Flies—the plague of summer! Fly control is part of a comprehensive management plan for cattle. Chemical control has been
Education
Partial budgeting or cost-benefit analysis is a useful tool to help guide investment decisions in farm businesses. The premise is simply “if I invest in the business will it pay off”. Since most investments take several years to realize the benefit, the time value of money must be considered. I use
When Al and Simone Wind purchased their ranch east of Newell, in April of 2007, the region was entering the 6th year of what would be a 7 year drought. But the lack of rainfall was further exacerbated by 50 to 75 years of bad range management. The only thing their future property had been spared was the plow. Overgrazing
1984 was a tough year to be a rancher in northwest South Dakota. A perfect storm had spread across the Great Plains. A cow killing blizzard, drought, scary low cattle prices and land values so far into the toilet many
Dealing with farm/ranch transfer is important, but often difficult to accomplish. The Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition recently hired a ranch transition task manager to work with ranch families in
We recently attended a session of “Edible Landscapes,” a two-day Soil Health Summit held at Bismarck State College. The ND meetings are always very informative and usually include a human health
As the summer winds down and leads into the fall, it seems that our growing season never really became normal. Wetness has persisted, and even the small creek in my pasture, normally dry in August, has remained at a muddy high flow all summer due to upstream surface runoff and field tiling creating seemingly huge
Last winter was a tough one. The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a “parade of snowstorms” on the Northern Plains. The verdict will be in next April. In the
In the northern Great Plains, land surface disturbances, such as grazing and fire, are responsible for creating one of the largest grasslands on earth. Historically, bison would graze large expanses
Coming into a ranch/ farm business from a non-agricultural background presents additional relationship challenges because in addition to adjusting to married life, the newbie is also assimilating