Hi-Line Farm & Ranch May 2016

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FARM & Hi-Line FARM & RANCH FARMHi-Line & RANCH RANCH

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FARM FARM & & RANCH RANCH

12 12 May May2016 2016

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te from Around Around the the State State te FFA FFA Conventions Conventions Draws Draws Students Students from

FOR THE HI-LINE FARM & RANCH FOR THE HI-LINE FARM & RANCH

n,n,Brett BrettJohnson, Johnson,Dallas DallasCapdeville, Capdeville,Kyle KyleAlbus, Albus,Wyatt WyattPattison Pattisonand andAdvisor Advisor Patti Patti Armbrister Armbrister at at enstion in Billings. venstion in Billings.

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e(Future (FutureFarmers FarmersofofAmerican) American)FFA FFAConvention Conventionwas washeld held in in Billings Billings on on March March 25 25 -- 28.

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FFA members from around the state gathered to compete in State CDEs, ranging FFA members from around the state gathered to compete in State CDEs, ranging from from oopublic publicspeaking. speaking. bers mbersofofthe theHinsdale Hinsdalechapter, chapter,including includingSophomore SophomoreCache CacheYounkin, Younkin,competed competed in in mechanmechany, farm business management, star greenhand and state creed speaking.

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Creed third place place winner winner and and greenhand greenhandsecond secondplace placewinner winnerMickayla MickaylaJohnson Johnsonaccepting acceptingan anaward awardatatthe the Creed third state convention in Billings. state convention in Billings. competing they went went to to various various workshops workshopspresented presentedby bypast paststate stateofficers officersand andeven evennational nationalofficers. officers. competing they Three of our younger members, Elise Strommen, Chaykota Christensen and Halle Beil Three of our younger members, Elise Strommen, Chaykota Christensen and Halle Beil served on the courtesy corp and helped out with contests whenever needed.

Our five seserved on the courtesy corp and helped out with contests whenever needed. Our five seniors, Lukas Johnson, Brett Johnson, Dallas Capdeville, Kyle Albus and Wyatt Pattiniors, Lukas Johnson, Brett Johnson, Dallas Capdeville, Kyle Albus and Wyatt Pattison were awarded awarded their their State State Farmer Farmer Degrees Degrees at at the the State State Degree Degree dinner dinner on on Friday Fridaynight. night. son were There were over 500 members, advisors and their families attending that dinner.

Mickayla Johnson There were over 500 members, advisors and their families attending that dinner. Mickayla Johnson competed for star star greenhand greenhand and and received receivedsecond secondplace. place.She Shealso alsocompeted competedwith withother othercreed creedspeakers speakers competed for from around the state and received third. from around the state and received third.

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MARY KATE TESKE / FOR FARM & RANCH

TOP: A lone horse poses near Terry, Montana, in October of 2015. BOTTOM: Photographer Mary Kate Teske snaps a portrait of Amanda Teske at their family farm (same location).

To read more Mary Kate and her ANDREW MCKEAN FOR THEabout HI-LINE FARM RANCH ANDREW MCKEAN / /FOR THE HI-LINE FARM &&RANCH plans for a Iris photojournalistic roadwork trip toon the west coast, SHOOTING on Page 11.

Lih-An Yang, Ellis McKean McKean work on clearing outasee abeaver beaver damFROM alongTHE theHIP(STER) LittleBrazil Brazil Creek, Merlin, and Ellis clearing out dam along the Little Creek,

southwest of Glasgow.

Bulls Stay Steady Bulls Stay Steady Writing the Weather

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2016 11 11 May May 2016

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5 12 SEAN R. HEAVEY / FOR FARM & RANCH

This striking image was captured near Glasgow (as was this month's cover image).

Everyone Knows It's Windy Dabbling in Weather Writing for the Courier

GINEVRA KIRKLAND FOR FARM & RANCH Recently, a farmer stopped by the Courier office in Glasgow and asked why the weather report had changed. In response, editor James Walling has tasked me with providing some additional detail to assist the agriculturally inclined get a better feeling for what the sky has in store for us each week.

Fair warning: I have no formal training in this. And my approach to writing about the subject is different. As the weather grows more unpredictable, I watch for frost dates, light duration, precipitation, and something about what to expect from temperatures.

This long-range weather forecast will be based on information from trusted scientific resources and references, along with a good dose of old-fashioned common sense and hopefully a little assistance from Tanja Fransen & Co. at the National Weather Service in Glasgow.

Sources for my information are the U.S. Farm Report, the Agricultural Weather Information Service, Skybit, Ag Web, and The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The Almanac is our nation’s longest-running printed periodical, started in 1792, and yet still

correctly predicted our recent snow within two days.

I’ve been listening to farming weather reports since I was a kid mucking the stalls and collecting eggs at the neighbors’ small farm. Day-long trail rides into the state park on a dusty, retired Thoroughbred meant a feeling in your bones for summer thunderstorms.

My dad had a field notebook with the important weather events of each passing season. One of my fonder memories is of sitting with field guides to birds, snakes, spiders, and all the other creepy crawlies of the South, and learning about the kind of weather would bring them out or send them scurrying back out of sight.

In this column, I plan to share a monthly and 90-day outlook, along with weatherrelated information I think is interesting and helpful as a gardener and a weather nerd.

As a transplant to the area, I’m bound to make cartographical or vocabulary errors.

Please send me a note to let me know what I’ve missed, what you could do without, and anything in between.

To contact Ginevra with feedback, write to courier@nemont.net with the subject line: Writing the Weather.

19 26 Thursday

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YOU’RE READING HI-LINE FARM & RANCH – THE AG MONTHLY FOR NORTHEAST & NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA

MARY KATE TESKE / FOR FARM & RANCH

A trio of curious cows investigate Billings-based photographer Mary Kate Teske as she shoots on her family's property in Terry, Montana, this past March.

Shooting from the Hip(ster) A Terry Photographer Plans a Road Trip to the Coast JAMES WALLING FARM & RANCH Hailing from the Portland (OR) metro area, as I do, it's not everyday that you come across young photographers from rural Montana. Before relocating to Glasgow to take over the Courier, I met Mary Kate Teske working at a favorite restaurant of mine in the city and instantly took a liking to both her and her work.

The 22 year-old photographer is currently living in Billings, but traces her roots to Terry, where her family's homestead is located.

In a forthcoming opinion column for the Courier, Teske explains her reasons of relocating: "I moved to Portland when I was nineteen. I had never visited, and never lived on my own, but I saved enough money to leave, so I did."

Asked why she gravitated back to this region, she states:

"My heart missed home. I missed the open fields, the sagebrush and the cottonwood trees."

She is currently enrolled in the PreEngineering department at MSU-Billings and works at The Divide Bar and Grill.

Being an avid hiker, rock climber, photographer, and driver she plans to travel across the west coast this summer reaching destinations ranging from Glacier National Park to Yosemite all the way through to the Grand Canyon.

