wmscoscd

How Plants Farm Microbes to Get Nutrients

It has long been believed that plants get nutrients from the soil microbes but how the transfer of nutrients from microbes to the plant occurs has not been understood. That changed in recent years when a team of researchers from Rutgers University discovered one of the ways that plants harness microbes in the soil toContinue reading “How Plants Farm Microbes to Get Nutrients”

Ranching For Profit Workshop Opportunities

Do you want to make your ranch more profitable with less work and stress? If so, make plans to attend one or both of two upcoming Ranching for Profit workshop opportunities to be held in this area. Billed as a learning experience like none offered before, these workshops are designed to provide ranchers with someContinue reading “Ranching For Profit Workshop Opportunities”

Hybrid rye – a grain for backgrounding beef calves

Source: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/impact-stories/hybrid-rye-grain-backgrounding-beef-calves Oct 24, 2022 You can mark 2022 as a year that Mother Nature let us swiftly harvest crops in the fall and not out of a snow bank in December. With the flush of harvest being done, many cattle producers are deciding whether to wean calves and sell off the cow, condition themContinue reading “Hybrid rye – a grain for backgrounding beef calves”

Bale Grazing – The Next Year

Article by: Karl Hoppe, Ph. D. NDSU Extension Livestock Specialist Aug 22, 2022 Bale grazing is an alternative method for feeding the cow herd in the winter, when snow is too deep for cows to graze grass, cover crops, or crop residue, or additional or replacement feed is required. Traditionally, a tractor/loader, feed wagon, andContinue reading “Bale Grazing – The Next Year”

August 2nd Soil Health/ Crop Tour

More and more farmers and ranchers are becoming interested in practices that can improve the health of their soil as a means of improving productivity, profitability and/or resiliency to weather extremes. If you would like to learn more about what some producers in the area have been doing to improve their soil health, make plansContinue reading “August 2nd Soil Health/ Crop Tour”

Dakota Gardener: Your lawn mower scares trees

The mower is one of the leading killers of trees in yards, parks and orchards. By Tom Kalb, Horticulturist NDSU Extension Shark Week in America is coming. We can watch horror stories of people getting attacked by sharks all week on television. Imagine yourself alone in a swimming pool. A trap door in the poolContinue reading “Dakota Gardener: Your lawn mower scares trees”

COVER CROP OPTIONS FOR PREVENTED PLANT ACRES

Although producers are tried their hardest to get as much planted as possible this spring, there are fields and especially areas of many fields that were simply too wet to get seeded this spring that will fall under the classification of prevented planting acres. The question is what to do with these acres. The bestContinue reading “COVER CROP OPTIONS FOR PREVENTED PLANT ACRES”

Consider Options for Prevented Planting

There is an old saying that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. While it took more than five minutes, this spring has certainly been an example of how quickly conditions can change. Up until about mid-April the outlook for this year’s growing season was pretty dismal as indications were that the dryContinue reading “Consider Options for Prevented Planting”

Living Roots as Often as Possible

There are five basic principles to building soil health: soil armor or keeping the soil covered, minimizing soil disturbance, plant diversity, keeping a living root in the soil for as much of the growing season as possible, and livestock integration, when possible. As living roots were mentioned in the previous article, the following is aContinue reading “Living Roots as Often as Possible”

Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People

Studies have found that over the last 70 years, the level of nutrients in many foods has fallen between 10 and 100 percent. Based on that, there are some estimates that an individual today would need to consume twice as much meat, three times as much fruit, and four to five times as many vegetablesContinue reading “Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People”