Counties of Wisconsin; 10; Rusk County

One of Wisconsin's counties heavily forested and sparsely populated has only one city. The courthouse is located there at about 45 degrees 28 minutes north latitude and 91 degrees five minutes west longitude. The county is Rusk and the conversations you'll hear were recorded at the county seat and Lady Smith. During this half hour you'll hear from residents of Ross County and from two of the county's University Extension staff members. Rusk is a rural county indeed. With a land area of over five hundred seventy thousand acres and a population of under 15000. Over half the area is in forest. About a third of a million acres.

It has some 60 lakes the largest of which is Lake Flambeau. The Flambeau river with others such as the Chippewa jump and thorn apple offer opportunities for canoe trips. Some of the other communities in the county are Glen Flora Bruce Hawkins Ingram. And Sheldon. Other residents live on the more than 1000 farms and rural homes. In Rusk. One finds farming logging maple syrup production and cranberry more shoes as some of the sources of income. Unfortunately we also hear from residents of a generally low income. Between 150 and 170 Rusk lost over 2000 people. The out migration now seems to have been reversed. But economic problems remain. Robert McCarthy is the farm loan agent for a bank in Lady Smith. He talked with the extension office chairman Bruce Nelson

looking at the economic picture as we have it today. How do you see things in rust County. Well mainly Brosius you know our Ross County is mainly a dairy company dairy farming in particular and. I don't suppose it's any great news to anybody that their farming isn't too bright a picture at this point in time because of cost. Feed mill prices came up some but. At this particular time as you know we have the army Warman tri station in the county. There's other things that add in the farmer's cost which don't make is in result look too bright. And when I pick up the paper recently and see there's 900 some farmers in the state of quit farming in the last year which is considerably more than the year before. You kind of wonder we're in a kind of a limited area because we don't have the quality Elaine we don't have the type of soil and grow the best crops or a little bit fire enormous and it does make it a little bit difficult here for the farmer to.

He has to be a town farmer to keep going. How do you see yourself then working with these farmers in order to make you know their position as as good as possible as far as Russ county's concerns Where is being able to make it in for me while I think. Basically my main purpose is not to tell a farmer how to farm but to guide him if I can is any thing in particular that I see obvious it might help him. I know I've encouraged a lot of solvability more or less to go to Haley to type farming. We've encouraged silence even for corn silence which I think has been a little bit weak a little better typer recordkeeping Testino mountain dairy herd testing the feed cops as necessary testing its files to improve their lot. I think we have been a little bit of help in guiding some of these people but here

again you have to have some body that's what we need except these things I want to do better in this day and age if they don't want to they aren't going to last too long. Or what kind of guidelines do you have to follow say in working with farmers as far as the financial area is concerned. Well basically I mean any farm loan whether it be new or old. We consistently do a yearly financial statement. We were trying to follow their net worths or their ability to project or increase their position. We're trying to basically stay with the operating in the farm credit. We're not a relatively big bang so we cannot consider too many real statement. So we work more with the farmer on a dairy herd the machinery and the things we try to handle the operating credit in the farm. We can consistently look at the income and expenses and try to see where the obvious areas are or if there is any to see

how well a good a job they are doing let's put it that way. And along with this we try to encourage the younger adults to do get interested in finding in this is where we as you know we work with the 4H and FFA in their project loans. We've encouraged this by making simple 7 percent loans to project loans calf projects or. Whatever it be they want to carry through so until they're out of high school and on their own mind then we keep the small enough one till they get a start in trying to encourage them to keep interest and work with dad. In the last six months we've had a little bit more money than we've had previously in the last year but at this point in time we feel it starting to tighten again to seemed like we knew this was kind of a prediction that we would have a little extra money through the spring months.

But look out for this fall and we're we're fine Enos now that a certain amount of. Treasury notes are investments that we have to buy the rates are starting to ease back up a little bit which overall increase the cost of money. We in the bank have very high rates too much. We we try to set a rate probably the first part of the year and stay with it. Weather costs vary a little bit because we don't want to get the farmer around here confused that we're going to keep changing the rates up and down a half percent here and you know after a while we don't know what is pain. But right now we do all we can we have a private loan company that we discount loans through in order to get additional funds for the farmer if necessary. Barbara No doff is the foreach on youth agent and the extension office. Her conversation with Marvin Nelson underscored some of the economic difficulties just discussed.

