North Dakota
North Dakota State University Extension agent has passion for passing along agricultural knowledge
LANGDON, N.D. — Bailey Reiser’s rural upbringing inspired her to share agricultural knowledge through the generations.
The 26-year-old North Dakota State University Extension agent for agriculture in Cavalier County, North Dakota, taught agriculture education at Mount Pleasant School District in Rolla, North Dakota, for two years before accepting a position with NDSU in 2022. In her Extension position, she teaches children, teens and adults about a variety of agricultural topics.
Young farmers and ranchers
According to the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, the average age of American farmers that year was 57.5. Only 9% of farmers were under 35 years old, according to the Census. Agweek and other Forum Communications’ newspapers are highlighting young farmers and ranchers in the industry to look at what the future holds for agriculture.
Reiser’s passion for agriculture comes from her immersion in it at a young age and being nurtured by her high school agriculture education teacher.
During Reiser’s youth on her parents’ hobby farm near Carrington, North Dakota, she was the caretaker of a variety of animals, including horses, cattle and goats. She learned about production agriculture by spending time with her father, Doug Retzlaff, who worked for a farmer and sold crop seed. She got hands-on exposure riding in the combine and on the tractor with him and watched him interact with farmers during his seed sales.
Reiser’s interest in agriculture grew at Carrington High School where she took agricultural education classes and was in FFA and 4-H.
“I did crop judging and all of the other judging, but crop judging was where I found a little niche,” Reiser said. “I really got inspired to do agronomy or something along those lines.”
After graduation from Carrington High School in 2015, Reiser attended NDSU where, during her senior year, she decided to become an agricultural education teacher.
She wanted to give youth the same opportunities that her high school agricultural education teacher had offered to her. Besides crop judging, that included volunteer work, fundraising and attending state and national conferences.
Contributed / North Dakota State University Extension
Reiser’s high school crop judging experience helped prepare her for her college agronomy classes.
“It gave me that really good base,” she said.
After she graduated from NDSU in the spring of 2020, Reiser taught agriculture education for two years at Mount Pleasant School District in Rolla, North Dakota. She was at the NDSU Extension office in Cavalier County gathering weed pesticide guides for her crops judging students when she learned about an opening for the agricultural agent position.
Contributed / North Dakota State University Extension Service
Reiser applied for the position and started working for Extension during the summer of 2022. Her background teaching high school students helped prepare her to give agricultural presentations to farmers and communicate with them during events such as pesticide applicator training, Reiser said.
She also continues to teach agricultural education in her role as NDSU Extension agent for agriculture in Cavalier County through her work with first through eighth-grade students at St. Alphonsus School, a private school, and eighth graders at Langdon Area Schools, a public school.
The two schools don’t have an agriculture education program so her work gives them exposure to a broad range of topics including plant and animal sciences.
“Being able to add agricultural aspects to daily lessons is really good,” Reiser said. For example, in January, one of her lessons at St. Alphonsus was on dairy so she taught the students how to make butter.
Reiser hopes that her agricultural lessons will spark an interest in students to learn more about agriculture. A couple of students at Langdon Area High School have expressed interest in learning more about agronomy so she plans to connect them with NDSU Extension specialists in the field.
Reiser plans to use her teaching skills to introduce more Extension programs for farmers, such as Annie’s Project, an agricultural leadership program for women. She recently offered a session of “Stop the Bleed,” a farm safety program, which was well-attended and plans to schedule additional sessions.
Contributed / North Dakota State University Extension
She enjoys the day-to-day work with farmers during the growing season when she heads out to fields to help them with diagnosing crop disease and insect problems. If she doesn’t know the answer, she has a wide variety of resources in Extension who assist her.
The farmers appreciate her work, which she finds rewarding.
“I really like what I do, and you get the excitement and joy from the reactions you get, ‘Thank you for helping me out with this,’” Reiser said.
She looks forward to implementing additional agricultural programs during the next year.
“I learned the ropes this last year — now it’s time to implement some,” she said.
Ann is a journalism veteran with nearly 40 years of reporting and editing experiences on a variety of topics including agriculture and business. Story ideas or questions can be sent to Ann by email at: abailey@agweek.com or phone at: 218-779-8093.
(Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
(North Dakota Monitor) – Two North Dakotans are semifinalists for the Bismarck State College president’s job as North Dakota State University narrows its presidential candidate list.
Valley City State University also is searching for a new president, with an application period closing this month..
Kevin Black, chair of the State Board of Higher Education and co-chair of the North Dakota State University Presidential Search Committee, said the committee reviewed over 60 applications. The committee is planning off-site interviews with candidates March 9-10 and campus visits with semifinal candidates March 23-27.
“We’re really excited about taking the next step and there’s some very quality people in there,” Black said.
FARGO — One season ago, a Cinderella run for the West Fargo United girls hockey team came up just short in the state championship game.
United, the No. 7 seed, fell to Legacy/Bismarck in the 2025 final.
This time around, the team had momentum swaying in its favor, riding nine consecutive wins into Saturday’s title game against Grand Forks at Scheels Arena.
Led by goals from a pair of senior captains, United capped its redemption season with a 10th straight victory, fending off the KnightRiders 2-1 to claim the North Dakota girls hockey state tournament championship.
“It just means everything,” said United’s Payton Stocker, whose goal at the 12:31 mark of the second period gave her team a 1-0 lead. “We’ve worked so hard and throughout the season, it’s just been such a battle. Winning and coming out on top is just such a great feeling.”
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Stocker was followed up in scoring by United captain Rachel Spanier. The defenseman fired a slap shot from the left point that beat Grand Forks goaltender Kylie Schmaltz to make it 2-0 with 35 seconds remaining in the middle frame.
