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April 21, 2005 NDSU Research Extension Center to Start Model Farm North Dakota livestock producers have pondered for some time whether they can make a good living from an average-size ranch. They soon may have the answer. This spring, the North Dakota State University Central Grasslands Research Extension Center near Streeter is starting a model farm to evaluate the best management practices that NDSU range and livestock researchers developed in the last decade. “While we have no control over the market and cannot guarantee returns, we feel that proper management will help ensure as good a financial return as possible,” said Paul Nyren, center director. The center received a $93,000 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education demonstration grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct the two-year project. The grant includes funding for an NDSU Extension Service specialist to work one-on-one with producers to develop a system to monitor their rangeland’s health and a rangeland management plan to help them keep the land in good condition. Nyren said he applied for the grant because area producers asked the center to determine whether they could make a prosperous living from an average-size ranch. The idea of the model farm is to show producers how they can reduce the time, money and effort they put into raising livestock while receiving a greater return. Nyren formed a steering committee to oversee the model farm. The committee consists of about a dozen people, including five livestock producers from the region, a Natural Resources Conservation Service state range conservationist, a retired USDA range scientist, a livestock specialist and range scientist from the Central Grasslands center, Extension range management and beef cattle specialists and an associate professor from NDSU’s Agribusiness and Applied Economics Department. Gene Goven, a Turtle Lake area producer and committee member, likes the model farm approach because it looks at a ranch operation as a whole, while a research project would focus on a particular aspect of livestock production. Producers need to see the big picture to determine the sustainability of their operation, he said. The model farm will operate with about 100 head of cattle. Nyren said that making a living with just 100 cattle would be difficult, but it’s average for the region because many livestock producers also grow crops or have a job in town. One item the project will track very carefully is the amount of time that center staff spend on caring for the cattle. “Labor is one of the deterrents to more people getting into the livestock business,” he said. The cattle will spend the first two months grazing on Conservation Reserve Program land. CRP is a federal government program that pays producers to seed marginally useable or highly erodible land with a perennial grass mixture. The herd will spend the rest of the season on center land with a native mixed-grass prairie typical of grassland in central North Dakota’s Missouri Coteau region. In the fall, the herd also will do some aftermath grazing in fields where alfalfa seeded for hay or small-grain crops such as corn have been harvested. “There’s a lot of potential in North Dakota for this type of grazing,” Nyren said. “We want to demonstrate you can get some fairly cheap feed out of these areas.” The model farm’s steering committee also hopes to have the cattle try some swath grazing, which is allowing cattle to graze on hay that has been left in swaths after it is cut. Nyren said the Research Extension Center hasn’t conducted research on swath grazing, but the concept has been tested extensively in Canada with good results. The herd likely will follow a similar routine during the project’s second year. Nyren said the monitoring portion of the grant will show livestock producers how to spot signs that the land is being overgrazed or otherwise isn’t being cared for properly. The monitoring will be a very cursory evaluation, including which plants are growing and whether invasive species have moved in, he said. Monitoring also will involve simple tests such as determining how fast a soil sample dissolves in water. Soil that dissolves very quickly indicates the land is vulnerable to erosion. Another steering committee member, Sheldon area producer Keith Bartholomay, said proper management is important because grazing land generally is the least managed type of land even though it is valuable to producers. “Management is a key part of knowing if you are doing things right,” he said. Agricultural producers may have a financial incentive for making sure they are managing their land well. The federal government is shifting its thinking from paying producers when something goes wrong to rewarding them when they do a good job, Nyren said. Producers interested in learning more about monitoring their land can contact Nyren at (701) 424-3606 or p.nyren@ndsu.edu. ### Source:
Paul Nyren, (701) 424-3606, p.nyren@ndsu.edu |
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