Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 55
James Brower, Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Project Manager, discussed the projects they completed over the last year, as well as what has been going on with the LYIP. They have recently begun a lawsuit against the environmentalists for not having enough research on the pallid sturgeon. They have also hired an independent company called Tetra-Tech to help them study all options that have been acquired over the years. Brower also discussed the complications with installing pumps in the...
R-CALF USA may be defined as a non-profit producer organization, but our work benefits anyone who eats meat and lives in an economy that includes agriculture. We’re more than a producer organization; we’re your organization. R-CALF USA formally requests a Senate investigation into potential antitrust and anticompetitive conduct in the U.S. cattle and beef markets. R-CALF USA is asking the Senate committee to investigate 13 specific issues including the cause for the dramatic, unprecedented collapse of U.S. cattle prices in 2015; whether the...
Rhonda Steiger, who attended the University of Wyoming and got her degree in Agriculture, will be discussing the importance GMOs at the MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show on March 3 at 1 p.m. Steiger grew up on a farm in South Central Montana and her favorite times of the year include beet harvest and calving season. She currently lives in Clark Fork Valley with her husband, Cliff, and their two children. They grow sugarbeets, malt barley, cattle, corn and alfalfa. They also have a few pigs that...
On Thur., March 3, at 11 a.m. Richland County Extension Agent Tim Fine and Extension Weed Specialist Fabian Menalled out of Bozeman, MT will be holding an educational session on Glyphosate Resistant Marestail or Horsetail. Conyza Canadensis, or marestail, was first found in Richland County in the spring and summer of 2015. In a month's time, three producers brought Fine samples of the weed, reporting that they couldn't identify it or control it. Shortly thereafter, it was determined that it was...
Great Falls- Montana Farmers Union Board Secretary-Treasurer Erik Somerfeld visited with staff from all three of Montana’s delegates in Washington D.C. this week regarding Canada’s current wheat grading system. This comes on the heels of a letter Senator Tester sent to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman requesting the ambassador address the issue with the Canadian government. Under the current system, when Montana wheat crosses the border it is automatically downgraded to feed, the lowest quality designation. However, the United Sta...
Perhaps it is time to be countercultural. Perhaps most would associate counterculture with lifestyles and the ever-changing human mood, which bring a raised eyebrow from the grandparents. The countercultural mood, however, is slowly creeping into the beef business, which has morphed into a high-input, market-trend business. The dilemma is that traditional producers face a countercultural role. The traditional thought process embedded in generations of beef producers would not acknowledge the...
Dr. Mark Petersen will be discussing his research done on livestock water quality at the MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show at 10 a.m., Fri., March 4. Petersen is currently the research leader at USDA-ARS Fort Keogh Livestock & Range Research Labratory. There, his responsibilities are to conduct range and range livestock research, supervise personnel and over all operations. He received his BS in Animal Science/Zoology from the University of Hawaii, his MS in Animal Science from the University of...
Dr. Justin D. Derner, a rangeland scientist and Research Leader for the Rangeland Resources Research Unit of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, will be discussing the theories of adapting cropping and livestock systems to a changing climate. He will be speaking at 9 a.m. on March 4 for MonDak Ag Days. Dr. Derner received his Ph.D in Rangeland Ecology and Management in 1996 from Texas A&M University. He leads a a team of scientists developing and providing land managers the necesary tools...
Montana State University Extension has released the two latest editions in its MontGuides series on crop-damaging insect pests, covering the cereal leaf beetle and the pea leaf weevil. The new guides contain essential information that producers need to manage these insect pests, including identification, biology, life history, types of damage and management recommendations. These publications are the first MontGuides to be released in a new single-page format, called pest fact sheets. The new...
Kate Vogel, an accomplished business owner with her husband, Marcus Vogel, will be speaking on the importance of cover crops at this years 2016 MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show. Kate Vogel and her husband believe that cover crops have multiple benefits and can be designed to fit various goals of individual producers. Some of these goals and benefits include weed suppression, nutrient cycling, enhanced biological activity, residue building, reduced compaction, improved soil structure, increased...
March 3 at 3 p.m. during the MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show, Dr. Mohamed Khan will be discussing his thesis on optimum sugar beet health strategies. Dr. Mohamed Khan is responsible for developing, conducting, and evaluating educational programs that will improve sugarbeet production practices in North Dakota and Minnesota and is currently Extension Sugarbeet Specialist for North Dakota State University and the Univeristy of Minnesota. Dr. Khan is also the secretary of the Sugarbeet Research and...
Extension Plant Pathologist Jessica Rupp will be discussing sugar beet diseases as one of the educational sessions to be held on Thur., March 3, during Ag Days in Sidney. She will be presenting diseases of concern for 2016 and their management as well as 2015 research compiled by Dr. Barry Jacobsen and Dr. Ken Kephart. Rhizoctonia Crown and Root Rot and Cercospora Leaf Spot are at the center of concern for Montana growers. Both diseases are caused by fungal organisms and Rhizoctonia Crown and...