Mark Nelson is superintendent of schools for the flambeau school district. Maybe you want to give us a general description of the schools in Rusk County. Ross County has five school districts starting on the west side Weyerhaeuser district of about 300 students. Bruce district district of approximately 950 students. The ladies with district comprising an area that covers about 15 hundred students. And they also serve the extreme eastern end of the county the Hawkins area lying sandwiched between the Lady Smith district proper and the eastern part of the district at Hawkins's the flambeau school district was slightly over a thousand students. The buildings and facilities in the school districts vary from older buildings that have been well maintained to

a new plant in the Lady Smith School District and a building a high school building under construction at Weyerhaeuser a few years ago we were hearing about. Schools were overflowing with students. Is this still the case or have the school populations declined a little bit in the last couple years. Well population trends in rust quality are very interesting if one follows a school census. It would appear that before very long we would run out of students entirely. However the population while declining slightly is remains relatively stable. Rust quality over the years has had a lot of migration of people who seek more opportunity. And the corresponding in migration has been families of lower socio economic levels who in turn have caused problems in

the educational systems. We do have a number of special programs to serve the needs of the students. We have federal programs under Title 1 the recently enacted legislation chapter 89 for exceptional students. And. Chapter 90 which is imposed to 13 standards. As far as educational requirements on the schools have had an impact in serving the needs of the students. Our district Tony Flambeau has probably the highest incidence of low income students in the area. We have approximately a. 45 to 50 percent of our students eligible for the federal free lunch program. And which is subsidized by the federal government. We also have a large number of students in the Title 1 program and

in an exceptional education program. What transportation does that pose a problem as far as school districts are concerned or getting students to and from home to school. Well I district comprises approximately 400 square miles. And in order to provide equal educational opportunity. And in order to. Make sure that all students can participate in extracurricular activities Transportation does pose a problem. Approximately 95 percent of our students ride the bus and we also run special busses after school to provide extra curricular transportation with low income levels such basics as food can be a serious consideration. Again Barbara note Judy Nielsen is our FNM staff assistant and she works here in the extension office. Judy

maybe you want to go into the F net program a little bit and explain about what it is and who works with it and who does come in contact with. OK. First of all our program has been going now for two years in the county and it is the expanded food and nutrition education program. It deals with families all over the killing. It's a program that concerns everyone because nutrition does concern everyone. Studies have shown that even in middle class homes all over the country male nutrition is evident or bad nutrition in any form of bad nutrition is technically male nutrition over eating eating the wrong kinds of foods is a problem and this can be because of the economic situation or because of a lack of knowledge on the part of the homemaker. And our program deals with educating the homemaker

and also youth to know the type of nutrition that they should be feeding their families and they should eat. We have seven peer professionals who have been trained by the home economists through University of Wisconsin. They have been through a three week training session and also have ongoing training in service training once a week the paraprofessionals work in the home they work with the family with the entire family with the mothers that are doing the cooking for the children that are growing that need the proper nutrition for their health for their growing minds and bodies. Some of the problems with bad nutrition in this area specifically are the economic factors and also that there are so many foods available on the

grocery shelves it's so easy to make bad purchases and to not know how to shop properly for use of their food stamps. I think the convenience foods and some of the snack foods that are on the shelves and possibly some of the members of the family that do the shopping that don't know what they're doing. The younger members of the family would run over to the store and buy say potato chips and pop in maybe a box pizza and expect that to be supper. This is the main problem where education can play an important part. Because through education the homemaker can understand that it is necessary to buy foods from a plan so that they will get the basics for in a day. Judy do you think that the food stamp program in Ross County is being used efficiently or do you feel that there are number of people in the county who maybe aren't reached who should be or