Reagan Wilson locked things down in net for United, finishing with 23 saves and picking up an all-tournament team nod.
“This is my first year of high school hockey,” the sophomore goaltender said. “I can’t believe coming in here and winning a state title with all of these girls. I just love them so much.”
While it was the senior duo of Stocker and Spanier finding the net for United on Saturday, contributions were seen across the board.
Sophomore Emma Hassler also put forth an all-tournament campaign with five goals and an assist for six points over the three-day stretch.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Freshman Kaylee Augdahl finished the tournament with four points — including
a double-overtime winner
over Fargo North/South in Friday’s semifinals — and junior Liana Williamson added three assists.
“It wasn’t just us (seniors),” said Stocker, who joined Hassler and Wilson on the all-tourney team. “It was everyone collectively. Being seniors, it feels a lot better. It was a great feeling.”
United, the No. 5 seed this year, capped its season with a record of 17-9-0.
“These girls are awesome,” first-year United head coach Kennedy Blair said. “They’ve worked super, super hard since last April. Wake up early in the mornings, go into off-ice training, on-ice training and all that.
“This group of girls is really special. They’re a really close-knit group, and they trusted our coaching staff coming in as a first-year group.”
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Blair knows a thing or two about winning championships. She was a North Dakota state champion goaltender with the former Bismarck Blizzard co-op and also won an NCAA Division I national title with the Wisconsin women’s program in 2021.
Yet, she never imagined ending her first year as a high school varsity coach with a state championship.
“No, I didn’t,” said Blair, who also won North Dakota High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors. “But I had belief in these girls that we could get to the state championship again.”
It’s the United co-op’s first-ever state title — which consists of West Fargo, West Fargo Sheyenne and West Fargo Horace high schools.
Prior to Saturday, the last time a West Fargo girls program won the state title was in 2014 when it was still a standalone program competing as the Packers.
“It’s amazing considering United hockey has never won a championship game,” Wilson said.
Grand Forks, the tournament’s No. 2 seed, ended its campaign with a 21-5-0 record.
Ella Yahna’s fourth goal of the tournament — which came on a 2-on-1 rush with the assist from teammate Reese Meagher, put the KnightRiders within one shot with 8:17 remaining in the third.
Grand Forks, however, was unable to find the equalizer as its bid for a first state championship came up just short.
“I thought we came out in the first and we had a tough time,” Grand Forks head coach Kelly Kilgore said. “I felt we battled some nerves. I really liked our second period … We carried the play and tilted the ice a little bit back in our favor. The shots kind of started to really turn in our favor.”
Stocker said she wouldn’t have wanted to win a state title as a senior with any other group of teammates.
“(They mean) everything,” Stocker said. “We’re so tight and they’re all my friends. Leaving them is going to be hard. But they mean everything to me. We’re all so close and I love them a lot.”
FIRST PERIOD: No scoring.
SECOND PERIOD: 1, WFU, Stocker (Augdahl, Hassler), 12:31. 2, WFU, Spanier (Augdahl, Stocker), 16:25.
THIRD PERIOD: 3, GF, Yahna (R. Meagher), 8:43.
SAVES: WFU, Wilson 7-13-3—23. GF, Schmaltz 7-3-14—24.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
GRAND FORKS — The Grand Forks Children’s Museum has revealed the anonymous donor of the $2 million in matching funds that prompted others to step forward and bring the fundraising campaign closer to its goal of $35 million.
“It is with deep gratitude that the Grand Forks Children’s Museum now shares the name behind that bold vision,” said Katie Mayer, executive director of the museum, in naming Pam Laffen of Grand Forks as the anonymous donor.
With this gift and other major contributions, the fundraising campaign “stands at just $1.75 million remaining, bringing the finish line clearly into view,” Mayer said.
The museum “reflects Pam’s passion for learning and her belief in creating meaningful opportunities for children which have guided her life’s work and are deeply reflected in this gift,” she said.
Laffen said, “I am honored to be part of a community that supports a project dedicated to encouraging growth in education and service for future generations.”
Recognizing the impact of Laffen’s gift, Mayer said, “Pam and her late husband, Lonnie, shared a deep appreciation for this community. Being raised in a rural area in North Dakota taught them to be actively engaged in their immediate and surrounding communities across the state.”
Contributed / Grand Forks Children’s Museum
At the start of the “Unlocking Tomorrow, Together Challenge,” the $2 million would be released, or “unlocked,” with the receipt of each of eight $250,000 donations. The challenge actually resulted in “securing nearly 10 leadership-level commitments and accelerating the campaign even further,” Mayer said.
A leadership gift of $250,000 from the Pancratz Family Foundation, based with the Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation, has helped to “unlock one of the final keys in the challenge,” according to an announcement from the museum. The gift has added “meaningful momentum at a pivotal time in the campaign.”
The foundation’s commitment to the museum “reflects a strong belief in expanding opportunity for children and families, and helped carry the challenge to completion.”
The final keys to the $2 million matching grant were “propelled by an extraordinary wave of generosity from families and businesses across our community,” Mayer said.
A vertical climber, to be named for Pam Laffen, is designed to physically and symbolically connect the land and sky levels of the museum, Mayer said. It will span two stories and include a slide. Designed to face 42nd Street, it will be visible from the road, serving as a signature feature of the building.
The climber will reflect the guiding phrase “In land, we root. Through sky, we rise. Together, we grow.”
“The words echo both the spirit of the community and the belief that learning, curiosity, exploration and opportunity are built step-by-step, grounded in place and lifted by possibility,” Mayer said.
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