Brandon Ewen, a professional land surveyor with over 10 years of experience, will be speaking at 9 a.m. at the MonDak Ag Days in Sidney, MT, Thurs., March 3. Ewen will be discussing the use of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)/drone in crop production. Brandon Ewen has conducted many presentations about UAVs in agriculture and surveying, and has provided companies and farmers with the capability to produce infra-red imaging, precise survey data, and even aerial imagery. Brandon Ewen is considered...
Terry Murphy, a Richland County Compliance Officer since 2012, has some interesting theories when it comes to the Pallid sturgeon. Murphy spends two weeks on in Sidney, MT as the Richland County Compliance Officer and two weeks off at home in St. Ignatius, MT, and enjoys the many recreational opportunities that Eastern Montana has to offer. One of these activities is fishing in the Yellowstone River and the Missouri River. This past year, Murphy has been able to catch two pallid sturgeons. The...
Rod Prewitt has been involved in the cattle industry all of his life. He grew up on a ranch and his father had a sale barn and traded cattle. Today, Prewitt is one of the owners of Prewitt Trust; he also owns Valley VU Feedlot, is one of the owners of Sidney Livestock, and is partial owner of Prewitt & Company along with his two partners Tim Larson and Mike Yore. Prewitt operates a ranch ten miles north of Sidney and four miles west of Fairview, which was established in 2003. It is a family oper...
The vast majority of farmland in America will change hands in the next twenty years as farmers age and retire. While many states are worried about how this will affect their communities, one new resource is helping Montana buck that trend by making new farmers better prepared to take over. Farm Link Montana is a comprehensive online clearinghouse for beginning farmers and ranchers. The project seeks to provide new producers with the resources and tools to start successful, sustainable businesses. “We see a lot of new farmers getting started w...
This week, the Montana Department of Revenue began mailing over 12,000 forms to owners of irrigated land. Montana law allows owners to deduct electrical and fuel costs in the calculation of value for irrigated land for the purpose of determining property taxes. Providing the information is optional for land owners, but it will help the department correctly value the irrigated land for the 2017 property reappraisal. The forms are due by July 1. Owners should complete the forms with the 2015 energy costs they incurred in their irrigation...
One of the fundamental concepts of economics is opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of a choice is the forgone benefit of the next best alternative. A common agricultural example arises when a landowner decides to farm or rent his or her cropland. If the land is farmed, rent no longer can be charged. That forgone rent is the opportunity cost of farming the land. Estimating the opportunity cost of a choice can be challenging. You have to identify major considerations and then value them. Many choices have nonfinancial dimensions that can be...
In recognition of National Agriculture Week (National Agriculture Day, March 15, 2016), WIFE (Montana Women Involved in Farm Economics), invites Montana’s school children to express their ideas on farm life by participating in WIFE’s 13th statewide calendar art contest. Winning entires grades K-8 will be awarded a cash prize at the 1st place ($30), 2nd place ($20), and 3rd place ($10), levels in each grade’s division. Two honorable mention places in each grade will be awarded certificates. Only 25 pictures can be used on the calendar. Those...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Dakota Regulatory Office is holding a workshop to provide information on the Regulatory Program. The workshop will be held at the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library, in Meeting Room B on March 16, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. It is open to all interested parties including the public, consultants, environmental organizations, as well as Federal, state and local agencies. The workshop will focus on the USACE Permitting Overview including, permitting authority under the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and...
Producers need to review their anticipated calving dates, cow body condition scores and cows’ diet. Decisions a cattle producer makes about pregnant cow nutrition now can have major impacts on calf health in the spring and cow fertility during the next breeding season. “The great majority of fetal growth (from 75 to more than 90 percent, depending on the source) occurs during the last three months of pregnancy, and nutrient needs and recommended feeding strategies for the cows also are changing accordingly,” says Carl Dahlen, North Dakot...
"Are you in a food coma, Julie?" my friend asked. I wasn't feeling too well. I felt as though I had eaten two Thanksgiving-sized meals in one sitting. While at a conference, we tried a buffet restaurant that featured skewers of 14 kinds of meat and seafood served at your table. It also had an enormous buffet with dozens of salads and side dishes. I started by tasting about 15 kinds of food from the buffet, then I had at least 10 kinds of meat. I think the plate of oysters nearly did me in. I...
On Fri., March 4, information about the Fox Hills- Hell Creek aquifer study will be presented at 1 p.m. at the Richland County Event Center as part of Ag Days. The project is being funded by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation through the Montana Renewable Resources Grant and Loan Program for the enhancement of Montana’s renewable resources. The study will inventory wells completed in the Fox Hills- Hell Creek aquifer and determine well head conditions as water-level m...
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that $150 million in funding is available for agricultural producers through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), USDA’s largest conservation program that helps producers voluntarily improve the health and productivity of private and Tribal working lands. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) plans to add an estimated 10 million acres to the rolls of CSP during fiscal 2016. “The Conservation Stewardship Program is one of our most popular programs with producers becau...
The Montana Farm Bureau is holding their annual Youth Speech Contest in conjunction with the Montana FFA State Convention, March 30 - April 2, 2016 at Montana State University in Bozeman. The contest is open to seventh, eighth and ninth grade students. Each speech must be two and a half to four minutes in length and demonstrate how science, technology, engineering and math are used by those who work in agriculture in one of the following careers: Crop production, livestock production, veterinary medicine, diesel mechanic, plant scientist and...
