By Tyler Trieglaff

Notes from the Chief

Notes from the Farm…Well, sale day last Monday is a little like a holiday on the farm. Gearing up for the one major sale of the year, seeing the years’ hard work pay off. We left the farm at 6:30 a.m., with 17 calves from the neighbors and one fat heifer from our farm. The 17 calves were dropped off at the Perham Stockyards and the fat heifer was hauled to Mills Locker Plant for custom butchering.  

The fat was purchased by a friend, and he then will sell it to his clients as halves or quarters of beef. We made it back to the farm and gathered up our calves we had picked out for the sale.  We then separated the steers and heifers. Twenty heifers on one trailer and I had the 20 steers on my trailer and away we went.  

The calves were unloaded in a timely manner and then it was time to wait. We had some breakfast as the sale started and shortly after it began, ours came through the sales ring. It’s always nice to hear the auctioneer’s comments on the quality of your own calves and the sale went very well.  

We kept nine red heifers for replacements, one big red steer and one rat tail heifer for the fat pen.  The calves we sold were all black or black-white face and of similar size. Black calves always seem to sell a little better than the red ones, mostly due to the marketing of the “Certified Angus Beef” over the last 30 years. I will talk about that conspiracy theory in another column.  

You may ask, if black calves sell better than the reds, why keep the red heifers? The answer to that is, if you breed a red heifer to a black bull, the majority of the babies will be black due to the black color gene being dominant over the red color gene. Last year we used a red bull and that is why we had so many red calves. You can, however, have a black cow and a black bull and still get a red calf, just that the chances are pretty low on average.

Friday, Jan. 31

9:37 a.m. Fender bender in the high school parking lot.

3:29 p.m. Report of a school bus stop-arm violation on Maple Ave W.

Saturday, Feb. 1

10:48 p.m. Assist with a stalled vehicle on Main Ave E.

11:44 p.m. Two parties talked to about parking on Main Ave downtown for upcoming snow removal.

Sunday, Feb. 2

11:22 a.m. Report of possible fraud.

2:08 p.m. Party reporting hearing noises from her kitchen. Party was home alone and officer did not hear any of the noises.

6:19 p.m. Third person reminded about not parking on Main Ave downtown for snow removal.

11:10 p.m. Officer found a dog out for a walk and recognized it from other contacts. Officer and dog walked to its residence and officer let the owner know about the mischievous canine.

Monday, Feb. 3

3:04 p.m. Assist with a medical.

4:20 p.m. Officer found a teenager walking that was not dressed for the weather. Officer talked with the teen’s mother and gave her a ride to a friend’s house.

7:25 p.m. Extra patrol requested at a vacant house due to possible trespassers.

10:23 p.m. Another local agency called to inquire about a juvenile that used to reside in Frazee as he is continuing on a path to possible juvenile hall.

Tuesday, Feb. 4

6:37 p.m. License plate that fell off a vehicle turned in. Owner located and plate returned.

Wednesday, Feb. 5

1:07 p.m. Student caught with a vape at the high school. Juvenile citation to be issued.

1:51 p.m. Complaint of snowmobiles driving on a resident’s yard. The portion of the yard the snow machines are traveling is in the right of way so there is not much that can be done.

3:17 p.m. Traffic stop for pickup driving across the sidewalk across from the high school to access Lake St N. Several vehicles have used the same “snow driveway” in the last few days.  Cones were placed on either side of the old admin building to direct vehicles to the proper driveways on the far ends of the parking lots.

Thursday, Feb. 6

1:57 p.m. Male party calling in to report being harassed by his kids’ mother over a messaging app on the phone. He asked if the officer could call her and ask her to stop the messaging if not talking about the kids. Officer talked about some other possible solutions as well. As officer was gathering information about the male and female, it was revealed that he lived in Mizpah, Minn.  Officer told the male that he called the wrong department needed to contact his local law enforcement.

2:01 p.m. Party came to the PD with a letter delivered to a party that used to live at the residence. Officer suggested that he take the letter to the post office and return to sender as he did not know where the former roommate was currently living.

2:06 p.m. Another vape found at the high school. Juvenile citation to be issued.

6:21 p.m. Boyfriend calling in a welfare check on his girlfriend claiming that she is being assaulted by her ex-boyfriend. Officer and deputies checked a residence in town and in the county and did not make any contact with the victim.