What if we didn't use the latest technologies to produce our food??

I happened to stumble onto a very useful and resourceful website the other day (www.sustainablebeef.org) and thought that I would share some of the information that I found there.

As an Extension Agent, I am charged with providing information to the public that is non-biased and research based.  I can say with absolute certainty that the results of this study pass both tests.  Dr. Judith Capper and Dr. Dermot Hayes recently published results from a study titled "The Environmental and Economic Impact of Removing Growth-Enhancing Technologies from United States Beef Production". 

There is not enough room to list all of the pertinent information regarding their study in regards to how it was conducted and what controls they used and whatnot, but I thought that I would take the time to share some of the information garnered from it.  According to this study, if farmers and ranchers wanted to produce the same amount of beef that is currently available and had to do it without using growth-enhancing technologies it would take:

• 10 million more cattle in the U.S. beef herd (equivalent to doubling the # of beef cattle in Iowa and Kansas)
• 3 million more fed cattle harvested (which would require 4 additional packing plants with a total capacity of 10,000 head/day to harvest them)
• 81 million more tons of feed (enough feed to fill 1,010 Rose Bowl stadiums)
• 17 million more acres of land for grazing and growing feed (similar to the size of the state of West Virginia)
• 138 billion more gallons of water for producing feed and maintaining animals (enough water to fill more than 200,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools)

PLUS, 18 million more metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) would be released in the United States alone (which is equivalent to the annual emissions given off from 3 million U.S. cars)

I understand that there is a market for beef that is produced without using these technologies and I would never suggest that a person using these methods to meet a demand should stop doing so.  I just found these results interesting and thought I should share.  For the full report, feel free to visit http://www.sustainablebeef.org/resources.shtml

Beet harvest is under way

Actually sugarbeet harvest in and around Sidney started last week.  However, with the warmer-than-normal temperatures there was fear of the beets rotting in the storage piles so harvest was momentarily stopped.  With a return to cooler and more normal temperatures, beet harvest has once again resumed.  If there are not any further delays, and all goes well, all of the beets in the valley should be out of the ground in about 3 weeks.  Although there is not official report that can be made, weather conditions this summer and fall should have made for a fairly good amount of tonnage and sugar content.  Stay tuned for details.

Tips for a successful corn silage harvest

There are several sites dedicated to making sure that your corn silage harvest goes as well as possible.  I just thought I would list a few.

• Here is some information from Wisconsin Extension
• A very thorough article on everything from judging the right stage of the corn to properly packing the silo can be found here

There are several other sites that offer great tips but these are two of the more thorough, research backed, publications that I have found.

Has your farm and/or ranch been in the family for 100 years or more?

If so, you should receive some recognition for it.  The Montana Historical Society has a program designed to recognize farms and ranches that have remained in a family for 100 years or more.  The "Centennial Farm and Ranch Program" was created by the Montana legislature in 2009 for the purpose of recognizing and commemorating the agricultural traditions of Montana.

On November 8, many of the agricultural-related agencies in Richland County are going to host a celebration recognizing 150 years of the existence of the United States Department of Agriculture.  One of the events that we hope to accomplish at this meeting is to recognize those farms and ranches withing the county that have been in existence for at least 100 years.

If you would like help with the application process, feel free to contact Tim Fine.

Small grain, pulse harvest winding down

It is not uncommon to hear the term "mixed bag" when people talk about grain harvest in this area.  The problem we have in Richland County is that we have a fair amount of irrigated acres and a proportionally larger amount of dryland acres.  So when it comes time to evaluate the harvest, you almost have to weigh the two systems against each other to make it fair.  However, this is not usually what people want to know about, they just want to know how the crop did overall.

So, overall, I guess I would surmise that the wheat crop did rather poorly.  I was recently at a meeting to determine whether or not Richland County qualified for USDA disaster status and there were several reports of farmers not even bringing their combines into fields because it wasn't worth using the fuel to even try and harvest the crop.  With all of the stress our wheat crop sustained, protein levels seem to be pretty good but even bonuses for higher protein cannot make up for losses in yield.

Most of the reports of barley yield that I heard early on were fairly good.  However, most of our barley crop is irrigated so the lack of rains should not affect it as much.  Even with the good yields reported, I also heard that there was alot of the crop that did not make malting quality probably due to the extended periods of heat we sustained during the growing season.

Pulse crops more than likely did not fair too well either but I haven't heard any reports of how they did this year.

So, we have the sugarbeet crop, what corn was not harvested for silage, and the safflower crop essentially left before we finish our harvest season.  Hopefully better news will come when these crops come out of the field.

Roosevelt County Irrigation Tour

On Wednesday, August 29, Agri Industries, the Roosevelt County Conservation District , Horizon Resources, Farm Equipment Sales in Culbertson, the Roosevelt County Extension Office, and the Roosevelt County NRCS office will be hosting an irrigation tour.  The actual tour will be held at the Dean Harmon farm, which is about 6.5 miles south of Bainville on County Road 1007. 

Topics and demonstrations for this tour include:

• Irrigation development and evolution- from dry land to flood and pivots

• Multiple pivot system with pressure sensing automatice control valves

• Tail water re-use

• Precision agriculture

•  No-till row crops

• No-till beets into alfalfa

•  Row crops on borders

• Seeding perpendicular to irrigation

• Seedbed preparation with defoliator

• Flood damage and cottonwood regeneration

• Reclaiming poor soils with sulfur-sulfur burner

• Display of seeding and beet equipment and the Conservation District dredge

After the tour has concluded, a free steak dinner will be prepared for all participants to enjoy.  To make it easy for people from our neck of the woods to get to the event, there will be a bus leaving the fairgrounds in Culbertson at 12:30.  For more information and/or details you are welcome to contact either the Roosevelt County Conservation District at 787-5232 or the Roosevelt County Extension Office at 787-5312.

Drought and wildfire resources

While the recent drought and related wildfires that have been reported in Montana have not affected Richland County directly, parts of the county are still dry and have not received the rain that the Sidney vicinity has.  Montana State University Extension has created a drought and wildfire resources page that has some great information.

To find it, log onto the MSU Extension homepage (http://msuextension.org) and click on the "Montana Wildfire and Drought Resources logo.  Here is a sampling of the information you can find there.

• Links to the national and regional drought monitors
• Links to information regarding water conservation
• Links to smartphone apps that show where wildfires are currently burning
• Links to prepare your home and property in the event a wildfire is near
• Links to help recover after a wildfire

While that list does not encompass all of the resources available, it does give a fairly good summary.I would encourage anyone, whether they are currently impacted by drought and/or wildfires or not, to check out this invaluable resource.