South Dakota Farmers Union Celebrates the Christensen Ranch Family

By Lura Roti, for South Dakota Farmers Union

 Recalling his youth, Wessington seedstock producer, John Christensen says school wasn’t really his thing.

 His lack of interest didn’t go unnoticed.

 “My teacher caught me staring out the window one day, I was probably daydreaming about cattle. She moved my desk to face the wall. To this day, I can still see those gray boards of that one-room schoolhouse,” says the 64-year-old.

Classroom learning may not have captured John’s attention – cattle genetics on the other hand – for more than 50 years, they have driven an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

 “Cattle are my life,” John explains. “I’ve been making the mating decisions for this herd since I was 11.”

 His passion is most obvious when you’re among the offspring. Point to any yearling bull or heifer in John’s winter feedyard and he recites their genetic strengths and bloodlines.

 Calving out 600 cows most years, if John needs a reminder, he simply pulls out a worn calving notebook from his shirt pocket. He’s been keeping careful calving records since childhood. “I have only lost one book in all these years. I have 50 years-worth of books saved,” he explains.

 Although maintaining pen and paper records may be a bit old fashioned, it is not an indicator of John’s attitude toward technology and genetic tools.

 In the mid-’60s his dad, Jens, was among South Dakota’s early adopters of AI (artificial insemination). At 14, John went to AI school.

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