SPORTS SNAPSHOTS OF THE WEEK
Working together sometimes doesn’t seem like work
1. 2. 3.
4.1. of AnsleyLitchfield get’s ready to attempt a free throw vs North Platte St. Patrick’s in the first round of the Class D1
State Basketball Tournament. In the Spartans first state tournament appearance they lost to the Irish by a final of 59-47. 2. of Mullen works to get a rebound vs Falls City Sacred in the first round of the Class D2 State Tournament. In his final game the senior finished with six points in their two point loss to the Irish. 3. of Ansley-Litchfield attempts to make a shot underneath vs North Platte St. Patrick’s at Lincoln Southeast on March 10. Finley is one of two starters returning from this year’s state tournament team. 4. of Mullen looks to make a shot underneath vs Falls City Sacred at Lincoln East on March 10. The junior finished with five points in the game. 5. of Ansley-Litchfield fights through contact to put a shot up vs North Platte St. Patrick’s in the first round of the Class D1 State Tournament. Holm paced the Spartans with 15 points in the game. 6. of Mullen pulls down a rebound vs Falls City Sacred Heart. The sophmore led all scorers with 20 points in th game. 7. Tycen Bailey and Jeffery Cunningham discuss strategy before their game with North Platte
St. Patrick’s. Both were main contributors to the
Spartans run at state this past season.
Kyle and Gina Cantrell believe in Ag. Their family is a good example of a farm family to salute as we celebrate Ag week for 2021.
Starting his 20th year of farming, you could say farming is Kyle’s blood. He is the 4th generation of Cantrells to farm in Custer County, after his great-grandfather Duff, then grandfather Leland and father Don.
When Kyle was a senior in high school, he already had a piece of ground that he was farming on his own along with a start to his cattle herd. While attending the University of Nebraska at
Lincoln and studying Ag Economics, he would come home on weekends to help with harvest.
Working to make farming profitable is at the forefront of every decision made in marketing the grain. It’s the number one goal for Kyle and Gina. As they look to the future, if any of their children - Grace, 16; Own, 15; or Kipp, 9 - wish to return to farm, Kyle and Gina want to make sure there is something for them to come back to. “When profit drives you, you don’t always swing for the fences in marketing,” Kyle said.
Gina, who grew up in the area in the Chandler family, also has farming roots. Her great-grandparents Willian Henry and Anna Lewis homesteaded in the area. Her grandmother Dorothy Lewis moved to California during WWII where she met Ralph Chandler. Ralph and Dorothy spent their adult life in California with their son, Gina’s father, Mike, coming back to spend summers on the farm with the Lewis grandparents. Mike meet Gina’s mother, Carolyn Call, while in the area. They married and Mike started his farming career, bringing the Chandler name to the County farming scene.
Gina, one of seven children, had a good teacher, in her mother who led by example being an active farm family. “It did
not seem like working. We spent hours together as a family irrigating. I even remember taking my pillow to the hay field at night to bale,” Gina stated. “Mom was amazing, raising the seven of us, having a huge garden and helping Dad,” she praised.
Kyle talked about the early days of he and Gina working together. “When we were first married Gina always helped me irrigate every day,” he said. “The first time helping me set gates on a field on the East Table, she walked through the mud and said, ‘What is this stuff on my boots? It won’t come off.’ She was used to the sandier
Donnis Hueftle-Bullock
soils by Anselmo, and this was pure black gumbo.”
Kyle admits, right out of the gate in his first year back from college, “We lost money. Going forward, taking a conservative approach, we have made money every year since.”
By farming about two thirds in corn and a third soybeans for row corps, he is able to sell some of the grain and keep the rest to feed out their 600+ head of Angus cattle in a cow/calf operation and feeding out the calves in the feedlot.
The Cantrells calve half of their herd in the spring and the other half in the fall to assist with the work load. Gina is a big part of the cattle operation, taking a turn in checking and assist in feeding.
“Gina usually does the night check on the heifers, and keeps a closer eye on them than I do.” Kyle admitted.
With school in remote learning during the spring of 2020, the children were out on the farm once homework was done.
“Own spent a lot of time in the tractor last spring helping. I would say he has caught the farming bug. He also loves the cattle too,” Kyle stated. “All three kids own some cows. We want them to have some skin in the game so they want to help with chores and understand the business.”
Community involvement is high on the families list. Kyle currently serves as Treasurer of the Anselmo-Merna school board and also as a Chair
man at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Merna and a board member of the Anselmo-Merna Foundation. The family is also active in Custer County 4-H with the children taking multi projects in gardening, flowers, baking, market steers and carcass contest, just to name a few.
“The interviews are the most beneficial part, whether it be the carcass contest or flowers, the kids have to know their stuff, and think quick on the go,” Kyle said.
Planning for the future and the profit side of the farm, the Cantrells raise mostly row crops with pivot irrigation. When asked about if he thought we could be heading into another drought, he said, “It’s possible. The dry land acres we do farm, we have crop insurance to help cover that, but (on) the pastures we don’t.”
Also looking ahead in planning if there is less rain in 2021, the Cantrells have two pivots of grass where they pasture cattle in the summer. “The main goal is to be able to keep all our cows. They’re the factory. We chop silage and we can bale the cornstalks and add distillers if we need additional feed,” Kyle explianed.
When distillers was short in supply during the spring of 2020, Kyle credits his nutritionist, Tim Loy, for getting soy meal to supplement on the nutrition side in the feedlot for the cattle.
Soon spring planting will start up. The Cantrell family will get the seed in the ground then water and look after their crops.
When harvest time comes, Kyle has a quote he likes to say - “Every day is another day closer to the next blizzard!” The Cantrells work non-stop getting the crops out of the field. Storing the grain and getting it dried down takes their Ag operation full swing through the season.
Now raising the next generation of the Cantrell/Chandler/Lewis farming families, Kyle and Gina are laying a good foundation for the future where Ag will be around for a long time for generations to come.