Teske's main form of transportation will be her 1961 Dodge Lancer named Frank. She plans to document her travels through photographs and video and will be posting about her adventures along the way on Instagram and YouTube with the hashtag #followfrank.

To contact Teske regarding her work, visit facebook.com/teskephotography. To donate to her GoFundMe campaign, visit gofundme.com/travelwithmk.

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Meal-Planning Tips For the Rural Sisterhood ELIZABETH SHIPSTEAD FOR FARM & RANCH 'Tis the season for meals shared in the pick-up or on the tailgate of the pick-up at the end of the field. Soon there will be meals shared at brandings and eventually meals shared during harvest.

Around this time of year there are frequent posts in Facebook groups asking for ideas for easy-to-prepare meals, crockpot friendly meals, and ideas for making meals more transportable.

These and other factors led me to the question: “How do I evaluate a meal to determine whether it’ll work well to be eaten at the edge of the field?” So, I started brainstorming and here is what I came up with. For starters, the meals must all meet the following criteria: 1. Enjoyable and filling. Well, that’s a no-brainer, right? It needs to have substance and keep everyone full, but not sit like a rock in their belly while they go back-and-forth bumping across the field.

2. Easy to eat. Most of the time, we are not sitting at a table, so the food needs to be easy enough to eat off of a plate on your lap. Think foods inside of buns, easy to cut meats, and finger foods (you will need a good option for hand washing though).

COURTESY OF ELIZABETH SHIPSTEAD / FOR FARM & RANCH

The Shipstead clan (Odin, Ella, Erin and the author, respectively) gathers for a meal near the family farm north of Nashua.

3. Quick to eat. If your hubby is like back to seeding, harvesting or whatever mine, he wants to eat quickly and then get activity dinner is interrupting. So, a meal he can quickly get onto his plate and then into his mouth is best. He won't want to wait For Sale At Private Treaty around for a perfectly-plated meal. Not that Performance Tested that happens on a good day, but you know what I mean. That leads to the next point.

4. Easily dished up. If you’re bringing Black & Red (mostly black) — Polled the parts of a meal in their own dishes, it needs to be food that is easily utilized in a Yearlings & Two Year Olds buffet-like manner. Also, consider meals that —Satisfaction & Calving Ease Guaranteed— only utilize one type of dish to eat from.

For example, if you are having chili and cornbread, people can make do with just a Dale & Cindy Andersen Cell: 765-7836 bowl. But, if you decide to add a salad to 765-7834 Reserve, Montana the meal, you might have to offer bowls and plates, which increases the dishes that need to be cleaned or taken care of. If you only offer bowls, then they’d have to choose one thing first, then go back for the second item, which would increase the time it takes folks to get through dinner.

5. Easy to transport. Hopefully you don’t have to transport too far, but you’ll likely have to transfer a ways or you wouldn’t be reading this. Speaking from experience, ensure that whatever dish you choose to transport items in is deep enough that nothing sloshes, jiggles or tips out.

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been asked in Rural Sister’s Community is how to keep bread from getting soggy during the kitchen to plate trek. Ultimately, the general consensus was that choosing the right type of bread and grilling or toasting it will help decrease the likelihood of the bread getting soggy. In this situation, I prefer to take the meal with the bread separate, then add the filling at the field. It’s an added step, but one that doesn’t take a ton of time.

Especially if it’s something like pulled pork or sloppy joes, etc. If it’s a nice cold-cut type sandwich, I’d leave out the pickles and tomatoes and other ingredients that make it more soggy and offer those on the side.

7. Easily put-together in a short amount of time. Timing is everything - in life and with meals. Time management is at the top of my priority list during our busiest seasons. That doesn’t necessarily mean it happens, but when I can manage my time more efficiently the whole day goes better.

Many of us leave one activity to put together a meal, just to have to go back to the original task after the meal is done. The quicker a meal can be put together, or a meal that can be made ahead of time, and made with the least amount of steps necessary, the better. Think: crock pot, oven, one-pot type meals here.

8. Won’t leave you with an entire kitchen full of dirty dishes. The last thing I want to do is come home right before bedtime and deal with all the dishes from the wonderfully filling meal I prepared.

I certainly don’t want to then leave them overnight into the morning, because who knows what will come up the next morning and before you know it, there are no forks to be found. Grrr. Consider using disposable plates and utensils to help decrease dishes, but to me, that always feels like throwing money away. So, we’ve decided on a happy medium of using sturdy paper plates, and using our usual forks, spoons and knives.

When I get back to the house, the clean up includes utensils, the cookware the meal was in, and putting away any condiments that I took along. That’s not too bad, especially if you have a dishwasher.

Bonus #9: When all else fails, cook a frozen pizza - or two or three. I tell you what, as long as you have enough pizza to fill everyone’s belly, no one will complain.

If they do, just tell them they get to do meal planning, prep and transport tomorrow.

Now, I know not all of these qualities can be met with every meal, but I think we can all agree that these are the qualities of meals that work best when transporting them to the field.

YOU’RE READING HI-LINE FARM & RANCH – THE AG MONTHLY FOR NORTHEAST & NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA

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April showers make farmers happy Alex Ross aeross@havredailynews.com As recently as March, the talk among farmers and ranchers along the Hi-Line was about the lack of moisture and fears of what it could mean for the coming harvest.

But what a difference a month can make.

After a dryer than normal February and March, come April showers, or an April storm system.

In fact, Jim Brusda, forecaster with National Weather Service in Great Falls said that as of April 20, if there had been no more rainfall in April it still would be the sixth wettest April on record, with 2.62 inches of precipitation.

“Basically it was one nice, spring storm system that the pulse energy of the storm ended up affecting Hill County, Blaine and northern Chouteau County,” Brusda said.

Brusda said the storm between Friday, April 15, and Sunday, April 17, soaked the Havre area with 2.3 inches of rain, and in some areas, such as the Bear Paw Mountains, those levels were closer to 3 inches of moisture.

The area is much wetter than this time last year. Between January and late April of 2015, the area saw 2.4 inches of precipitation, compared to this year in which a total of 3.48 inches has fallen.

Rainfall recorded at Havre City-County Airport through April 20.

But the ample moisture goes back to

National Weather Service

October of last year when there was 1.06 inch-

es of precipitation or 0.48 inches above normal.

“So, actually, the Havre area is doing OK in terms of precipitation,” Brusda said.

“You’ve had some dry spells, but you’ve also had some wet periods. And the end result is, you actually have above-normal precip in your area.”

Two-tenths of an inch of rainfall was expected for the weekend of April 23-24.

Between April 22 and 28, .92 inches of precipitation had fallen at the NWS recording station at the Havre City-County Airport, said NWS meteorologist Scott Coulston. This increased the year’s total to 3.55 inches.

The added moisture also made April the second wettest on record in Havre, he added.

Another .17 inches, between print deadline and May 1, would be needed to meet the 1955 record of 3.72 inches.

The wet spell is unlikely to last, Brusda said, adding that forecasters are predicting that in May, June and July north-central Montana and most of the U.S. will be experiencing conditions that are normal if not somewhat drier than usual.

