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The Williston Research and Extension Center recently welcomed Clair Keene, who started her position as the Area Extension Specialist in Cropping Systems at the end of February. Keene grew up in Bellevue, NE where she spent a lot of time outdoors and helping her father with his garden. She gained an appreciation for good food, fresh produce, and hard work by helping her father and grandmother with their gardens. From an early age, she was fascinated by plants and how they grow and survive. While...
The MonDak area is home to a unique "research triangle" featuring three agricultural research facilities in Sidney, MT and Williston, ND that regularly share the results of their work with producers through annual summer field days. This year, the group's field days are scheduled as follows: The 2016 Froid Research Farm Field Day will be held Thursday, June 23rd, from 1:00pm until 5:00pm mountain time at the farm site located eight miles north of Culbertson, MT on MT Hwy 16. In addition to a...
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has presented its ninth annual Book of the Year award to Susan Grigsby for “First Peas to the Table.” In this lighthearted story, a little girl, Maya, and her classmates learn about gardens and peas, as well as Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello. Ainsley and Kamdyn McFarland from Billings stood in line for an hour at the Accurate Ag Book booth at the IDEAg Trade show, waiting for Grisby to sign their book. The girls and their parents were there as part of the American Farm Bureau Annua...
A native wildflower with a foreboding name is abundant on Montana rangelands this spring. Death camas (Zigadenus spp.), a plant that resembles wild onion, has caused at least four cattle deaths in Yellowstone County so far this year. "Montana livestock owners may want to take extra precautions and adjust when and how pastures with death camas are grazed this year," said Jeff Mosley, Montana State University Extension range management specialist. Death camas is highly toxic to cattle, sheep and...
This article highlights the evolution of glyphosate (Roundup, RT3, and other generics)-resistant Russian thistle in Montana. Russian thistle (Salsola tragus L.), a native of southeastern Russia, is one of the most problematic broadleaf weed species in the dryland no-till cropping systems of Montana and the U.S. Great Plains. It is a summer annual weed belonging to the goosefoot family that reproduces by seed. Russian thistle commonly invades dryland crop production fields, irrigation canals, roadsides, railroads, ditch banks and other...
Helena, Mont. - The Montana Department of Agriculture announced the award of over $1.6 million for the development and implementation of noxious weed management programs. The Noxious Weed Management Advisory Council reviewed 86 Noxious Weed Trust Fund grant applications requesting over $2 million and recommended awarding over $1.6 million for education, research, and cooperative noxious weed management projects. The advisory council met the first week of March to review applications and make selections to assist counties, local communities,...
Richland County Conservation District is continuing their tradition of recognizing individuals and entities that see the importance of conservation. We are pleased to announce that the 2015 Co-operator of the Year is McGinnis Ranch Inc. Joe and Dan McGinnis have been co-operating with the Conservation District on their natural resources for over 20 years. McGinnis Ranch received their award at the Mon-Dak Ag Days Banquet Thursday, March 3. The two brothers have implemented several conservation practices on their land in the Sioux Pass area of...
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! In a letter sent recently to the members of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee (Committee) R-CALF USA urged the rejection of any effort to create a voluntary country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. The group’s letter points out that Congress repealed the popular COOL law “pursuant to a directi...
In our agricultural industry, we get a lot of backlash on the use of GMOs, but GMOs have never been a problem until now. Why is that? Let's start with livestock. A question commonly asked is, "Will genetically modified crops fed to livestock, effect the final product?" First you have to understand that cattle have been eating GM crops for nearly 20 years. The feed has included modified corn and modified soybeans; in this time, GMOs have never been detected in the milk or meat produced from the...
The Richland County 4-H Livestock Judging Team has been busy competing around the area; at a Livestock Judging Competition in Bowman, ND, February 20th, the team placed 5th overall in a competition of about 90 kids. February 4th the team went to Miles City, MT and took 1st place overall, with all four of the participating members placing in the top 10. Garrett Larson placed 2nd, Grady Larson placed 5th, Emma Torgerson placed 6th, and CJ Nevins placed 10th. The team then competed in Dickinson,...
