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Crawford ready to retire

FAIRMONT — For 26 years, Bill Crawford has been involved in the Martin County and Fairmont communities. He has served as the Martin County Extension agent, an ag representative on the Fairmont Economic Development Authority and is widely known for grilling pork loins or pork patties for the Martin County Pork Producers.

Tonight after 4 p.m., he will celebrate his retirement from his position at Preferred Capital Management in Fairmont.

Crawford shares how he came to the area, as well as what his work has entailed.

“I moved to Fairmont in February of 1992 to be the University of Minnesota Extension Educator here in Martin County,” he said. “I did that until 2002, and I was a livestock specialized educator working with a lot of livestock producers. Then the Extension Service made the shift to a regional philosophy, and I had an opportunity to come to work for Preferred Capital Management at that point in time.

“So I made the jump and, luckily, I just moved across town and started working with a lot of the same people I’d been working with for the previous 10 years. I’m still very active working with livestock producers, not only here in Martin County but with a lot of the existing vet clinic clients.

“What I moved into here at PCM was livestock permitting for new facilities, expanded facilities or modifications of permits, and then doing the record keeping and being a liaison between the farm and Martin County Feedlot Office.”

Crawford said that as he was doing a lot of permitting locally, people found out about him and he would receive calls from other counties throughout the state.

“So I was doing permitting for private individuals all over the state of Minnesota, because I knew what I was doing,” he said. “So it’s been 16 years that I’ve worked here now in the environmental area primarily permitting environmental record-keeping and being the environmental liaison for producers; primarily for pigs but beef cattle, dairy work, permitted some broiler barns for the poultry industry, I did a turkey barn one time, so it was a little bit of everything.

“I still maintained a lot of contact with the Martin County Pork Producers, I was on the county board for a lot of years, I did a lot of work with the early Martin County Magic [pork seasoning]. I was also on the state Pork Producer board and served for nine years, three as president, so that was a highlight. I served two years on the national Pork Board nominating committee. So I was doing a lot of education and environmental work at the national level for years.”

When asked what he likes about the area, Crawford said he enjoys the great farm country and the people he has felt privileged to meet.

“Martin County is one of the premiere ag counties in the state of Minnesota and all throughout the Upper Midwest,” he said. “I grew up in Pipestone and it’s a good farm area too, but nothing like Martin County soils. This is prime farm country.

“The people all across Minnesota were ‘get ‘er done’ kind of people, and we’re not going to make a lot of excuses, we’re going to choose a path and go. It’s been fun to work with people across Minnesota and all across the country, and help them achieve their plan. Livestock people are no different than anybody else, but they have an empathy because they’re taking care of livestock and they’re in the food business, and that’s been my life too.”

When talking about retirement, Crawford said he is looking forward to getting away from the snow for a while, but still has plans to stay involved in what he enjoys.

“I’ll be back up here in the Martin County area next spring,” he said. “There’s no place better than Minnesota in the summer. I’m going to do a lot of fishing and I have a few jobs to do grilling for some weddings and parties so I’ll still do a lot of that for friends and people that call.

“The Martin County Fair in August is a highlight of the summer and so I’ll probably do some stuff out there again. I just won’t be doing as much of the day to day, but I’ll probably do some consulting.

“It’s been a great 26 years to be involved on a day-to-day basis.”

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