However, Brusda said, as things stand now, forecasters do not believe the area will be dry enough to produce drought conditions — though that could change.

The moisture brings relief to the area, though.

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Produce: Offer a variety and many willing to look at more n Continued from page 8 ing out Monday morning. “Most customers order first thing Monday morning because supplies are limited and they know that if they wait until Wednesday, I may not have something they really want.”

Both Vinson and the Wrights will confirm the order placed.

Wright said if a customer can’t get to the drop off site, “as long as you’re in the same basic area, we’ll run it to some place. We’re still at a size where we can deliver personally.”

a l a d y a s k m e a b o u t s u n c h o ke s o r Jerusalem artichokes.”

By next year, he said, he expects to be able to provide those as well as asparagus.

He’s also been asked about duck eggs, and will soon be able to supply those in addition to the variety of different colored chicken eggs he already provides. “ I ’ l l h ave a b o u t 1 3 5 c h i c ke n s l ay i n g by t h e beginning of summer, if not earlier,” he said, adding the flock had been quadrupled from the last The table and beyond year to meet customer Most of the farms grow demands.

Daniel Parson similar items — varieties

And that communicaManager, Oxford College at Emory of spring greens such as tion, all of those interUniversity organic farm kale, Swiss chard, arugula, viewed said, is what they collards; beets; sweet potaenjoy about locally-sustoes; melon; varieties of squash and other tained agriculture. vegetables common to the area. Some may “We’ve become friends with the people offer berries, watermelons, broccoli, cabwho do business with us,” said Wright. “We bage and cauliflower. have a chance to talk. We started off grow Some, like Flying Horse Farm, offer ing for close friends. Now we’ve found the blueberries, ginger and turmeric. Others people we grow for have become our offer melons and pea and bean varieties. friends.”

In addition to seasonal vegetables, herbs “There’s a reason I sell my produce this and eggs, Yellow Hen Farm sells hand- way, instead of the grocery store,” agreed crafted soaps, moisturizer, scrubs and an Parson. “If I did that, I’d never get to all-natural mosquito repellent. know my customers. I hear from custom “If a customer tells me they want someers they like the same thing. thing, I’ll explore it,” Ballard said. “I had “It’s a wonderful thing to have food

We’re on a small scale, and people can visit the farm

growing in our communities,” he said.

All of the farmers encourage people to come visit their farms and see how food is grown.

“We’re on a small scale, and people can visit the farm,” Parson said.

“It’s important for people to recognize the effort that goes in to growing food,” said Wright. “We touch every seed, pick every plant, pick off every bug “When people come out to see what’s actually done, it gives a new appreciation for what’s grown,” she said.

All agree that there are significant benefits to buying produce and other agricultural products from local vendors.

One benefit, Parson said, is the produce is “way fresher. It takes days or weeks for things to get to the grocery store. We pick and pack the day before. It’s as fresh as anything you can get.”

Like Parson, Vinson said her customers have said the fresher produce tastes better.

“Customers often tell me that they’re amazed when lettuce that they purchased one or two weeks ago is still fresh in the refrigerator,” she said. “They’re used to produce lasting only a few days after purchase. I think I’ve also read that the fresher produce is the more nutritious it is.

“And, environmentally, food purchased locally has a smaller carbon footprint,” she said.

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City of Oxford provides space for farmers to sell produce

Brothers see success with sibling rivalry in FFA

SANDRA BRANDS The Covington News OXFORD, Ga. (AP) — Some small farm farmers are offering two different ways for Newton County residents to support local agriculture: either by purchasing shares in a farm’s seasonal offerings or by subscribing to receive an email which lists the week’s offerings and prices.

Neither way beats the prices in the big box grocery stores, but both ensure freshly harvested and, for the most part, organically grown produce. For example, last week, six ounces of baby kale from Flying Horse Farm in Newborn, which notifies customers of what’s in by newsletter, was $4. At Yellow Hen Farms, to keep things simple, vegetables are priced at $3, whether it is for one head of lettuce, four ounces of kale or Swiss chard, or three ounces of arugula.

“I’m not trying to compete with WalMart, so you’ll find that my prices are higher,” said Sara Vinson of Yellow Hen Farm in Covington.

“Our CSA is not free food,” said Daniel Parson, Manager of the organic farm at Oxford College at Emory University. “It’s not volume food or geared toward canning.

Last year was a great year for squash and people were freezing it. This year may not be (good for squash), but could be for tomatoes.”

The Oxford organic farm sells its produce by subscription, or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. So, too, does Alcovy Organic Farms and Double B Farm. Shares run between $25 and $30 a week for a full share, typically between five to nine items a week of the current crops. (See side bar.)

KELLA RODIEK The Daily Republic SALEM, S.D. (AP) — Good ol’ sibling rivalry.

It wasn’t just rivalry, however, that pushed Andrew Streff to break a South Dakota state agricultural record — his brother, Mark, was his equal, support system and business partner.

Andrew, a senior at McCook Central High School, had his shining moment last month at the State FFA Convention in Brookings. He became the only FFA member in South Dakota history to receive a total of three Star Awards.

“It took a long time for it to sink in that I had gotten three Star Awards,” Andrew said. “It’s something that’s never been done in our state and only matched at the national level. Very few people can do it or ever will do it.”

The Star Awards honor students who create an SAE, or supervised agricultural experience, which allows them to learn through involvement on the farm and in the classroom. Andrew called this a great way to make your education work for you.

“That’s really a great part about this program; you can do whatever you want with it because agriculture is so diverse,” he said.

In Andrew’s case, he plans to be a crop farmer, so he tailored his education toward corn and soybean production.

He and Mark, who is one year older, have been customizing their agricultural education this way for years. Though the two grew up on their family’s farm a mile and a half northwest of Salem, Andrew admitted he knew nothing of FFA for most of his youth. He did, however, know without

The definition of season can vary by farm. Oxford offers spring and fall 13-week seasonal shares, and a summer, eightweek share, while Alcovy offers three 12-week seasons with the possibility of a winter season. Double Bee Farm in Oxford offers three 12-week shares at $30 per half share and $50 per full.

There are 50 shares available each season at the Oxford College Organic Farm, Parson said. The spring season begins on April 28, and shares are nearly sold out.

However, this year, the farm will sell produce at the city of Oxford’s Farmer’s Market off of Emory Street, on Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m. CSA share holders can pick their weekly produce up there as well. There’s also a drop-off site at Emory University.

Need in the community The decision to sell this year at the Oxford Farmer’s Market came about after Parson and Ruth Geiger, farm apprentice, took part in the recent summit hosted by the Newton County Health Department at the college in March.

“We’re inspired by the need of the community for fresh food,” Parson said.

“We’re inspired by the health department telling us we’re part of the food desert. We think there’s a need here, and we’re trying to serve people in our community first.”