BOZEMAN — The 2016 Montana State University Spring Rodeo will run Thursday, April 7, through Sunday, April 10, at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The action begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, with performance rounds followed by the slack rounds. On Friday, slack begins at noon, with the performance at 7 p.m. On Saturday, short-go action begins at 7 p.m. On Sunday, slack gets underway at 8 a.m., with the matinee at 2 p.m. The four-day rodeo will feature the nationally ranked men’s and women’s Bobcat Rodeo teams competing against nine other regio...
When Kelly and Jason Deming got their kids involved in 4-H, they quickly realized that it was something that was very rewarding and lots of fun. Kelly Deming, who was a member of McKenzie County 4-H for ten years, put the word out, contacting five in-town families that they are friends with and encouraged them to get their kids involved in Richland County 4-H. The Demings offered to house the livestock animals for kids that would otherwise be unable to raise and show goats, sheep, hogs, and...
Square Foot Gardening Gardening has been a great outdoor activity for many for years, but there is a new trend in gardening that is allowing those with little room to have successful gardens. Many of us love to have fresh produce every summer, but some that live in an apartment or confined spaces might have some difficulties. Square foot Gardening (SFG) is a trend that we are seeing pop up more and more. Square foot gardening is a method of intensive gardening, which is very practical for...
Sometimes beef producers overlook the obvious: bulls. If the bulls are not in a separate pen, now is the time to separate them from the cow herd and take a good look at their condition. Bulls actually enjoy a solitary life, absent from all the comings and goings in the cow herd. Bulls in a bullpen are much easier to monitor and watch while feeding, lest one of them decides to challenge you at the feed bunk. Bull docility often is mentioned as a critical talking point when bulls are bought, but it’s often simply accepted once they are unloaded a...
As stakeholders and supporters of agricultural research in general, and our research here at Sidney ARS in particular, our goal is to keep you informed of items affecting the lab and its research programs, as well as reporting on research accomplishments. Consequently, we want to let you know about proposed changes for Sidney ARS in the President’s budget for FY2017. In that budget, ARS as a whole has received a $17.5 million increase from FY2016 totals, a 1.5% increase over last year. At the same time, ARS has been asked to redirect $66.3 m...
Sidney resident Karli Johnson just returned from four days in Washington D.C. as part of REAL Montana (Resource Education and Agriculture Leadership). REAL Montana is comprised of twenty of Montana’s emerging and established leaders. The participants were competitively selected from a pool of qualified candidates representing a wide variety of agriculture and natural resource industries across the state to take part in Class II of REAL Montana. For Karli and other members of REAL Montana Class II, this was the fourth seminar in their t...
The MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show, Thur., March 3 and Fri., March 4, will hold educational sessions at the Richland County Event Center featuring the latest and greatest information and developments for Agricultural producers. Topics on Thursday include UAV/Drone usage in crop production, cover crops, Glyphosate Resistant Marestail, GMO’s, sugar beet disease, optimum sugar beet health strategies, and sugar beet weed control, beginning at 9 a.m. The afternoon educational sessions held on March 3...
Reynolds Market will be holding a beef cutting demonstration as part of Ag Days on Friday, March 4, at 11 a.m. in the Reynolds meat department. Reynolds will be taking part in Ag Days for the first time, giving people a better understanding of the processing aspect of the beef industry. "Farming and ranching are huge part of Eastern Montana and have been the backbone of our business," said Reynolds meat dept. manager Josh Reynolds. Reynolds, who is the fourth generation to be involved with the...
Tom Peters, a Sugarbeet Weed Specialist and Assistant Professor at North Dakota State University in the Department of Plant Sciences, will be at the MonDak Ag Days and Trade Show March 3 to discuss sugarbeet weed control at 4 p.m. Peters earned his BS degree in agronomy and soil science from the University of Minnesota, his MS in agronomy, specializing in weed science, from the University of Nebraska, and his Ph.D in agronomy, specializing in weed control in the sugarbeet, from NDSU. Most of...
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...
