Farm And Ranch Day Set For February 11
The Mountrail County Ag Improvement Association will be hosting their Annual Farm and Ranch Day program on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the Mountrail County South Complex.
The day will kick off with the Dessert Contest, which will offer prizes for 1st through 5th place in the youth and adult division. There is also an additional cash prize for first through third place each division. The applications will be posted on the Mountrail County Ag Agency website and Facebook, or they may be picked up at the office. Deadline for drop off is from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. on February 11 at the South Complex. Following the judging of the desserts, the annual auction of the desserts will be held at 11:30 a.m. following the first speaker. The auction raises funds for the Ag Improvement scholarships.
The day’s speakers will kick off at 10:00 a.m. with coffee and cookies and keynote speaker Alex Frasier, who farms near Faulkton, SD. Alex also is an agronomist with Independent Ag, cover crop coach for Farmers for Soil Health, and works in corn research and product development. He is a fourth generation producer and partners with his dad, Jayme, at Frasier Farms in South Dakota. Frasier raises no-till soybeans, corn and spring wheat, along with certain species of cover crops, on their regenerative row crop farm. Next year, they plan to switch out the spring wheat for another small grain, such as cereal oats or rye. Having diverse crops growing together is part of their soil health plan. He farms 900 acres of corn, beans, and wheat. His passion is soil and blending conventional and regenerative practices to make it doable on the average farm.
Following the dessert auction, there will be a lunch at noon served by Bravera Bank of Stanley.
Following lunch will be the keynote speaker, Bart Carmichael from Faith, SD, and the Wedge Tent Ranch. When Bart Carmichael moved to the family ranch two days after graduating high school, his grandfather ran cattle through four seasonal pastures. Bart and his wife Shannon bought Wedge Tent Ranch from his grandfather in 1996 and, with the help of their four kids, have managed to change the ranch over the years for the better.
When he began his movement toward a low-input grazing system, Bart attended a South Dakota Grassland Coalition sponsored event where he met Terri Gompert and came away with new knowledge to bring back to his ranch. Bart sought out wisdom from other grazing management figures like Wayne Berry and Jim Gerrish. Bart stayed involved with the Coalition and has served on the board of directors for the past three years because he believes in the value of healthy grasslands and the role education plays in holding onto them. Bart puts on many workshops and schools throughout the Midwest.
He is the co-founder of Principled Land Managers, helping landowners and producers strengthen both the ecological and economic health of their operations while demonstrating how thoughtful stewardship can restore productivity, biodiversity and beauty to the prairie.
The day will conclude with the Ag Improvement annual meeting and the commodity elections at 3:30 p.m. This year, producers will elect representatives to the corn, barley, and dry pea and lentil commodity councils.
For more information on Farm and Ranch Day, contact the Mountrail County Ag Agency or look it up on the Website and Facebook.