NEW FACILITY CHRISTENED AS VALUE-ADDED ASSET
Dakota Protein Solutions, located on the outskirts of Freeman, will serve 150-mile radius; industry leaders say it will have strong economic impact on community
Once upon a time — and not that long ago in history’s ledger — rural America was falling short in its ability to retain and attract people to help sustain it.
United States Representative Dusty Johnson remembers being a boy in the 1980s and visiting his maternal grandparents in Highmore and hearing that his older cousin was moving to Minneapolis. When Johnson asked why, his family told him that, while his cousin loved Highmore, there just weren’t any job opportunities for him there, and the pull of big-city life was strong.
“Even as a little guy, that hit me hard,” said Johnson, sharing the story in his remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Dakota Protein Solutions (DPS) just outside of Freeman Tuesday morning, Sept. 3. “If we want people to live in rural America, you’ve got to have something for them to do. And let’s be honest; the 60s, 70s and 80s was not a great era for rural America.”
But things have changed.
Even in the last five years, Johnson said, many rural areas have seen a resurgence in growth, and there are multiple factors that help explain it. As urban crime has increased, “people have realized that maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world to know who your neighbors are.”
And the rapid advancement of telecommunications has helped connect rural with urban.
“But a big driver that we’re just not talking enough about is the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been put into value-added agriculture across rural America,” Johnson said. “It’s created tens of thousands of jobs that otherwise wouldn’t have been there.”
And what really makes that work, he said, “is capital at risk.”
“You’ve got to have people who are willing to put their own money on the line to go create jobs,” Johnson told the 100-plus gathered at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting. “And if we ever forget that that’s really the straw that stirs the drink of rural development in this country, we’re done for. Because there’s not enough government money to do the kind of value-added agricultural projects that have been done, particularly in our part of the world, over the course of the last 5, 10 and 15 years. That has reversed the trend lines and has allowed people to create fantastic lives and futures in the communities that they want to live in.”
Dakota Protein Solutions, Johnson said, is a prime example of that.
Freeman’s newest industry and the first of its kind in all of South Dakota — a non-proprietary animal waste handing facility located on the site of what was once Dakota Rendering one mile east/southeast of town — is opening on the backs of an ownership/investment group that saw both a need and an opportunity starting in 2019.
In the years since, DPS has benefited from the support of township, city and county government agencies, local landowners and neighbors who have supported the effort and a financial and emotional investment in a new venture that expands the local agricultural footprint.
All of that was celebrated as distinguished guests like Johnson joined the ownership group in Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony that doubled as an open house that gave the 100-plus attending a look at the facility that will employ as many as 12 full-time employees and recycle and divert from landfills 1.5 million lbs. of rendered material — primarily cattle and hogs — on a weekly basis.
In the process, it will create two primary products: meat and bone meal to be used to supplement and support feed, and fats and oils that will be converted into renewable diesel fuel.
DPS will serve a clientele from within a 150-mile radius, will be an outlet for approximately 415 million lbs. of renderable dead stock each year and will have an overall impact on the economy of $18 million annually.
And all of it is being done with attention to environmental care.
“We spared no expense,” said Scott Stern, a local business owner and a lynchpin in the effort that made this happen thanks to both his relationship with Ray Spangler, who had owned Dakota Rendering, and the connections he has made, some of which came from the two years he spent as commissioner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development under the Dennis Daugaard administration. “These partners all brought unique experience, skills and capacity to support a project of this scope … We all said, ‘Let’s find a way to do this, because the state needs this and the ag production industry can benefit from these outputs.’”
Among the guests at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was Hunter Roberts, commissioner of the South Dakota Department of Ag and Natural Resources (DANR), whose job is to promote economic development as it pertains to the agricultural industry while preserving clean air and water.
“This fits right in (with what we do),” Roberts told the guests. “It’s value-added agriculture and lowering the environmental footprint of that agriculture. It’s a grand slam for what I’ve done in my career.”
Roberts noted the “plenty of permits” DPS secured through the DANR which are serving as a layer of protection against environmental contamination; “The way they’re doing it — consolidating it and creating that additional revenue source — is just great for our South Dakota small town economy.”
And Roberts noted that his team at the DANR, along with a team led by Joe Fiala, commissioner of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, have had conversations about this very type of facility for the past four years.
“How do we get more of these types of projects,” Roberts said. “It lowers the environmental footprint and solves a lot of problems for our ag economy by taking the part of their products that they don’t use — don’t need — and consolidating them in another way that benefits our ag economy. It’s an exciting time.”
Drew Peterson, a District 19 Representative and family farmer and rancher in the Salem area, said in his remarks on Tuesday that DPS will have a direct impact on his operation; his farm includes hog barns that he leases to a neighboring Hutterite colony.
“It’s so exciting that we get to add value to products that we otherwise wouldn’t add value to,” he said, noting the strong economic impact on the area in terms of both revenue and employment opportunities. “As far as serving our community goes, there’s nothing better than adding value to our ag products.”
Ron Stover of Elkhorn, Neb., and one of the seven investors who took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, thanked the state of South Dakota, Turner and Hutchinson counties “and everybody who has been involved with this project.
“We’ve touched a lot of people,” he said.
Scott Darling, another investor, noted that many of the partners are from Nebraska, and that South Dakota “has welcomed us well.”
“It’s been a pleasure to work with each and every one of you, especially the legislators and the leaders in the community,” said Darling, who owns a four-generation family business in Pender, Neb., and has been heavily involved in recycling proteinaceous waste — specifically poultry — for the last 25 years. He operates plants in Iowa Falls, Iowa; Quimby, Iowa; Wakefield, Neb.; Mt. Montpelier, Ind. “This is the first plant of processing beef and pork that I’m involved in, and our goal is to value-add these products, as well, to support agriculture and to take proteinaceous waste from landfills and other areas.”
Finally, Tony Colanino acknowledged another group that deserved recognition — the wives of the owners.
“Everybody here who is part of the investment group is also part of a business of their own in some way, shape or form,” Colanino said. “Everyone is an entrepreneur, and what that means is that at some point in our life each of us made a decision to walk away from a steady paycheck and take a risk, and that doesn’t happen without the support and partnership we have gotten from our spouses.”
Stern told The Courier that DPS should begin operating at a limited capacity within the next two weeks and will be up and running fully by the first of the year.
