Roling Family Wins First Good Neighbor Award

Campgrounds across South Dakota are often filled to capacity during the summer months. Families are spending quality time together while the kids are on summer vacation, soaking up the sights of rural South Dakota, the rivers and lakes, mountains and prairies, the wildlife and the hog barns.

At least that’s the case for campers south of Salem, S.D., where the campground’s neighbor is an active family farm with cattle feedlots and an 8-year-old hog barn.

That farm is the home of Barney Roling and his family, winners of the first Good Neighbor Award, sponsored by Ag United for South Dakota and Tri-State Neighbor.

The Good Neighbor Award recognizes South Dakota livestock producing families who are committed to growing neighbor relations and dedicated to healthy stewardship of their land, livestock and the environment surrounding them.

Roling farms with his wife, Gail, and their son, Ben, Ben’s wife, Jennifer, and their son, Landon. Barney and Gail have two other children, Paul, in Brookings, S.D., and Kerry, a freshman at at the University of South Dakota. They operate a typical diversified South Dakota family farm with cropland and livestock.

“I guess it’s something you don’t think about on a daily basis,” said Barney Roling, about being a good neighbor. “Part of it is what you grow up with over time.”

Like many South Dakota farm families, the Rolings were humble about the amount of help they have given their neighbors.

“We haven’t done that much,” said Ben Roling.

“No, it doesn’t really amount to anything,” said Barney. “Neighboring’s not what it used to be at all.”

Neighbor Martha Sherman would disagree.

“We never have to ask Barney to move snow drifts from our driveway,” said Sherman, who nominated Roling and his family for the award. “His red tractor and loader just shows up, moves the big drifts and with a wave he is gone. He never takes any payment.”

Sherman and Marie Haala have operated the Camp America Campground just south of the Rolings’ farm for 11 years. In addition to helping clear snow, the Rolings have helped Sherman and Haala unload heavy machinery and clean up around the campground after summer storms.

In 1998, the Rolings built a 2,000 head feeder-to-finish hog barn, just northeast of the campground. In nominating Roling and his family for this award, Sherman highlights the family’s consideration of their business.

“They sited the new hog confinement to minimize impact on our park,” said Sherman.

She also appreciates the family’s manure management plan and consideration for the customers at the campground.

“We’ve got to haul manure,” said Barney. “It’s not a question of if; it’s a question of when.”

And when the family hauls manure is part of what Sherman thinks makes them good neighbors. They avoid summer holidays such as the Fourth of July and Labor Day, which are always busy weeks for the campground.

The Rolings have also chosen to include additives in the manure pit to reduce odor and they inject all manure. They recently installed cover plates on their 1,500-gallon tank injector to further cover manure and reduce odor.

“We treat the manure as a fertilizer source,” said Ben. “And when you can smell it, you’re losing some of the nitrogen.”

The Rolings have done zone soil testing on cropland where the manure has been applied and many areas will not be receiving commercial nitrogen fertilizer.

“It’s a two-fold thing,” said Barney about adding cover plates to the injector. “It’s an economic benefit and it helps to reduce odor.”

“After all,” said Ben, “we’ve got to live here too.”

Barney and Ben make up the fourth and fifth generation of the family to farm in McCook County, grandson Landon, may be the sixth. Gail’s family also has a long history in the Salem community. Her grandparents started the local grocery store and it’s now run by her parents.

Barney admits that he has seen many changes in and challenges to production agriculture since he began farming and most people don’t know just how important livestock production is to South Dakota.

“Livestock production has a huge financial impact on the state economy,” said Barney. “You’re turning a lot of dollars over several times through feed, dealerships, grain, packers and retailers. It has a multiplying effect on the general economy that’s hard to replace.”

“However, the public has a ‘not in my backyard’ perspective,” said Ben in regard to livestock production. “Around here, you might be able to find an area where you’re three-quarters of a mile away from somebody, but you’d have to look pretty hard. Mostly, you’ve got a neighbor or farm place nearly every half mile.”

Just one-half mile north of the Rolings’ hog barn, 20 acres have been rezoned as rural residential and new houses are being built.

The Rolings haven’t heard any complaints about the hog barn from their new neighbors, but worry about what might happen in the future when the homes are sold to people from outside the community.

“We do have ‘Right to Farm’ in McCook County though,” said Barney. “At least it does give people moving here knowledge of the fact that they are in a farm community and subject to the sights, smells and noise common in an agricultural environment.”

Being a good neighbor helps to bridge the gap between farmers and non-farm rural residents, said Barney.

“There might be a time when they need some help,” said Barney. “Then you just jump in and you do something. It might be as simple as pushing a driveway out. Maybe it’s a little old-fashioned, but it’s just what you do out here.”

“I’ve heard a lot of good about Barney from other community members,” said Sherman. “People have said ‘He lets us bale his ditches,’ and ‘I didn’t know how the chores would get done when my husband was so sick but they just came over and did them.’ He is definitely a good neighbor.”

The Rolings have the same to say about their campground neighbors, whom they feel are like many rural South Dakotans.

“They’re pretty independent,” said Gail Roling. “But we know they’re here for us, and we’re here for them. That’s what good neighbors are all about.”