Wipf Shares Insights on Conservation and Leadership in Agriculture

Brandon Wipf enjoys learning about what makes soybean growers’ national membership organization tick. The Huron, South Dakota farmer had a breather from fieldwork because of the cold weather on Good Friday. He spent some of that downtime talking about his experience serving as a South Dakota representative on the American Soybean Association Board of Directors.

“I just recently wrapped up a term on the Commodity Classic board,” Wipf told the South Dakota Soybean Network. “That was very interesting and rewarding to learn, I guess, about the trade show business and how that plays into the work we do as an association, but also broadly in the agriculture industry and getting to understand the needs of the companies that want to advertise to farmers and how to match that up with what farmers are looking for out of a trade show. So, I found that very rewarding.”

For the past year, Wipf has been ASA’s representative in Farmers for Monarchs, which promotes the conservation of monarch habitat.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service is taking a look at the monarch to see if there is a potential endangered species [designation]. Or what they’re recommending is for a threatened species, which stops short of the full endangered designation,” Wipf explained. “But we’re certainly interfacing with them to make sure that they understand the sort of things we need to farm successfully and to make sure that any restrictions that they may be looking at take into account the things that we’re doing out here already to benefit monarch populations.”

With the changing seasons, Wipf’s thoughts have turned to spring planting. Aside from recent and welcome rain, it's dry in South Dakota. Wipf has completed spring wheat and cover crop planting and before beginning row-crop planting, he is waiting for warmer weather and is counting on more precipitation.

“This is the time of year we need to be stocking up on our soil moisture here and so we’re hopeful the patterns will continue to bring some [rain] chances for us,” he said.

Like most South Dakota farmers, Brandon Wipf is accustomed to watching the sky for signs of additional moisture.

“That’s not foreign to us,” said Wipf. “Farming in South Dakota, we’re often always looking for that next rain and hoping and praying for it. But we’ll get our crop in the ground no matter what in the next few weeks and we’ll see what comes.”