Join our Mailing list!
Get all latest news & be the first to know about upcoming events.
March 2024
The SD Grasslands Summit in Oacoma on March 18 and 19 featured several speakers and a panel focusing on the financial aspect of keeping grass right side up. Only 16% or about 98 million acres of the original North American grassland biome is still intact. A large percentage of those grasslands are privately owned, working lands. Helping grassland managers score a profit is an important part of sustaining that biome into the future. “Lack of economic information is a major obstacle to conservation success,” said Dirac Twidwell, Professor and Rangeland Ecologist at the University of Nebraska.
Victor Tuschen is the new SD USDA-NRCS ag economist. This is a new position intended to help producers make good financial decisions. His presentation on how to be economically profitable included what he called the GPS Method:
Dave Koupal, Ag Manager/ Loan Officer with the Black Hills Credit Union and rancher gave a list of information that will help a producer’s lender be the best possible partner for them.
Don Mogen, CEO of Starion Bank in North Dakota, addressed transition and succession. Only 30% of ranches survive past the second generation and only 12% past the third generation. Some of the reasons why include lack of planning, mindsets that are locked into traditional ways of operation, the tendency to react to challenges rather than work toward goals, unhealthy family relations, and unsustainable debt loads are some of them. Shopping around for a banker that understands your operation may be in order, or you may have to educate them as many ag lenders today have little farm or ranch experience. This is especially true in regenerative agriculture where soil health practices are often more profitable long term instead of traditional short term enterprises.
A good financial plan is as important as a drought plan if you want to hang on to the ranch!
Source: March 2024 Newsletter
Get all latest news & be the first to know about upcoming events.