Oxford farmer Brady Bala of Double B Farms offers one-half pound of eight to ten items per week. While he grows most of the produce, sometimes he will augment his offerings with produce from neighboring local farms.

“If I go and package everything up, and I have seven items and just down the road, there’s a farm with fresh strawberries,

there’s my eighth or tenth item,” he said.

The variation is dependent on the type of produce he’s supplying.

“I grow shitake mushrooms, which cost a lot more than lettuce,” he said. If mushrooms are in the box, “I’ll probably stick closer to eight items.”

He said, depending on the week and what can be harvest, he might augment with blueberries, corn or other types of produce he doesn’t grow. Subscribers pick up their shares of the harvest in Conyers at Copy Central on Parker Street.

Though his farm is just across the Newton County border in Jasper County, Archie Ballard of Alcovy Organic Farms drops off weekly shares of produce near the Mansfield post office between 6-7 p.m.

Friday. His weekly boxes contain between nine and 12 different vegetables. Egg shares are also offered at $65 for the full, 13-week season.

“A full share should be enough food for a family, one serving per person of a fresh vegetable daily,” Ballard said. “We prepare the CSA share be paid up front, though we offer a 50 percent now, 50 percent later option.

“What I do for those who pay for a full season upfront is give them a quarter share of eggs (3 dozen),” he said. If they buy two seasons, they get six dozen; three seasons, they get nine dozen; and four seasons, a full share of eggs, or 12 dozen.”

Ballard said that he prices his shares competitively because, “I want to help people get fresh, organic produce, help them for health reasons. Normally, when you get a box, (the produce) is within 24-hours of getting picked. We pick fresh the day before.”

“When you buy collard greens at the grocery store, you buy a bunch with the main stem,” he said. “We harvest individual leaves — so there’s not a lot of waste.”

The Oxford College organic farm is cert i f i e d by t h e U . S . D e p a r t m e n t o f Agriculture and Alcovy Organic Farms will be certified in July. The certification verifies compliance with USDA organic regulations and takes 36-months to prove c o m p l i a n c e. C e r t i f i c a t i o n s m u s t b e renewed every year, and only certified producers can call themselves “organic,” according to USDA.

Yellow Hen, Double B and Flying Horse farms are all Certified Naturally Grown producers. CNG farms receive peer review certification, and grow crops without synthetic chemicals or genetically modified organisms. All three compost and build up nutrients in the soil through fertilizers such as blood- or bone-meal, and use only natural pesticides, if any.

Selecting weekly Both Yellow Hen Farm and Flying Horse Farm release a weekly list of what c r o p s a r e ava i l a b l e a t w h a t p r i c e.

Customers place an order and the boxes are dropped off at a location weekly.

Ye l l ow H e n Fa r m d ro p s b oxe s o f f Thursdays at Oxford College at 9:15 a.m. and Covington Square at 9:45 a.m. Glenna Wright and her husband Doug of Flying Horse Farm drop off their produce boxes a t t h e N ew to n C o u n t y M a i n L i b ra r y branch Thursdays at noon. The Wrights also deliver in Madison and Rutledge Wednesdays.

“Not everyone wants the commitment of a CSA,” Wright said. “A lot of our customers have voiced the opinion on other occasions. They had specific things they wanted and they would end up with something they didn’t like or didn’t know how to cook.”

Flying Horse Farms grows “a lot of heirloom vegetables,” she said, “those originally introduced no later than the 1950s, though a lot from (varieties) grown as far back as the 1700s. They are seeds that predate the hybrids. Sometimes, they aren’t as beautiful as some of the vegetables in the store. Those are bred for a longer shelf life and the flavor has been bred out.”

The Wrights say they believe it’s important to carry forward seeds that have been supplying food for generations and purchase their organic heirloom seeds online.

They had just finished planting heirloom tomato seeds in the hoop house April 14, when they were interviewed for this article “We enjoy growing them and all of our customers seem to like them,” Wright said.

Vinson said she sends out an email list-

n Continued on page 9

a doubt that he was passionate about the world of agriculture. Now, the brothers run three farming businesses together, which resulted in Andrew’s Star in Agribusiness Award. ___ First, they started a custom rolling business leveling fields and making them easier to combine.

“That’s where we take our giant rolling p i n a n d go a c ro s s s oy b e a n g ro u n d, ” Andrew said.

The second business is for custom side dressing, which involves the injection of liquid fertilizer between corn rows around the knee-high stage, he said.

For the third business, the brothers wash, wax and detail farm equipment.

The second Star Award that Andrew earned at the State Convention was the Star in Ag Placement. This was for his hours worked on the farm and for the enthusiasm he put into learning to improve himself and his knowledge of agriculture, he said.

During Andrew’s sophomore year, he won the Star Greenhand Award for his overall involvement in agriculture.

Mark, who is a freshman business major at Dakota State University in Madison, was one of four Star finalists in the state last year in the Agribusiness category. As a freshman in college, this is Mark’s last year of eligibility in FFA, and he thanked his younger brother for keeping him involved.

“I don’t know if I would have stayed in it so long if he hadn’t been pushing me,” Mark said of Andrew. “Competing for awards, that’s been fun. Sibling rivalry.”

Andrew, in turn, praised his brother’s

work, saying it’s been a “team effort” from the very beginning.

Andrew said that in addition to being a Star finalist last year, Mark has won countless Proficiency Awards over the years.

These awards honor FFA members who have developed specialized skills through their SAEs that can be applied toward their future careers.

“Last year, (Mark) won more proficiency awards than I did, so there was a rivalry, and this year I won more than he did,” Andrew said. “There was some teasing back and forth but we try to work together on it.” ___ Mark said he isn’t certain if he’ll remain in the agricultural field, but added that his business degree could easily apply to farming in the future. Andrew, on the other hand, continues to dive deeper into agriculture.

His local FFA chapter’s vice president, Andrew was chosen at the State Convention as the 2016-17 state FFA treasurer for South Dakota.

Last week, Andrew attended his first training session as treasurer to learn how to better present speeches and small group discussions while advocating for agriculture.

“They’re preparing me to visit all the different chapters in the state where I’ll be presenting ideas and speaking to students,” he said.

He also has a summer internship lined up with the agronomy division of Central Farmers Cooperative. Acting as a field scout, Andrew will be trained in much of what an agronomist does, further diversifying his knowledge, he said.

In the fall, he plans to attend South Dakota State University in Brookings to pursue an ag business major.

“Then, I’ll return to the farm and continue producing food and fuel for the world,” he said.

Aside from agriculture, Andrew is on the school’s yearbook staff, writes for the school newspaper, is a member of the National Honor Society and has helped with basketball stats and the live streaming of games.

Andrew said he “tries to keep busy,” reflecting a similar work ethic he sees in his FFA adviser, Terry Rieckman.

“Our adviser pushes us to work very hard,” Andrew said. “He gets here I think at 6:30 in the morning, or even before that, and is here until late into the evening. We know that he is always here to help us succeed and that’s a very driving factor.”

