from Bertha’s father, Veat Dolecheck, shortly after they married.

The first few years were hard, especially during the Great Depression, Frank Hoffman told The Hutchinson News in 1986

as he prepared to sell the entire town. But by the late 1930s, the oil boom

augmented the business and Hitschmann.

The National Cooperative

Refinery Association – or NCRA – began renting some of the Hoffmans’ land and built small houses, or “shot-gun shacks” as Wydziak put it, for its oilfield workers.

At one time, there was a lumberyard, two groceries, two elevators and a depot, according to Wydziak. Farmers could order baby chicks and pick them up when the train stopped through town.

There also was a stock-yard. The NCRA had an office in a Quonset hut.

During wheat harvest, Wydziak said, crews would work most of the day until it became too hot, then they would head to the Hoffmans’ store where they played pool in the basement.

As the town expanded, the Hoffmans added on to their growing business, which sold groceries, cloth-ing and other general store merchandise. They built on a dance floor. On weekends, folks would come in to dance to the jukebox.

Photos by Amy Bickel/Kansas Agland

Pete Krier stands in the former Hitschmann Cash Store. He hopes to put a metal roof on the store and fix it up.

The Hitschmann school was built in 1948. It closed in the 1960s. It educated students in the first through eighth grades. The school is on private property, as well as all of the town.

As the wind blows, so does town of HitschmannOilfield boom long gone; now small burg’s survival rests on passion one man has for it

HitschmannFrom PAGE 18

See HITSCHMANN / Page 19


By Angie hAFlich

Kansas Agland

GARDEN CITY – Officials associated with the Meadowlark dairy plant being constructed shared more details about the plant and the products it will produce following a ground-breaking ceremony Oct. 8.

Until now, officials from Dairy Farmers of America have been tight-lipped about the approximately 321,000-square-foot, $235 million plant. But after the ceremony, a DFA official and a local dairy producer shared more information about DFA, those involved with the project, and the products that will be pro-duced at the Meadowlark Dairy Nutrition dairy dryer plant.

Meadowlark Dairy Nutrition LLC is a subsid-iary of Dairy Farmers of America, a milk marketing cooperative owned by 14,000 dairy farmers across the U.S., Monica Massey, senior vice president of DFA, said in an email to The Garden City Telegram.

“Our primary job is to pick up the milk produced on our member farms each day, to pay members for this milk, and then to bring it to processing plants where it is made into dairy products such as cheese, ice cream, butter and fluid milk,” she said, adding that DFA is also a dairy foods company that produces such products as Borden Cheese and Hiland Dairy products.

Sixteen southwest Kansas dairy producers are mem-bers of DFA, Massey said. Of those, 12 are member partners who are investing

in the Garden City plant.Massey was unable to

release the names of those producers.

In February, a news release issued by DFA stated it was in partnership with a Chinese dairy company, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, and Kansas dairy producers to build a facility somewhere in Kansas.

Local officials announced plans for the plant in August, at which point a development and lease-pur-chase agreement was entered between the city and Meadowlark.

As the project neared fi-nalization, Massey said Yili decided to “pause on mov-ing forward as an investor” due to extreme volatility in global milk prices. “We, however, did not want to pause on moving forward with the project, as we have our funding in place and our member partners are in place,” Massey said. “We expect Yili to remain a key customer and remain open to considering Yili as an investor in the future.”

She said DFA is the ma-jority investor of the plant, but declined to provide details about the amount

the company is investing.“We do not disclose

details of our investment structure,” Massey said.

Massey said the product that will be produced at the Garden City plant is milk powder, which is milk that is dried and used as an ingredient in a variety of other products, such as cheese powders, whey pro-teins and infant formulas.

“Easily transported and handled, they are ideal for the global marketplace,” Massey said.

The Meadowlark plant will include milk receiving and cream load-out, raw milk processing, pasteur-ized processing, milk evaporation, milk drying, filling and packaging, dry warehousing, shipping, support and utility spaces,

sanitation corridors, office space and employee well-ness areas.

