Behnkendorf retires from Extension but continues to work with agriculture
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/08/2010 9:03 AM
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ALGONA, Iowa — Bob Behnkendorf has been involved in Kossuth County agriculture his entire life.
That continues even though he has retired from Iowa State University Extension.
Behnkendorf, 62, was born in Algona. His family moved several times by the time he was a sophomore in high school. Being "a bashful" child, he benefited greatly from 4-H "where I was 'forced' to become a leader and from high school leadership." He was class and student council president his junior and senior years at Gilmore City High School.
He attended Iowa Central Community College for two years and went on to receive an animal science degree from Iowa State University. At 55, he obtained a master's degree in management from Southwest State University at Marshall, Minn.
He worked for Hormel Food Company for 25 years, 17 in hog procurement and eight in the feed division. He then worked for Northland Coop in retail feed sales.
When the Kossuth County Extension education director position opened up 13 years ago, Behnkendorf was recruited by county residents.
"I received a lot of calls urging me to apply for the job," he said.
Behnkendorf worked for Kossuth County Extension for 12 years and was also director in Palo Alto County four of those years. When ISU Extension announced big budget cuts last spring, he decided it was time to retire.
Behnkendorf and his wife, Patricia, have two grown sons — Alan and Curtis. When the boys started 4-H, the family got involved in raising purebred Spotted hogs.
"A former customer of mine told me that if my sons needed a place to raise pigs we could do it at his place," Behnkendorf said. "We bought three bred gilts at the Iowa Purebred Spot Breeders Show and Sale and that's how Behnkendorf Brothers Spots got started. The boys owned the business through college, and what remained after tuition and books were paid, Dad got. That was five sows."
Behnkendorf continues to raise Purebred Spots. He has 12 sows, and he sells to other purebred seed stock producers, 4-H and FFA members, and to customers looking for locker pigs.
As Behnkendorf looks back on his Extension career, he takes pride in the environmental awareness program he established.
"It started as a bus tour around the county," Behnkendorf said. "I wrote grants to pay for the dinners and buses. We went around the county looking at practices currently used by everyone from farmers to people like me who live in town."
The program included a discussion of conservation practices as well as livestock confinement units. Participants learned about how farmers must have manure management plans and receive training to apply pesticides and manure. The tours evolved into a PowerPoint program that Behnkendorf took into the schools.
"The program was recognized as the top educational program by the National Association of County Ag Agents," Behnkendorf said. "It was easily duplicated and other counties did start tours. That was gratifying."
Behnkendorf is also proud of the youth livestock judging workshops he organized.
"I told the young people the goal is to make them good communicators," he said. "My young people knew how to give oral reasons, and they won a lot of contests because of that."
Behnkendorf organized farm safety day camps, which involved 300 third graders and 50 to 70 volunteers each year. He also helped start an agricultural awareness day for Emmet, Palo Alto and Kossuth counties called EPAK.
"I always brought baby pigs and chicks, and I was pretty popular," Behnkendorf said with a grin.
He misses the contact with Extension staff and young people as well as working with farmers now that he's retired.
"Many of the farmers who were my customers when I was in hog procurement became my customers when I was in feed sales, and when I became Kossuth County Extension director, they became users of Extension," Behnkendorf said.
He also misses his weekly radio program.
Behnkendorf will continue to be a Fish Iowa trainer and work with a youth fishing club he started. He also plans to fish more, watch westerns on television and garden.