And Andrew isn’t the only one who has been driven by Rieckman’s support. Last ye a r, M c C o o k C e n t r a l s e n i o r Ad a m Eichacker won two Star Awards in the same year and was, at that time, the only student in the state to have done so.

Rieckman said he couldn’t be happier about the successes of his students.

“That’s pretty sweet, ain’t it?” he said.

“I should just retire and go off into the sunset.”

Rieckman will, in fact, be retiring May 15. With approximately 92 of the high school’s 110 kids in the FFA program, the school is known for its strong FFA legacy.

M a ny o f t h e s t u d e n t s c re d i t t h i s to Rieckman, but he said, “We work hard at it. I’m just here. I would hope to think that if somebody else was here they’d do the same thing.”

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April showers: So far, a welcome contrast to the previous weather

April showers: Early start to season

n Continued from page 4

shine followed by rain, Velk said, has struck the right balance for both his crops and cattle.

However, as far as rain goes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Velk said that a few years ago, it rained continuously, and his crops started to rot in the field.

For now, Velk said, things are still fine.

"We're still able to take a lot of rain right now and we will continue to take it but once it gets into harvest mode and raining an inch or two every week, it starts to stress a guy out," Velk said.

The high levels of moisture have already caused a few problems in area fields.

Nicole Gray, agent at Hill County's Montana State University Extension Service Office, said the moisture has helped the winter wheat at a good time, when the wheat is coming out of dormancy earlier than usual.

But the downside is risk of disease.

Last fall, moist soil conditions left a lot of green in the fields, which the wheat curl mite feeds off of, Gray said. This creates conditions for wheat streak mosaic virus, a crop disease which affects strains of wheat and other crops, such as barley, planted in autumn.

The wheat curl mite injects a toxin which can ultimately stunt the growth of those crops.

Gray said the scale on which crops are affected can vary.

“I have been getting samples and seeing it in the county and in fields sporadically,” Gray said.

The northwestern portion of Hill County

“It was looking pretty bleak, and now it looks real good,” said Mark Velk, a farmer and rancher north of Havre near the U.S.Canada border.

He said that the benefits of the rain were compounded by the fact that the rain was not accompanied by heavy gusts of wind that would take evaporate th water before it could be absorbed into the soil.

Velk said adequate moisture is “crucial, very crucial” in these early stages of the season for both his crops and his cows.

“So this was monumental in our country,” Velk said. “All you have to do is look out the window and anytime we’re green, we’re happy — well, except for harvest time."

Velk said this year’s abundance of moisture will help ensure crops and pasture grass can grow.

He said that so far, it is a welcome contrast from last year.

Generally, wet and cold conditions are not good for calving, Velk said, but up where he ranches the most recent precipitation was almost entirely rain rather than snow.

The recent pattern of rain followed by sunHavre Daily News/Teresa Getten Horses graze near Havre after a late April snowstorm. Recent precipitation — much coming in the form of snow — has provided needed moisture for pastures and crops.

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Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten Cattle rest near Havre after a late April snowstorm. The April rain and snow turned around the weather year, with Havre going from being short of normal for moisture received by April 1 to being more than 2 inches above the norm by the end of the month. saw extreme drought in 2015, and the April moisture will help turn any residual effects of that around.

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April showers: So far, a welcome contrast to the previous weather

April showers: Early start to season

n Continued from page 4

shine followed by rain, Velk said, has struck the right balance for both his crops and cattle.

However, as far as rain goes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Velk said that a few years ago, it rained continuously, and his crops started to rot in the field.

For now, Velk said, things are still fine.

"We're still able to take a lot of rain right now and we will continue to take it but once it gets into harvest mode and raining an inch or two every week, it starts to stress a guy out," Velk said.

The high levels of moisture have already caused a few problems in area fields.

Nicole Gray, agent at Hill County's Montana State University Extension Service Office, said the moisture has helped the winter wheat at a good time, when the wheat is coming out of dormancy earlier than usual.

But the downside is risk of disease.

Last fall, moist soil conditions left a lot of green in the fields, which the wheat curl mite feeds off of, Gray said. This creates conditions for wheat streak mosaic virus, a crop disease which affects strains of wheat and other crops, such as barley, planted in autumn.

The wheat curl mite injects a toxin which can ultimately stunt the growth of those crops.

Gray said the scale on which crops are affected can vary.

“I have been getting samples and seeing it in the county and in fields sporadically,” Gray said.

The northwestern portion of Hill County

“It was looking pretty bleak, and now it looks real good,” said Mark Velk, a farmer and rancher north of Havre near the U.S.Canada border.

He said that the benefits of the rain were compounded by the fact that the rain was not accompanied by heavy gusts of wind that would take evaporate th water before it could be absorbed into the soil.

Velk said adequate moisture is “crucial, very crucial” in these early stages of the season for both his crops and his cows.

“So this was monumental in our country,” Velk said. “All you have to do is look out the window and anytime we’re green, we’re happy — well, except for harvest time."

Velk said this year’s abundance of moisture will help ensure crops and pasture grass can grow.

He said that so far, it is a welcome contrast from last year.

Generally, wet and cold conditions are not good for calving, Velk said, but up where he ranches the most recent precipitation was almost entirely rain rather than snow.

The recent pattern of rain followed by sunHavre Daily News/Teresa Getten Horses graze near Havre after a late April snowstorm. Recent precipitation — much coming in the form of snow — has provided needed moisture for pastures and crops.

3,000 MORE PHOTOS SHARED from the local coffee shop

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TRIANGLE MOBILE

139/mo

$

4 LINES & 20GB DATA Save $61/mo

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See store for details.

117 1st St in Havre | Fort Belknap Shopping Center | Todd’s Technology Store in Malta | 1.855.332.1221 | itsTriangleMobile.com |

#youdeservemore

Havre Daily News/Teresa Getten Cattle rest near Havre after a late April snowstorm. The April rain and snow turned around the weather year, with Havre going from being short of normal for moisture received by April 1 to being more than 2 inches above the norm by the end of the month. saw extreme drought in 2015, and the April moisture will help turn any residual effects of that around.

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City of Oxford provides space for farmers to sell produce

Brothers see success with sibling rivalry in FFA

SANDRA BRANDS The Covington News OXFORD, Ga. (AP) — Some small farm farmers are offering two different ways for Newton County residents to support local agriculture: either by purchasing shares in a farm’s seasonal offerings or by subscribing to receive an email which lists the week’s offerings and prices.

Neither way beats the prices in the big box grocery stores, but both ensure freshly harvested and, for the most part, organically grown produce. For example, last week, six ounces of baby kale from Flying Horse Farm in Newborn, which notifies customers of what’s in by newsletter, was $4. At Yellow Hen Farms, to keep things simple, vegetables are priced at $3, whether it is for one head of lettuce, four ounces of kale or Swiss chard, or three ounces of arugula.

“I’m not trying to compete with WalMart, so you’ll find that my prices are higher,” said Sara Vinson of Yellow Hen Farm in Covington.