Dan Senestraro, owner of East Side Dairy near Johnson City, is one of the 12 DFA members investing in the plant.

Following the October groundbreaking, Senstraro said the plant will help local dairy producers save on distribution costs due to its close proximity.

“Right now, we’ve got all this milk in this area, and it goes to a lot of places. It goes to Oklahoma, Texas, sometimes Louisiana, some-times it goes to Colorado,” Senestraro said.

Because the end product will be milk powder, it will be a good product for export, he said. “This is a pretty expensive plant. You can build cheaper powder plants, but you’ve given up some versatility,” Senestraro said. “The processes here are going to be real high-quality and versatile.”

He said that will allow for the production of a variety of other products, such as cream that can be sold to butter or ice cream plants, as demand dictates, which will help dairy producers when other markets don’t fare as well.

Groundwork at the site was expected to begin soon, and the plant’s estimated opening date is May 31, 2017.

Haflich is a reporter at The Garden City Telegram.

Brad Nading/The Garden City Telegram

A semi tractor trailer is driven along an access road off U. S. Highway 83 east of Garden City past the development site of the Meadowlark Dairy Nutrition, LLC plant site.

Gov. Sam Brownback speaks with Dan Senestraro, chairman of the Southwest Kansas Dairy Farmers of America.

Photos by James M. Dobson/The Garden City Telegram

Members of the Garden City Area Chamber of Commerce, Council of Dairy Farmers of America, and state officials shovel dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Meadowlark Nutrition Dairy facility coming to Garden City.

Details unveiled for Garden City dairy plant


PettijohnFrom PAGE 28

Clockwise from top left: Robin Vandegrift holds a sunflower prior to leading yoga practice. Mark Pettijohn and Vandegrift are seen in a tree pose about to dive together. RoJean Loucks playing the harp for the yoga participants.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARK PETTIJOHN

It does so much for one’s balance, flexibility and breathing. Best of all are the partnerships formed by the art of practicing. Yogis support each other and are enthusiastic about their practice. It really brings people together.

It’s “yogariffic,” as I say!Dustin Conrad, my hired

man, and my son, Gareth, took separate vehicles to nearby Salina and picked up and led the participants to the yoga spot. They met at a local business on the edge of town and carpooled to the field, where my other son, Lincoln, and I cut sunflowers for all of the participants.

While Lincoln and I were waiting for the caravan, the harp player, RoJean Loucks of Lindsborg, arrived. The day was calm, and she began to beautifully strum. Immediately thereafter, the 26 cars arrived and parked on a dead-end road right on schedule. People of all ages traversed the road ditches on foot and brought their water bottles and mats up the waterway and into the flowers.

Within 15 minutes, every-one was practicing yoga, led by Robin Vandegrift and Cathy Hayes, both from Salina. There was sufficient cloud cover on the 80-degree morning to make the workout enjoyable. The instructors orchestrated a perfect sequence of moves appropriate for all to enjoy.

Karen Bonar of

Heartland Photography in Salina was on location taking photos.

The colorful mats and tank tops amplified and complemented the breath-taking sunflowers – my favorite crop because of their beauty. Karen spent the next hour making the rounds, photographing infants, grandmothers, grandfathers and everyone and everything in between.

Just as we concluded our resting pose, known as corpse pose, 23 carloads of happy yogis made their way to my house, where we enjoyed a catered meal poolside. Kate Chambers with Cloud 9 Chicken Haven Catering served Egg White Frittatas, Mango Bran Protein Muffins and Turkey Bacon Avocado breakfast sandwiches. My daughter Chloe and I made fresh juice from tomatoes, carrots, man-goes, limes, kiwanos, green peppers, pears, peaches and grapples.

The guests took several pictures, enjoyed the ca-maraderie and consumed the food and drink while getting a little wet.

Dustin had the sprayer and tractor sitting outside the perimeter of the house so folks could view the freshly waxed farm equipment.

The farm cats were pres-ent and fairly well-behaved. Google, the sheepdog, was not invited to the event. Sometimes he can be a bit overwhelming and overexu-berant. He got scraps later. He was happy.

