Thank you to the lovely people who work at and watch North Dakota Today – it was a great (and WARM) morning to talk about a lifesaving adventure and a worldwide video!

I can’t do Margo and Pat Svoboda’s story justice in summary – you’ll have to watch it below. If you have any information on the known barriers to providing free EpiPens in schools, let me know…I think I may make this North Dakota Nice’s fundraiser for 2024.

I also can’t do justice to the all that is great about the Gudajtes Family Farm, so I’ll let them speak for themselves. Here is the 2022 Sugarbeet Mafia video watched ’round the world:

A few words from Jay Gudajtes:
Why is it important to show off North Dakota agriculture?  We have always felt that it was important to share our story and get the word out.  If we aren’t telling our story, somebody else will either tell it for you, or they will tell theirs.  Many people have said we were lucky to get it all done like we did.  In a sense they are right, we were lucky with the weather.  Many times though they say it in a way that disregards the planning and forethought put into the harvest.  Being lucky doesn’t cover the purchasing of all the extra machinery, the planning for contingencies like mud, the access to capital required to finance it, the marketing needed to hire the people we needed.  We are proud to be North Dakota Farmers, born and raised here, so many people have no idea what we do up here, or even that sugar can come from sugar.

What is your advice for other farm families who want to tell their own ag stories in video or on social media?  Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try something new, if you never try you will never fail, if you never fail, you never really tried.  partner with someone who can do the work for you, you are a farmer, and although farmers want to do it all themselves, sometimes hiring the right people is a better option.

Learn more about these awesome folks behind these activities in this week’s North Dakota Today segment, which you can watch by clicking the image below: