Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper

No Till Notes: 'Final stop'

Our final stop on our field tour of farms and ranches in Burleigh County, N.D., was a visit to the Black Leg Ranch. It’s owned and operated by Jerry Doan and his family.

Jerry greeted us in his farm yard and visited with us about his operation and his commitment to agriculture. It was obvious from listening to Jerry that he has a real passion for the agricultural community. Jerry has worked with numerous associations and university research members over the years to help guide agriculture in his region. Jerry has a real burning desire to improve agriculture not only on his own operation but throughout the region.

Jerry and his family have taken the Black Leg Ranch and built vertical structure in his management plans. The family’s plan is to increase the profitability with the land they operate and integrate strategies to improve the performance of their operation by better utilizing the resources within their operation.

They have focused on improving soil health with the use of rotational grazing, forage crops for cattle, diverse cash crop rotations, and improved wildlife habitat. They have also diversified their operation by building a lodge on their land that is used for guided upland bird and big game hunting and agri-tourism. With this diversified approach they have increased the profitability of their operation.

Jerry pointed out the importance of focusing on soil health to improve their profitability. They started by implementing forage crops into their cash crop rotation on their crop land acres and rotational grazing on their pasture land.

Jerry has seen a marked improvement in his pasture as a result of rotational grazing with ample recovery time for each pasture. He also notes that with the addition of the forages for grazing on his crop land acres his pastures have additional recovery periods during times when the pastures would normally still be grazed.

The forages for grazing have also dramatically altered the amount of hay his operation uses prior to including the forages in his operation. Each year they have been able to reduce their dependence on hay to get their herd through the long winters often experienced in North Dakota. This reduction in hay dependence has lowered his cost of production on his cattle herd.

Last year, the Black Leg Ranch was able to go the entire winter without feeding any hay. The cattle herd grazed on the forages planted for grazing throughout the winter. This is probably the first cattle operation to go through a North Dakota winter without feeding supplemental hay to the herd. I think this is quite a feat.

Jerry is also testing his soils for microbial activity and using the increased soil microbe populations from his healthier soils to decrease his cost of production on his cash crops. Jerry has lowered his commercial fertilizer requirements gradually as his soil health has improved.

We toured a sunflower field following forages grown last year for grazing where Jerry is doing a field test of different fertilizer applications to help determine how much he can reduce fertilizer inputs and still maintain yields. A portion of the field had received no fertilizer and I must admit the sunflowers looked to have a good yield potential.

Jerry Doan along with his family is taking a vertical approach to building their farm and ranch to increase production and profitability. They are focusing on improved soil health on their pasture land and crop land. They are diversifying the forages and crops they produce to improve the health of their soil. They have diversified their marketing opportunities with guided hunting and agri-tourism.

I was very impressed with Jerry and his family’s dedication to agriculture in their region. They are using their ranch as an example of how agriculture can begin to focus on soil health and diversification to build a bright future for agriculture in their region.

 

Reader Comments(0)