could be. Well I think like all programs it's very difficult to be used completely efficiently. I'm sure that there are people that are eligible for it that won't take advantage of it because of pride or whatever their feelings are about the program. And in some cases the expense of buying the food stamps all at one time may be stopping some people from using them. When people do use them I think they should be encouraged and that's part of our program through education to budget them throughout the month so that they last and they have the amount they need to spend each week in the store rather than blowing the whole wad. Say whatever happens to be on special this week. Since we do live in Wisconsin which is known as America's dairy land have you heard or known of any cases where children are malnourished maybe because of lack of milk or other dairy products which may give them

the vitamins provided in those particular foods. Well yes I've heard of a few specific cases where a child just doesn't like milk or won't eat certain dairy products or things like that. But I think overall in a rural area like this most of the children have plenty of milk because it's available on the farms. And also I think the thing that they're lacking more than milk is fruits and vegetables this seems to be the food group that is lacking in most everyone's diets. Colonel Johnson is one of the area's farmers. He talked with Bruce Nelson about not only challenge use but opportunities he sees in Rusk. We pride ourselves on the quality of dairy farms we've gotten today we've got one of our better farmers with us Karl Johnson from Glen Flora and Carl maybe you could just mention a little bit about how you see dairy farming and in Ross County. Well I might have to answer that question little prejudice because I been born and raised on this

farm and I've been there all my life so far and I enjoy it. And farming is not a job but it's a way of life and you have to enjoy it in order to do it. And as far as future in Ross County I think there's a future for Marion in Ross County because West County is we raise grass and you've got to have grass for farming. And so yes and you get an economical crop. I think you mention probably what most of us up in this area consider to be the heart of course of the dairy industry and probably what lends itself to the future of bearing in Russ County nets coarse rough edges and so forth. And maybe you could mention a little bit about what you see is the trend in as far as crops in Ross County is concerned and what sort of changes might be taking place. Well I think one of the biggest changes in Ross County is going to be a lot more raising of alfalfa because protein is a high price. I don't to buy in a feed store and you have to have

protein to raise milk or produce milk efficiently. And as far as corn. Sometimes we get good corners sometimes we don't I mean we have corn for corn sized but as far as green as just about out of the picture sometimes some of the parts of the county we have green corn for grain but not in all parts of the county and we have to buy this. But if we can raise good roughage and good high protein. I mean you can do a pretty good job and milking cows for his county. I was just going to mention that Carl that I think silos are seeming to play a bigger picture here in Russ County all the time as we see people going to high moisture corn to get an opportunity to get some of this green up but not necessarily at 15 percent or whatever you might want to put dry corn up bad. And also in regards to the silence in these kinds of things as far as storage is concerned in order to to beat the rain

particularly early in crops is concerned and I know you've gone on a lot this way as far as Haley is concerned and operate I find is quite efficient. Yes I have three saddles on my farm and first as a spring now we hate it we had wet weather and we didn't have much time to get our hay up and with myself and my sister we managed to get our hay up in a short amount of time and if we supposed to Bayliss we'd be probably still be bailing hay just like a lot of the area farmers are. Do you see a good second crop coming at this time we're having 1075 It's been a year of of extremes and of course the first crop came off awfully slow and how is your second crop coming. My second crop off I was up to my knees now and if I would had the silos I'd be making first and second grab all together right now. This summer could be remembered as the summer of the army worms and wet and dry streams and weather. How are things going for you over England

Floria. Well the first part of last week I had a few army worms but then during the middle week they kind of disappeared. I think our cool nights kept them from traveling too far. And I mean I'm fortunate to be this way. And I also want to make this comment on the extension Department. I mean they took the bull by the horns and they got the sprayers going and I realize there's a few hot farmers got hot under the collar and want to take this opportunity in saying that the extension department I think that a real good job at it. Some of those who may have been hot under the collar could have been those who raise honey bees since the chemical used to control the army worms is also deadly to be used in many cases special care was taken to minimize this loss. In spite of daily problems to be faced several programs and organizations exist which are enjoyed by residents. One such as the home makers the treasure of the Russ County homemakers is Kay Bates. Barbara know Dolphus asked her about some of the