We gave away ears of corn from our double-crop cornfield, which borders the pool. The corncobs were meant to be for squirrel feed

and each yogi took a sun-flower home as a gift. We answered several questions about our farm. Everyone dispersed by 12:30 pm.

We plan to make the event permanent, so look for it next Labor Day. The third annual Yoga in the Sunflowers will be on the Saline-Dickinson County line, south of Solomon.

My goal next year is 100 people and perhaps a sponsor. I already have my planting intentions in mind, so I know exactly where yoga will be: a terrace-topped field again surrounded by blooming sunflowers.

Incidentally, the blessing of rainfall was bestowed upon the farm following yoga. We are 2-for-2 now with rain because of yoga. OK, maybe we just lucked out for the second straight year. Hallelujah!

If anyone is interested in knowing more about attending or starting their own yoga on the farm event, contact me or any of the folks listed via Google. All of us would be thrilled to see you there or answer your questions. Making life better is what yoga and the farm is aimed at achieving. We had a great time, and I’m thankful to all who attended and made our event possible.

Mark Pettijohn is a no-till farmer in Saline and Dickinson counties. He has accounting and business administration degrees with a minor in advertising from the University of Kansas. He has three children – Gareth, 15; Chloe, 14; and Lincoln, 13. To contact Mark, email him at [email protected].


By Josie musico

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

Farmers with chemi-cal-sensitive crops politely request their neighbors avoiding spraying in a man-ner that could spread those particles.

But what happens when asking nicely doesn’t work? Could a farmer who ignores that neighbor and sprays how he likes successfully be sued?

Possibly, said law profes-sor Tracy Pearl.

Pearl, who works for Texas Tech’s School and Law and holds special expertise in envi-ronmental law, suggested a drift-damaged crop could hypothetically lead to a legal ruling in its owner’s favor.

“If the defendants know they’re spraying chemicals onto the plaintiff ’s property, I think the plaintiffs would have a strong cause of action,” she said.

South Plains farmers’ typical complaints of chemical drift involve pesticides intended for one field floating onto neighboring acreage with crops that can’t handle them. For example, say a farmer sprays Roundup to control weeds on his cotton, which he planted with seeds genetically modified to withstand that herbicide. If a neighboring farmer’s operation is limited to con-ventional cotton and a hoe, it could suffer from drifting Roundup.

Court alternativesA-J Media has not

learned of any local law-suits between spraying and sprayed-on farmers. For the moment, most are still tak-ing an “ask nicely and hope for the best” approach.

Chemical drift can be minimized by only spraying during certain weather conditions, and by using drift-reduction spray noz-zles.

Steve Newsom suspects most of the drift damage he’s observed came from honest mistakes by unedu-cated farmhands.

“The Texas High Plains farmers are the most con-scientious, best farmers in the world, and by and large, they’re very, very cautious,” the Hockley County grower said. “They’re careful. Most of them don’t want to hurt their neighbors.”

Newsom, who raises grapes, cotton and a host of other crops, is particularly troubled by a herbicide called 2,4-D. Use of that weed-killer has been on the comeback since pesky pig-weeds evolved a tolerance to fellow herbicide Roundup.

“It’s a very, very volatile product,” he said.

Drift can mean extra trouble for grapes because of the risk of long-term damage for their perennial vines, Katy Jane Seaton said.

Seaton, executive di-rector of the High Plains Winegrowers Association, recommends farmers follow package instructions before

they apply chemicals, and don’t rely on farmhands to mix them. She can’t picture a producer purposely spraying in a neglectful manner with no concern for his neighbors, but in theory would consider taking him to court. “The investment in wine grapes is so expensive that we would be foolish not to make an example out of someone who is intention-ally being that careless,” she said.

Newsom similarly con-siders a farmer’s refusal to adhere to a neighbor’s careful-spraying request hypothetically possible, but not likely. Instead, he encourages good communi-cation among growers.

“I’ve never heard of a situation where a neighbor just says, ‘To heck with you,’ ” he said. “It’s not very common to hear of it, but we are coming up onto en-tirely new chemistry that’s gonna change the game.”

