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Change to student aid formula would hit Iowa farm families

Darcy and Eric Wemark and their family milk nearly 600 cows at their dairy operation in Ridgeway, near Decorah in northeast Iowa.

The family also has 450 heifers, a 2,500-head swine facility and farms about 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans on land it mostly rents.

The couple’s eldest son, Carson, is finishing his first year at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, where he’s studying agronomy. The 19-year-old plans to carry on in the family business, as does their eldest daughter, Addison. The high school senior plans to head to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to study dairy science next fall.

Carson currently receives federal financial aid through a Pell Grant to help the family pay for the roughly $16,000 annual expense to send him to college, including tuition, fees, room and board, and other expenses.

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5 Barns Setup For Winter Sheep Care In Canada

Video: 5 Barns Setup For Winter Sheep Care In Canada

Today at Ewetopia Farms, we go on a tour of our five sheep barns that have recently been updated and reorganized for winter sheep care in Canada. Join us as we go through each barn to look at the pregnant Dorset and Suffolk ewes from both our first and second breedings, see where both the older and younger rams are now residing, and visit the new replacement ewe lamb barn as well. It's all the same barns, but setup differently for lambing, feeding and overall care over the winter months.