“Our CSA is not free food,” said Daniel Parson, Manager of the organic farm at Oxford College at Emory University. “It’s not volume food or geared toward canning.

Last year was a great year for squash and people were freezing it. This year may not be (good for squash), but could be for tomatoes.”

The Oxford organic farm sells its produce by subscription, or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. So, too, does Alcovy Organic Farms and Double B Farm. Shares run between $25 and $30 a week for a full share, typically between five to nine items a week of the current crops. (See side bar.)

KELLA RODIEK The Daily Republic SALEM, S.D. (AP) — Good ol’ sibling rivalry.

It wasn’t just rivalry, however, that pushed Andrew Streff to break a South Dakota state agricultural record — his brother, Mark, was his equal, support system and business partner.

Andrew, a senior at McCook Central High School, had his shining moment last month at the State FFA Convention in Brookings. He became the only FFA member in South Dakota history to receive a total of three Star Awards.

“It took a long time for it to sink in that I had gotten three Star Awards,” Andrew said. “It’s something that’s never been done in our state and only matched at the national level. Very few people can do it or ever will do it.”

The Star Awards honor students who create an SAE, or supervised agricultural experience, which allows them to learn through involvement on the farm and in the classroom. Andrew called this a great way to make your education work for you.

“That’s really a great part about this program; you can do whatever you want with it because agriculture is so diverse,” he said.

In Andrew’s case, he plans to be a crop farmer, so he tailored his education toward corn and soybean production.

He and Mark, who is one year older, have been customizing their agricultural education this way for years. Though the two grew up on their family’s farm a mile and a half northwest of Salem, Andrew admitted he knew nothing of FFA for most of his youth. He did, however, know without

The definition of season can vary by farm. Oxford offers spring and fall 13-week seasonal shares, and a summer, eightweek share, while Alcovy offers three 12-week seasons with the possibility of a winter season. Double Bee Farm in Oxford offers three 12-week shares at $30 per half share and $50 per full.

There are 50 shares available each season at the Oxford College Organic Farm, Parson said. The spring season begins on April 28, and shares are nearly sold out.

However, this year, the farm will sell produce at the city of Oxford’s Farmer’s Market off of Emory Street, on Thursdays from 3 to 6 p.m. CSA share holders can pick their weekly produce up there as well. There’s also a drop-off site at Emory University.

Need in the community The decision to sell this year at the Oxford Farmer’s Market came about after Parson and Ruth Geiger, farm apprentice, took part in the recent summit hosted by the Newton County Health Department at the college in March.

“We’re inspired by the need of the community for fresh food,” Parson said.

“We’re inspired by the health department telling us we’re part of the food desert. We think there’s a need here, and we’re trying to serve people in our community first.”

Oxford farmer Brady Bala of Double B Farms offers one-half pound of eight to ten items per week. While he grows most of the produce, sometimes he will augment his offerings with produce from neighboring local farms.

“If I go and package everything up, and I have seven items and just down the road, there’s a farm with fresh strawberries,

there’s my eighth or tenth item,” he said.

The variation is dependent on the type of produce he’s supplying.

“I grow shitake mushrooms, which cost a lot more than lettuce,” he said. If mushrooms are in the box, “I’ll probably stick closer to eight items.”

He said, depending on the week and what can be harvest, he might augment with blueberries, corn or other types of produce he doesn’t grow. Subscribers pick up their shares of the harvest in Conyers at Copy Central on Parker Street.

Though his farm is just across the Newton County border in Jasper County, Archie Ballard of Alcovy Organic Farms drops off weekly shares of produce near the Mansfield post office between 6-7 p.m.

Friday. His weekly boxes contain between nine and 12 different vegetables. Egg shares are also offered at $65 for the full, 13-week season.

“A full share should be enough food for a family, one serving per person of a fresh vegetable daily,” Ballard said. “We prepare the CSA share be paid up front, though we offer a 50 percent now, 50 percent later option.

“What I do for those who pay for a full season upfront is give them a quarter share of eggs (3 dozen),” he said. If they buy two seasons, they get six dozen; three seasons, they get nine dozen; and four seasons, a full share of eggs, or 12 dozen.”

Ballard said that he prices his shares competitively because, “I want to help people get fresh, organic produce, help them for health reasons. Normally, when you get a box, (the produce) is within 24-hours of getting picked. We pick fresh the day before.”

“When you buy collard greens at the grocery store, you buy a bunch with the main stem,” he said. “We harvest individual leaves — so there’s not a lot of waste.”

The Oxford College organic farm is cert i f i e d by t h e U . S . D e p a r t m e n t o f Agriculture and Alcovy Organic Farms will be certified in July. The certification verifies compliance with USDA organic regulations and takes 36-months to prove c o m p l i a n c e. C e r t i f i c a t i o n s m u s t b e renewed every year, and only certified producers can call themselves “organic,” according to USDA.

Yellow Hen, Double B and Flying Horse farms are all Certified Naturally Grown producers. CNG farms receive peer review certification, and grow crops without synthetic chemicals or genetically modified organisms. All three compost and build up nutrients in the soil through fertilizers such as blood- or bone-meal, and use only natural pesticides, if any.

Selecting weekly Both Yellow Hen Farm and Flying Horse Farm release a weekly list of what c r o p s a r e ava i l a b l e a t w h a t p r i c e.

Customers place an order and the boxes are dropped off at a location weekly.

Ye l l ow H e n Fa r m d ro p s b oxe s o f f Thursdays at Oxford College at 9:15 a.m. and Covington Square at 9:45 a.m. Glenna Wright and her husband Doug of Flying Horse Farm drop off their produce boxes a t t h e N ew to n C o u n t y M a i n L i b ra r y branch Thursdays at noon. The Wrights also deliver in Madison and Rutledge Wednesdays.

“Not everyone wants the commitment of a CSA,” Wright said. “A lot of our customers have voiced the opinion on other occasions. They had specific things they wanted and they would end up with something they didn’t like or didn’t know how to cook.”

Flying Horse Farms grows “a lot of heirloom vegetables,” she said, “those originally introduced no later than the 1950s, though a lot from (varieties) grown as far back as the 1700s. They are seeds that predate the hybrids. Sometimes, they aren’t as beautiful as some of the vegetables in the store. Those are bred for a longer shelf life and the flavor has been bred out.”

The Wrights say they believe it’s important to carry forward seeds that have been supplying food for generations and purchase their organic heirloom seeds online.

They had just finished planting heirloom tomato seeds in the hoop house April 14, when they were interviewed for this article “We enjoy growing them and all of our customers seem to like them,” Wright said.

Vinson said she sends out an email list-

n Continued on page 9

a doubt that he was passionate about the world of agriculture. Now, the brothers run three farming businesses together, which resulted in Andrew’s Star in Agribusiness Award. ___ First, they started a custom rolling business leveling fields and making them easier to combine.

“That’s where we take our giant rolling p i n a n d go a c ro s s s oy b e a n g ro u n d, ” Andrew said.