group's activities. We have our Christmas fair for our big event we also help in other ways with scholarships and donations to different other activities such as a historical society. The local clubs pick their own we'd have nothing that really says what local clubs have to do with doing their own thing. Donate to whatever type of activity they want 24 clubs with about 500 perhaps. Members were sort of a loosely bound group but we do have an executive board and in the spring in the fall we have council meetings where each club is represented with their views and what we're going to do in the coming years. What are can you tell maybe a little bit about some of the workshops you might have attended that have been offered on a county basis whether it be through extension or through a specialist

coming hours and even an area resource person. Yes this past year we've had everything from consumer education on buying gifts kitchen planning. Picture frames making picture frames and crafts items make crafts items and and. A sewing project and pattern fitting. I think that was the main things. Some clubs have to get their own. Lessons besides these ones that we always send representatives to on a county basis. And then we do our other projects. We ranged through everything I think in our project lessons. Some of the workshops I have been offered to are not offered only to home makers exclusively but also we open them to the general public or we make special invitations to foreach members in this particular project and

also to for each leaders and the homemaker so we can get kind of a diverse diversified group. Julie Nelson is secretary of the foreach and junior leader Council. We asked her to describe the group and her own experiences in the program. The council was. Comprised of kids that are from 14 years to 18 years old and for each. Group of kids for the whole county. And they. Get together and have activities. For themselves and to better the county and to better the club for each. For ten years this is my last year and I'll be graduating. From 4h. My local club is has been very active and I really enjoy it and have. An awful lot from this club. This is the club but I think of even more from the

council which has just given me so many things I have been able to go on trips. And. Have gone to Washington D.C.. Through the county and through the state. I have gone to a state called Congress which is. For. 40 troops from all over the state. Our. Clubs and our council has. Then I don't know they couldn't of been to been here ARE THEY GOING TO been set up without the adults and the parents in the county and we have adult leaders council which meets in the county and it's comprised of adults adults and parents of the kids from the county and they have a council that sets up things for us and for the for the for its members and for themselves.

The Treasure of the for each adult leaders council is Mrs. Bernice shime. However everyone we've talked with just called her Bernie. I happen to be a member at large in our county we are our Have to representation by two representatives from each of the four areas plus. One other member so there are nine of us and I would say our biggest job is to work with our. Extension agents and our clubs whatever we can to help we do get behind some kind of big projects and I think if you think of Kony in 4-H you think of green and white which is one of our big events. We aim to get every involved every club involved and everyone who's at home that is and we may barbecue as much as a thousand pounds of chicken on this Sunday. But people mark this date on their calendar from year to year. The biggest thing probably is the cooperation the working together and at

the same time we earn little money to sponsor some of these other activities on a county wide basis. As I think of for each one the greatest things we've done is some of these trips that we've made available to our kids. We have a trip for the younger kids which is within the county or quite maybe it's 800 miles radius of home. Then the older kids have the opportunity to exchange with another state even with Canada. And we've seen this one to one basis our kids coming home from Illinois Missouri wherever it may have been the letters to get the friendships that are built up. The things they learn about these other states. We know that this is just going to be one of the best things that's developed over the past few years. We can talk about Rusk County 4-H without. Remember to be glad for trails and camp. It's in our own county. We have other counties come and share this camp with us and it's been developed beautifully within the past few years it's

really a. Great place. Their concerts there they work and their. Snack Bar and these type of things that kids like to do. It's a county owned camp it's in it's in within West County and it was developed first by quite evening and people who have been forage over the years you'll remember that name called the magician. And many many other titles but it was his dream sort of. And as it has been realized the cabins are there there is there are a cook. I'm not the best one to describe except all I hear is a kid say well I met a man I met somebody there and. They have a tremendous. Experience. Trails and. A fitting note on which to close this program. Trails and youth camp at its beginning in 1933 when a permanent foreach committee was established to supervise the 86 acres. The county several individuals a WPA project and University of Wisconsin Extension. I've been

involved in the improvement and operation of this landmark. In Rusk. One of the counties of Wisconsin. This program was one in a series prepared at the service of University of

Wisconsin Extension.