Lawsuit methodsBut if a dispute ever does

arrive in a courtroom, how would it be categorized?

Pearl, the law professor, described two different common-law causes under which those agricultural producers could take each other to court: trespass and nuisance.

“Trespass is really inter-esting because when you think about trespassing, you think about somebody walking onto your property or throwing something you can see onto your property,”

she said.But the definition, she

continued, also includes particulate matter, or drops of substances such as dust or smoke the naked eye cannot observe. An example is Borland v. Sanders Lead Co., a 1979 Alabama case in which the court ruled in favor of a farmer whose crops and livestock were sickened by a neighboring smeltering operation.

Texas saw a similar case about 10 years ago in Stevenson v. DuPont, when a state appeals court sided with a family in Victoria who claimed their health and their animals’ health

were damaged by heavy metal particulates from a nearby plant.

Nuisance law – the other claim under which spraying farmers could be sued – would refer to drifting chemicals’ impact on their neighbors’ livelihood. Loud music and overgrown weeds in residential neighbor-hoods are other examples of nuisance violations.

“Nuisance is about protecting somebody’s right to enjoy their property and utilize it for productive purposes,” Pearl said.

ResolutionsIf the victimized farmer

wins in court, he could be issued an injunction or monetary damages.

In an injunction, the court would order the defendant farmer to stop spraying. Failure to comply could mean fines or other legal trouble.

A judge’s ruling, though, would likely have scruti-nized its effects on both farmers, Pearl said. For instance, most crop growers can’t give up chemicals that easily.

“Certainly the court would have to consider how an injunction would impact the defendant’s right to use their own land,” she said.

Chemical drift issue involving crops raises lawsuit question


By kAtHy HAnks

Kansas Agland

BURRTON – Lesley Matlack is known around town for her brownie cheesecake.

She was the dessert cook at the Paradise Grille before it was destroyed by fire in November 2012.

And for three years, this town of 900 people in Harvey County was without a restaurant.

But, now, there is finally a new place to dine.

Lesley and her husband, Karl Matlack, bought the property and built a new restaurant on the same location along the stretch of U.S. 50 that passes through Burrton. It looks like a big red barn.

They even call it “the-Barn.”

“We’re both from farm backgrounds,” said Lesley Matlack. “The cooking will be like going home to the farm.”

Just like her grand-mother made

Customers seem to ap-preciate the hearty, simple foods being served. Foods like Matlack’s grandmother would make: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, home-made rolls and biscuits. The menu includes handmade chicken fried steaks and steaks. Homemade rolls and desserts. They also grill foods and offer daily noon specials.

The atmosphere has the same country feel. Just opening the door of theBarn is unique. The door handles are old farm tools. Step inside and hanging from the ceiling is an up-side-down metal cow feeder with a flourish of lights attached.

The decor includes a 100-year-old Butler grain bin that comes from Lesley Matlack’s family farm. Walk around the metal building and on the back side is the bar, hidden from view and keeping half the restaurant family-friendly. High above, in the rafters, is a red seed cleaner that comes from the area and an-other antique once used to treat the seeds. Light shades are old farm buckets turned upside down.

There is a main dining room that seats 80 in tables and booths. The bar seats 50. Plus there is the North 40, which is the banquet room for large parties.

Swift business has found Lesley Matlack and her manager, Shelly Findley, doing a little of everything. In fact, they even hired local marathon runner Faith Martin to help with the noon rush.

Martin ran the Boston Marathon, but she said it’s more fun running orders out of the busy kitchen as

quick as she can.“I am helping wherever

they need me,” said Martin. “I want this to be success-ful.”

Matlack said Martin was just a customer at the restaurant with her husband and children on a taco night when the place became extra busy.

“She just jumped up to help,” Lesley Matlack said. Many friends have been helping out. They currently have a staff of 25 full- and part-time workers.

“The community is so on board,” said she said.

