extended sports coverage for the B-B-E community brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in Brooten, MN. (Address: P.O. Box 250, Brooten) http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. Please submit feedback in writing to the address posted above. **This is Minnesota's oldest varsity high school sports blog. We hope to keep it going into the future!
Monday, March 16, 2026
Sunshine is gaining strength, but it's still cold out! and CHICK DAYS in Regal is underway
The full sunshine feels incredible today, even as the temperatures hover in the upper single digits across the Bonanza Valley area.
The Belgrade city council meets tonight, and their meeting agenda can be found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: https://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com.
It's time to advertise CHICK DAYS in Regal!
Jerry Fischbach, the kind-hearted, down-to-earth Regal Elevator owner, is promoting Chick Days for the 2026 season. Regal Elevator is now offering discounts on all chicks and chick feed. Supply your own eggs! Call for livestock feed AND pet feed at Regal Elevator; phone number 320-243-4220. Website: http://www.regalelevator.com.
Farm Bureau Breakfast on the Farm is coming (SPORTS show video added)
While it is unfortunate that I'm down to the last minute to give extra promotion here, it's better late than never...the annual Pope County Farm Bureau Breakfast on the Farm event is heading east into Stearns County for a special Labor Day event starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow. It will be located at one of the Anderson Farms locations at 44338 County Road 19, Belgrade. This is roughly one mile west of the Belgrade Menard's Fixtures plant.
You can see additional details by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/pRF0P.
Here's a direct link to view the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's photo gallery from the Breakfast on the Farm event two years ago at Rolling Forks Vineyard in rural Glenwood: https://encr.pw/qjneu.
And shifting gears a little back to sports...currently, I'm with family and our camper at Pomme de Terre campgrounds just outside of Morris. We spent the last night here and are enjoying a little time "out west" in Stevens County. My voice has come back somewhat after I pushed it to the limit for our volleyball team last week. It was worth it! It is always worth expending the extra effort needed to help our teams win!
Here's our sports department's Fall Sports Show No. 2 of the season, featuring Friday Night Lights I:
One error in the sports show...the football team racked up over 300 yards of offense, not under 300 yards. The Flyers tallied 294 net yards of offense. Full statistics from the game will be published in the September 5 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.
I'll get additional information on West Central Area's football team posted in a new blog post on Monday...or Tuesday. The Knights are 1-0 after defeating the Polk County West Thunder 38-12 at Climax, Minnesota. Polk County West is a co-op team that includes student-athletes from East Grand Forks Sacred Heart and Climax-Fisher high schools. In 2023, Polk County West had a 5-5 record with a 1-1 showing in the Section 8A playoffs. In their preseason preview in the Grand Forks Herald newspaper, their coach stated that they had ample depth with roughly 18 players expected to have significant playing time.
The Bonanza Valley Area received roughly one inch of rain on Tuesday this week. It took the better part of the day to get to that amount, as rainfall was slow and steady. While it was not enough to break the drought, it certainly gave the irrigators a reprieve and will go a long ways to helping second crops of alfalfa and other crops through the area. Many wetland areas continue to show signs of water shortages, but the outlook has more precipitation in it than what the daily forecasts showed in June.
An Answer Plot by Winfield Forage and Corn Silage Knowledge Event will be held on Wednesday, August 7 in Belgrade on South Highway 71.
Registration is at 9:45 a.m., and welcome and introductions will follow at 10 a.m.
Topics for this year’s forage and corn silage event include: Forage Genetics International staff insight on alfalfa yield and quality improvement with breeding; forage options on prevent plant acres; management for higher yield and quality in alfalfa.
In addition, forage information will be provided on sorghums (how, where, when, why) and harvest management and storage to feed more high quality forages.
A catered lunch will be provided at noon, and the event concludes at 1 p.m. All hay and forage growers are welcome!
For the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team, they take to the road for two Stearns County League North division battles. On Saturday, May 19 they are at New Munich. On Sunday they head to Meire Grove. Both games start at 1:30 p.m.
The schedule for the Stearns County Fair in Sauk Centre was published on page four of the July 28 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Also on that page were pictures from the Pope County Fair in Glenwood.
The fair in Sauk Centre runs now through Sunday.
Below is a video clip from the end of the musical in Terrace...photos from that were on pages seven and 12 of the July 28 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice.
Not a subscriber to the newspaper? You're missing out! Here's where you can go to sign up. Just $18 a year for local subscribers!!!