The second business is for custom side dressing, which involves the injection of liquid fertilizer between corn rows around the knee-high stage, he said.

For the third business, the brothers wash, wax and detail farm equipment.

The second Star Award that Andrew earned at the State Convention was the Star in Ag Placement. This was for his hours worked on the farm and for the enthusiasm he put into learning to improve himself and his knowledge of agriculture, he said.

During Andrew’s sophomore year, he won the Star Greenhand Award for his overall involvement in agriculture.

Mark, who is a freshman business major at Dakota State University in Madison, was one of four Star finalists in the state last year in the Agribusiness category. As a freshman in college, this is Mark’s last year of eligibility in FFA, and he thanked his younger brother for keeping him involved.

“I don’t know if I would have stayed in it so long if he hadn’t been pushing me,” Mark said of Andrew. “Competing for awards, that’s been fun. Sibling rivalry.”

Andrew, in turn, praised his brother’s

work, saying it’s been a “team effort” from the very beginning.

Andrew said that in addition to being a Star finalist last year, Mark has won countless Proficiency Awards over the years.

These awards honor FFA members who have developed specialized skills through their SAEs that can be applied toward their future careers.

“Last year, (Mark) won more proficiency awards than I did, so there was a rivalry, and this year I won more than he did,” Andrew said. “There was some teasing back and forth but we try to work together on it.” ___ Mark said he isn’t certain if he’ll remain in the agricultural field, but added that his business degree could easily apply to farming in the future. Andrew, on the other hand, continues to dive deeper into agriculture.

His local FFA chapter’s vice president, Andrew was chosen at the State Convention as the 2016-17 state FFA treasurer for South Dakota.

Last week, Andrew attended his first training session as treasurer to learn how to better present speeches and small group discussions while advocating for agriculture.

“They’re preparing me to visit all the different chapters in the state where I’ll be presenting ideas and speaking to students,” he said.

He also has a summer internship lined up with the agronomy division of Central Farmers Cooperative. Acting as a field scout, Andrew will be trained in much of what an agronomist does, further diversifying his knowledge, he said.

In the fall, he plans to attend South Dakota State University in Brookings to pursue an ag business major.

“Then, I’ll return to the farm and continue producing food and fuel for the world,” he said.

Aside from agriculture, Andrew is on the school’s yearbook staff, writes for the school newspaper, is a member of the National Honor Society and has helped with basketball stats and the live streaming of games.

Andrew said he “tries to keep busy,” reflecting a similar work ethic he sees in his FFA adviser, Terry Rieckman.

“Our adviser pushes us to work very hard,” Andrew said. “He gets here I think at 6:30 in the morning, or even before that, and is here until late into the evening. We know that he is always here to help us succeed and that’s a very driving factor.”

And Andrew isn’t the only one who has been driven by Rieckman’s support. Last ye a r, M c C o o k C e n t r a l s e n i o r Ad a m Eichacker won two Star Awards in the same year and was, at that time, the only student in the state to have done so.

Rieckman said he couldn’t be happier about the successes of his students.

“That’s pretty sweet, ain’t it?” he said.

“I should just retire and go off into the sunset.”

Rieckman will, in fact, be retiring May 15. With approximately 92 of the high school’s 110 kids in the FFA program, the school is known for its strong FFA legacy.

M a ny o f t h e s t u d e n t s c re d i t t h i s to Rieckman, but he said, “We work hard at it. I’m just here. I would hope to think that if somebody else was here they’d do the same thing.”

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April showers make farmers happy Alex Ross aeross@havredailynews.com As recently as March, the talk among farmers and ranchers along the Hi-Line was about the lack of moisture and fears of what it could mean for the coming harvest.

But what a difference a month can make.

After a dryer than normal February and March, come April showers, or an April storm system.

In fact, Jim Brusda, forecaster with National Weather Service in Great Falls said that as of April 20, if there had been no more rainfall in April it still would be the sixth wettest April on record, with 2.62 inches of precipitation.

“Basically it was one nice, spring storm system that the pulse energy of the storm ended up affecting Hill County, Blaine and northern Chouteau County,” Brusda said.

Brusda said the storm between Friday, April 15, and Sunday, April 17, soaked the Havre area with 2.3 inches of rain, and in some areas, such as the Bear Paw Mountains, those levels were closer to 3 inches of moisture.

The area is much wetter than this time last year. Between January and late April of 2015, the area saw 2.4 inches of precipitation, compared to this year in which a total of 3.48 inches has fallen.

Rainfall recorded at Havre City-County Airport through April 20.

But the ample moisture goes back to

National Weather Service

October of last year when there was 1.06 inch-

es of precipitation or 0.48 inches above normal.

“So, actually, the Havre area is doing OK in terms of precipitation,” Brusda said.

“You’ve had some dry spells, but you’ve also had some wet periods. And the end result is, you actually have above-normal precip in your area.”

Two-tenths of an inch of rainfall was expected for the weekend of April 23-24.

Between April 22 and 28, .92 inches of precipitation had fallen at the NWS recording station at the Havre City-County Airport, said NWS meteorologist Scott Coulston. This increased the year’s total to 3.55 inches.

The added moisture also made April the second wettest on record in Havre, he added.

Another .17 inches, between print deadline and May 1, would be needed to meet the 1955 record of 3.72 inches.

The wet spell is unlikely to last, Brusda said, adding that forecasters are predicting that in May, June and July north-central Montana and most of the U.S. will be experiencing conditions that are normal if not somewhat drier than usual.

However, Brusda said, as things stand now, forecasters do not believe the area will be dry enough to produce drought conditions — though that could change.

The moisture brings relief to the area, though.

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Produce: Offer a variety and many willing to look at more n Continued from page 8 ing out Monday morning. “Most customers order first thing Monday morning because supplies are limited and they know that if they wait until Wednesday, I may not have something they really want.”

Both Vinson and the Wrights will confirm the order placed.

Wright said if a customer can’t get to the drop off site, “as long as you’re in the same basic area, we’ll run it to some place. We’re still at a size where we can deliver personally.”

a l a d y a s k m e a b o u t s u n c h o ke s o r Jerusalem artichokes.”

By next year, he said, he expects to be able to provide those as well as asparagus.

He’s also been asked about duck eggs, and will soon be able to supply those in addition to the variety of different colored chicken eggs he already provides. “ I ’ l l h ave a b o u t 1 3 5 c h i c ke n s l ay i n g by t h e beginning of summer, if not earlier,” he said, adding the flock had been quadrupled from the last The table and beyond year to meet customer Most of the farms grow demands.

Daniel Parson similar items — varieties

And that communicaManager, Oxford College at Emory of spring greens such as tion, all of those interUniversity organic farm kale, Swiss chard, arugula, viewed said, is what they collards; beets; sweet potaenjoy about locally-sustoes; melon; varieties of squash and other tained agriculture. vegetables common to the area. Some may “We’ve become friends with the people offer berries, watermelons, broccoli, cabwho do business with us,” said Wright. “We bage and cauliflower. have a chance to talk. We started off grow Some, like Flying Horse Farm, offer ing for close friends. Now we’ve found the blueberries, ginger and turmeric. Others people we grow for have become our offer melons and pea and bean varieties. friends.”