Some even proved their allegiance by donating to theBarn Foundation. People joined by contributing from $100 up to $10,000, which would entitle them to

discounts at the restaurant depending on the amount of the donation. They raised $20,000 during the campaign.

“The town badly needed this,” said Dave Whittle, who was enjoying a chicken wrap for lunch and sipping water out of a canning jar.

Staying aliveBurrton was needing a

boost.Semi-tractor trailers

and tourists traveling from Maryland to California on U.S. 50 pass through Burrton. All vehicles must slow to 45 mph, or risk get-ting stopped for speeding.

But go two blocks up the main street of Burrton and folks will find empty store-fronts mingle with a senior

center, police department and The Hair Hut.

On a recent morning inside the Hair Hut, Sherry McCurry was washing and setting Carol Unruh’s hair.

Unruh is thankful the hair salon is still open.

Unruh remembers being in grade school in Burrton during World War II. Gas was rationed and people didn’t stray far from home. She recalls four grocery stores, a jewelry store, bowling alley, doctor and dentist. There was even a car dealership.

McCurry, who has been a local beautician for 28 years, remembers when there was a competitor across the street, as well as a drugstore, flower shop and downtown restaurant.

Then, a fire took the only restaurant left – located on the highway, then came the fire.

“Burrton’s the kind of place if you want some-thing done you’re going to have to pitch in and make it happen,” said Mayor Rodney Redinger. Along with serving as a volunteer with Burrton Consolidated Fire District 5, he is a fire-science specialist with the Kansas Forest Service.

There are 30 local fire-fighters and emergency medical personnel who all volunteer to help the community. That’s the way it works in a small town, he said. His dad, Jim Redinger, was mayor for many years and is still a volunteer fire-fighter. His mother, Linda

Redinger, is an EMT.Fighting the Paradise

Grille fire was hard for all the firefighters, because the building had been in the community for so long.

“Every person fighting the fire had memories in-side the building,” Redinger said. “When something like this happens in the community it’s either going to deteriorate or bounce back.”

Making things happenHowever, theBarn’s open-

ing is just part of Burrton’s progress.

Burrton recently built a new fire station. And before theBarn opened, Karl Matlack was making the arrangements for expand-ing Stinger, his family’s bale-hauling business based in Haven. This fall, Karl ex-panded the family business into an empty manufactur-ing building on Highway 50 in Burrton.

Before they decided to build theBarn, Karl Matlack called his wife one evening to say he had bought her a restaurant. It was the run-down former cafe which hadn’t been open in 15 years, next to the senior center, police department and Hair Hut.

While they still own it, they decided to build a new building.

“It was going to cost more to remodel and meet all the codes than building a new building,” Karl Matlack said.

Good food in small-town KansasBrad Thompson, with

Bridgman Oil, was eating at theBarn for the second time in one week.

“I’m glad to have the restaurant,” Thompson said. “It’s a welcomed addi-tion.”

Matlack knew they would pull in locals at theBarn, but she has been pleased with people stopping from other towns. She hopes customers will be patient while they work out the kinks that come with any new venture.

For Findley, the best part has been reconnecting with old friends who come in to dine.

“It has been busy, but fun,” Findley said.

Meanwhile, the custom-ers kept coming.

“It’s nice to have some-where local to eat that is not fast food,” said Sparkle Faidley, who was picking up her meatloaf special to go.

Kathy Hanks spent more than 20 years in rural west-ern Kansas where she raised her children and penned ar-ticles for state and national agricultural publications. The longtime journalist writes for The Hutchinson News.

Two things certain as restaurant in Burrton raises its curtain – home-style food and ag decor

Photos by Jacob Byk/The Hutchinson News

Lesley Matlack, owner, left, and Shelly Findley, manager of theBarn, pose around the grain bin-turned-bar in their restaurant on Nov. 5.

A sirloin dinner, available for $12.99, is photographed in theBarn restaurant on Nov. 5.

TheBarn, a new restaurant in Burrton, is open for business and attracting people from far and wide.


