Lorne Tilberg This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. American News | 04/15/2005 | Marshall County Extension educator retires

   www.aberdeennews.com/mld/farmf - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/15/2005   Last Visited: 4/15/2005

   Twenty-one years ago this month, Lorne Tilberg moved to Britton to start as the Marshall County agricultural extension agent.
   
   Growing up near Mitchell, the Tilberg family had a general ag operation - growing cattle, hogs, sheep, corn and other crops. After trying a number of other jobs and farming, Tilberg decided to go into Extension work. He'd also sold feed and worked at a fertilizer plant in Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota.
   
   "No matter what I did, you couldn't take the country out of the boy," Tilberg said with a chuckle.
   
   Tilberg had farmed with dad but the acreage wasn't enough to support two families. Since he had an ag degree, and there was an extension position open in Marshall County, he applied for the job and got it. "I've never been sorry to make the change. Extension work has been good," Tilberg said.
   
   Growing up on a farm gave Tilberg a good idea of how to handle many situations. He was a member for 10 years in the Willing Workers 4-H club near Mitchell and also was a 4-H leader. Later he served on the county extension board so was well versed in the extension process when he became an ag agent.
   
   One of the hard parts of the new job was getting used to making suggestions to producers about how to improve. "My nature is not to be too forward but my job was to help farmers and I learned how best to do it."
   
   "One person who I looked up to was Leon Wrage and how he dealt with people. His manner and demeanor showed his respect for people and he had a lot of contacts," Tilberg said. "I actually started out with him as a freshman at SDSU at Scobey Hall." Tilberg graduated from SDSU in 1961 with a degree in animal husbandry, similar to what is now called animal science. Wrage has been the Extension Weed Specialist at South Dakota State University for a number of years.
   
   Extension has changed over the years. Things are now organized into service units and Marshall County is part of the North 4."It makes a lot of sense to me to specialize in this way," Tilberg said.
   
   As the Livestock Specialist, working with animals has always been an area of intense interest. "When I started out in Marshall County, there were a lot more hog producers in the area. Now it's mostly cattle," Tilberg noted.
   ...
   "Britton was another stop in our life and it was good," Tilberg noted.
   
   The Tilberg family was honored with a community hosted retirement social April 9th. The family has now moved to the Mitchell area so Karen and Lorne can be closer to their children and grandchildren.