Content by Candy DenOuden

A jar of pickles

SDSU Extension adds to food safety testing services

January 17, 2025

SDSU Extension has added a new food safety testing service that allows canning enthusiasts to make sure their favorite recipes are safe.

Three people smile for the camera with bison and rolling hills in the background

Bringing happy, healthy bison back to the Great Plains

January 17, 2025

There are approximately 400,000 bison across North America, down from 30 to 60 million prior to the 1860s. South Dakota has the largest bison population in the U.S. with nearly 40,000, and Martin hopes to see it keep rising.

Two brown calves stand in a fenced pasture and look at the camera

SDSU beef team growing through innovative research, collaboration

September 09, 2024

It’s an exciting time for the South Dakota State University beef team as a core group of longtime faculty and experts is joined by rising stars in their respective disciplines.

Children seated at desks in a classroom raise their hands

SDSU Extension Farm to School supports 'feeding kids great food’

September 05, 2024

In 2024, 69 schools in South Dakota reported serving local beef in school meals in what’s commonly called Beef to School, a component of the Farm to School program supported by SDSU Extension.

Baby seated at a highchair with a variety of soft, cut-up foods on its tray.

SDSU Extension working to bolster rural child care needs in South Dakota

September 05, 2024

South Dakota needs more child care providers, and SDSU Extension is part of a growing collaboration to meet that need.

Crate of fresh picked vegetables with a garden in the background

Dakota Food Rx and high tunnel research support local producers

September 25, 2024

SDSU Extension has supported the growing local foods movement for more than 20 years. This year, those efforts have included a pilot produce prescription program and expanded high tunnel research.

A row of targets is full of arrows in an outdoor field

Shooting sports driving growth in SDSU Extension 4-H program

July 19, 2024

Though not a new 4-H program, SDSU Extension 4-H Shooting Sports has seen a steady uptick in interest in recent years. In 2023, the team saw one of its best showings at the 4-H Shooting Sports National Championships with a third-place finish in the team sweepstakes award. And they’re itching to go back.

Heather Gessner gestures to her classroom. She's wearing a blue shirt and standing in front of a white board with the bullet points homework, exam plus homework due, do both parts, after this week

SDSU Extension programs address economic questions

March 07, 2024

More than 1,000 people have attended Sustaining the Legacy since it started in 2006. The estate planning conference series helps farmers and ranchers successfully transfer their operations to the next generation. The conferences are held several times a year across South Dakota, typically for one day per week for three weeks.

About six people sit around a table in a community room with notebooks and pens

SDSU Extension Community Vitality built on foundation of empowering people

February 09, 2024

Now a full-fledged capstone within SDSU Extension, community development – since renamed Community Vitality – has evolved and grown in the last 20 years. Program leaders agree the community work they did through Horizons laid the foundation for what would become a successfully thriving SDSU Extension Community Vitality program.

a metal structure with white tarps wrapped over it, resembling a hoop shape

SDSU Extension to feature Beadle Conservation District at High Tunnel Field Day

September 13, 2023

Perfect for farmers, technical service providers, gardeners and anyone curious about high tunnels, the field day is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. CDT on Sept. 21, 2023, at the Beadle Conservation District site, 1174 Lincoln Ave. SW, Huron, South Dakota. It is free to attend.