And these are good, middle-class jobs with a great work environment. The field supervisor gets a fair amount of day-time traveling to boot!
##jobsjobsjobs
A few days ago I reported that our B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team is 7-5 overall this century against New London-Spicer. I completely forgot about NL-S's dominating 85-60 win over the Jaguars in the 2009 Sub-Section 6AA-East championship game. So the win on Monday over NL-S lifted them to 7-6 overall against NL-S since the 2000-2001 season.
Public invited to attend Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area meeting in Belgrade Sept. 24
The public is invited to attend a project advisory team meeting for the Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 9 a.m. to noon, at the VFW Soboe Leverson Post in Belgrade.
The purpose of the project advisory team is to assist the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in developing a local plan for
sustainable use of groundwater. Statewide there has been a 35 percent
increase in groundwater use over the past 25 years.
The Bonanza Valley area has seen a 175 percent increase during the same
period. The area’s boundary extends from just south of Alexandria to
the area around Paynesville and includes the cities of Paynesville,
Brooten, Belgrade, Westport, Glenwood and Villard.
Individuals do not need to be on the project advisory team to attend
the meeting. The meetings are open for stakeholders to observe, and
time is available at the end of the formal meeting to provide comments
and ideas.
The Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area is one of three such
areas around the state, established by the DNR to help communities and
individuals in these areas better understand groundwater resources and
plan for future development.
Jim Anderson visits with members of the Georgia Parliament on the site of a new hog finishing barn.
I spent the better part of today touring three Stearns County farms with a group of Georgia Parliament members who serve on that country's agriculture committee. Georgia is a small country in Eurasia bordered by the Black Sea, Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan. They currently import about 75 percent of their food stock and are looking for ideas, methods and technologies that can help them become more self-sufficient to feed their 4.9 million residents.
Below is a video clip from the Jim and John Anderson farm near Belgrade. Other tours took place at Joe Eibensteiner's farm in rural Elrosa and the Cyril Felling, Jr. dairy farm south of Sauk Centre.
Seriously though, if you live in Stearns County come out to vote today in the District 5 County Commissioner primary. It's a very important election for our little corner of the world.
Tillage taking place north of Elrosa this afternoon.
Area farmers are forging ahead in fast and furious fashion in order to get the fall harvest completed along with the necessary tillage that goes with it.
Travel safely this weekend and be extra careful on country roads that could have a large piece of farm equipment on it as you navigate hills and turns in our rural areas.
Due to the steady morning rain, the 34th annual Northern Minnesota Draft Horse field days will be Sunday instead of today. It will be held at the Hilary Brunner farm, located about a mile north/northeast of Bayer Built as the crow flies.
Don't miss the feature article on the field days and the Hilary Brunner family in this week's Sauk Centre Herald. Brunner raised 10 children, all Belgrade high school graduates. His grandchildren include Travis, Brittany and Mackenzie Winter - all former and current stand out athletes at B-B-E.
*Youth Tackle football announcement:
Grades
5 and 6 tackle football scheduled at Paynesville is canceled today due
to the wet weather and poor field conditions. No football. Please help
spread the word.
Brandon and Tessie Felling, newlyweds, leaving Elrosa in their horse-and-carriage as they head out to the reception at the Felling dairy farm west of town...
It was a change of pace from my usual chasing that happens prior to a home football game. Their wedding was held at Sts. Peter and Paul catholic church in Elrosa at 3:00pm today.
The fairway started to pick up with traffic as Demolition Derby time approached.
Below, part of the Stearns County Fair 4-H Sheep Show, including Erin Anderson of the Northfork Livewires 4-H Club...
It's been a busy week wrapping up Sinclair Lewis Days coverage in Sauk Centre and then switching gears to the Stearns County Fair, which runs through Sunday. Tomorrow (Friday), the Belgrade/Brooten and Elrosa 5th-6th grade teams travel to Kerkhoven for a tournament. The wheels keep turning...
An open house is this Saturday for a new dairy barn in rural Brooten
In a story I wrote about 2006 B-B-E graduate Shaina Kirckof's new dairy barn, I mistakenly said the open house is "Friday, July 7" when in fact it's "Saturday, July 7". Above is a poster I spotted at Jim's Grocery in Brooten to help promote the open house. Kirckof's youngest sibling, Daniel Kirckof, was a 3-sport Jaguar athlete and a 2011 graduate of B-B-E and is hoping to return home after college to help operate the family's dairy operation.
