The last call: Boelman announces his final Butler County beef show

ALLISON- The fact that the Butler County beef show routinely runs well over four hours doesn’t phase longtime announcer and current Farm Bureau president Dale Boelman a bit. By the time it’s winding down, he’s just getting warmed up.
            “I enjoy it. Probably the best part of this job is getting to be the emcee and watching these kids,” he said. “I have kids that come up to me that are out of 4-H, and they still come to me, and we talk about when they showed. I love kids. There’s nothing better.”
            Boelman, a farmer in central Butler County (Jefferson Township, to be exact) who raises cattle and hogs, announced his retirement from announcing after 14 years and more memories than he can count. This doesn’t mean, however, that attendees won’t see him at next year’s show: he plans to be there in full force to support his grandchildren as they commence their 4-H journeys.
            As one might expect, Boelman is still farming the same ground that generations of his family before did, and his father Cashton was a longtime beef superintendent here. Dale grew up in Butler County before graduating from Waverly-Shell Rock High School in a class famous for producing five members of the “Hooters 6,” the group that founded the popular chicken wing restaurant chain in Florida.
 
Read more in the June 28 edition of the STAR and TRIBUNE.