By Austin FisHeR

Kansas Agland

GARDEN CITY – The head of the Kansas Economic Progress Council and a political operative of the Donald Trump presidential campaign shared competing viewpoints about how to jump-start the Kansas economy Nov. 4 during a town-hall-style discussion.

The panel addressed an audience of students and graduates of the Kansas Agricultural and Rural Leadership program at the Finney County Fairgrounds, talking about the future of rural Kansas communities in an era of reduced public funding.

The KARL program is a nonprofit educational orga-nization that takes students through a two-year program about leadership, govern-ment, conflict management, economics, public service and other areas of civic engagement that meets for seminars across the state.

The current crop of KARL students is the 13th class to come through the program.

The panel was the first stop in a statewide tour focused on economic de-velopment that will end in Topeka on Jan 20.

Scott Poor, an attorney and consultant from Wichita, moderated the dis-cussion and played devil’s advocate at times.

Poor laid out a general

overview of the Kansas economy, from the diverse tax bases of the state’s 105 counties, to population and demographic trends, to the status of the state’s infra-structure.

“The level of subsidy in rural Kansas is increasing, as are infrastructure and public-sector costs, but the local population and tax base is going down,” Poor said. “With fewer people, how are we going to pay the bills? Our region has resources and economic ac-tivity, but that isn’t leading

to demonstrable population growth.”

Poor is a graduate of the 2005 KARL class and a professional develop-ment instructor for the organization, chairman of the Kansas Real Estate Appraisal Board and a member of the Sedgwick County Extension Council.

“Western Kansas is a region of decline overall,” Poor said. “Rural Kansas needs new ideas and new leadership.”

Alan Cobb, an attorney and a senior adviser for

Donald Trump’s presiden-tial campaign, is also an adjunct business instructor for Baker University.

“If the goal and desire is to improve the economy, what Kansas did for 30 years wasn’t working. We’ve got to try something different,” Cobb said.

Cobb has worked for Koch Industries, Americans for Prosperity and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

“Low tax states have superior economic perfor-mance. Is it because they’re

the lower tax states? It’s food for thought,” Cobb said.

Cobb said Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts in 2012 were “oversold,” but still could work if given time to shake out.

To grow the Kansas economy, he wouldn’t raise income taxes but would lower sales tax and cut government spending. Kansas is not experiencing a revenue problem, but a spending problem, he said.

Cobb’s counterpart on the panel was Bernie Koch, executive director of the Kansas Economic Progress Council, a Wichita nonpar-tisan coalition of business owners and organizations.

“A tax break never filled a pothole, arrested a burglar, put out a fire or caught a kidnapper,” Koch said.

Koch is a former TV journalist and former vice president for govern-ment affairs for both the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Koch said economic growth is dependent upon government being a partner with business by maintain-ing a reliable legal system, investing in infrastructure as extensions of business, and investing in people.

He pointed to a study by conservative economist Robert Barro of 100 coun-tries from 1960 to 1995, which concluded that for

every additional year of schooling in a country, the economy grew by 0.44 percent.

In his personal view, Koch said, to grow the Kansas economy, there needs to be more stable state revenues, more investment in K-12 and higher education, renewed investment in in-frastructure, more focus on the state’s aviation industry, encouragement of exports, Medicaid expansion, more public broadband Internet services, a single sales factor tax on corporations taxed separately from their owners, and tax cuts on research and development and business services.

Debra Bolton, a social researcher and statistician with the Kansas State University Research and Extension Office and a KARL class 2013 graduate, said the general public needs a deeper understand-ing of statistics to benefit from events like this dis-cussion. “Sometimes if you torture data enough, it will confess to anything. I don’t know what measurements they were using to look at their data, and I don’t know what analysis (they used),” Bolton said. “They all had different points of view. I was just thinking that their analysis of data and the way they talked about it was subjective.”

Austin Fisher is a reporter with The Garden City Telegram.

Brad Nading/The Garden City Telegram

Bernie Koch talks about factors holding back economic growth in Kansas during a KARL Leadership program session in the Finney County Fairgrounds grandstand meeting room.

Panel debates future of rural Kansas communities

agland quarterly - winter 2015

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