In addition to seasonal vegetables, herbs “There’s a reason I sell my produce this and eggs, Yellow Hen Farm sells hand- way, instead of the grocery store,” agreed crafted soaps, moisturizer, scrubs and an Parson. “If I did that, I’d never get to all-natural mosquito repellent. know my customers. I hear from custom “If a customer tells me they want someers they like the same thing. thing, I’ll explore it,” Ballard said. “I had “It’s a wonderful thing to have food

We’re on a small scale, and people can visit the farm

growing in our communities,” he said.

All of the farmers encourage people to come visit their farms and see how food is grown.

“We’re on a small scale, and people can visit the farm,” Parson said.

“It’s important for people to recognize the effort that goes in to growing food,” said Wright. “We touch every seed, pick every plant, pick off every bug “When people come out to see what’s actually done, it gives a new appreciation for what’s grown,” she said.

All agree that there are significant benefits to buying produce and other agricultural products from local vendors.

One benefit, Parson said, is the produce is “way fresher. It takes days or weeks for things to get to the grocery store. We pick and pack the day before. It’s as fresh as anything you can get.”

Like Parson, Vinson said her customers have said the fresher produce tastes better.

“Customers often tell me that they’re amazed when lettuce that they purchased one or two weeks ago is still fresh in the refrigerator,” she said. “They’re used to produce lasting only a few days after purchase. I think I’ve also read that the fresher produce is the more nutritious it is.

“And, environmentally, food purchased locally has a smaller carbon footprint,” she said.

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Meal-Planning Tips For the Rural Sisterhood ELIZABETH SHIPSTEAD FOR FARM & RANCH 'Tis the season for meals shared in the pick-up or on the tailgate of the pick-up at the end of the field. Soon there will be meals shared at brandings and eventually meals shared during harvest.

Around this time of year there are frequent posts in Facebook groups asking for ideas for easy-to-prepare meals, crockpot friendly meals, and ideas for making meals more transportable.

These and other factors led me to the question: “How do I evaluate a meal to determine whether it’ll work well to be eaten at the edge of the field?” So, I started brainstorming and here is what I came up with. For starters, the meals must all meet the following criteria: 1. Enjoyable and filling. Well, that’s a no-brainer, right? It needs to have substance and keep everyone full, but not sit like a rock in their belly while they go back-and-forth bumping across the field.

2. Easy to eat. Most of the time, we are not sitting at a table, so the food needs to be easy enough to eat off of a plate on your lap. Think foods inside of buns, easy to cut meats, and finger foods (you will need a good option for hand washing though).

COURTESY OF ELIZABETH SHIPSTEAD / FOR FARM & RANCH

The Shipstead clan (Odin, Ella, Erin and the author, respectively) gathers for a meal near the family farm north of Nashua.

3. Quick to eat. If your hubby is like back to seeding, harvesting or whatever mine, he wants to eat quickly and then get activity dinner is interrupting. So, a meal he can quickly get onto his plate and then into his mouth is best. He won't want to wait For Sale At Private Treaty around for a perfectly-plated meal. Not that Performance Tested that happens on a good day, but you know what I mean. That leads to the next point.

4. Easily dished up. If you’re bringing Black & Red (mostly black) — Polled the parts of a meal in their own dishes, it needs to be food that is easily utilized in a Yearlings & Two Year Olds buffet-like manner. Also, consider meals that —Satisfaction & Calving Ease Guaranteed— only utilize one type of dish to eat from.

For example, if you are having chili and cornbread, people can make do with just a Dale & Cindy Andersen Cell: 765-7836 bowl. But, if you decide to add a salad to 765-7834 Reserve, Montana the meal, you might have to offer bowls and plates, which increases the dishes that need to be cleaned or taken care of. If you only offer bowls, then they’d have to choose one thing first, then go back for the second item, which would increase the time it takes folks to get through dinner.

5. Easy to transport. Hopefully you don’t have to transport too far, but you’ll likely have to transfer a ways or you wouldn’t be reading this. Speaking from experience, ensure that whatever dish you choose to transport items in is deep enough that nothing sloshes, jiggles or tips out.

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been asked in Rural Sister’s Community is how to keep bread from getting soggy during the kitchen to plate trek. Ultimately, the general consensus was that choosing the right type of bread and grilling or toasting it will help decrease the likelihood of the bread getting soggy. In this situation, I prefer to take the meal with the bread separate, then add the filling at the field. It’s an added step, but one that doesn’t take a ton of time.

Especially if it’s something like pulled pork or sloppy joes, etc. If it’s a nice cold-cut type sandwich, I’d leave out the pickles and tomatoes and other ingredients that make it more soggy and offer those on the side.

7. Easily put-together in a short amount of time. Timing is everything - in life and with meals. Time management is at the top of my priority list during our busiest seasons. That doesn’t necessarily mean it happens, but when I can manage my time more efficiently the whole day goes better.

Many of us leave one activity to put together a meal, just to have to go back to the original task after the meal is done. The quicker a meal can be put together, or a meal that can be made ahead of time, and made with the least amount of steps necessary, the better. Think: crock pot, oven, one-pot type meals here.

8. Won’t leave you with an entire kitchen full of dirty dishes. The last thing I want to do is come home right before bedtime and deal with all the dishes from the wonderfully filling meal I prepared.

I certainly don’t want to then leave them overnight into the morning, because who knows what will come up the next morning and before you know it, there are no forks to be found. Grrr. Consider using disposable plates and utensils to help decrease dishes, but to me, that always feels like throwing money away. So, we’ve decided on a happy medium of using sturdy paper plates, and using our usual forks, spoons and knives.

When I get back to the house, the clean up includes utensils, the cookware the meal was in, and putting away any condiments that I took along. That’s not too bad, especially if you have a dishwasher.

Bonus #9: When all else fails, cook a frozen pizza - or two or three. I tell you what, as long as you have enough pizza to fill everyone’s belly, no one will complain.

If they do, just tell them they get to do meal planning, prep and transport tomorrow.

Now, I know not all of these qualities can be met with every meal, but I think we can all agree that these are the qualities of meals that work best when transporting them to the field.

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SEAN R. HEAVEY / FOR FARM & RANCH

Spring weather is often impetuous and impressive. This shot was taken northeast of Glasgow last April (2015).

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MIDDLE: This pair was photographed March 26 not far from Hinsdale on the South Bench hills. BELOW: A longhorn mama and calf, also taken near Hinsdale.

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Glasgow Stockyards, Inc. Serving AreA ✯ 2016 LiveStock ProducerS Spring / Summer For 70 YeArS! Schedule 1946 - 2016 May – June – July

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5 12 SEAN R. HEAVEY / FOR FARM & RANCH

This striking image was captured near Glasgow (as was this month's cover image).

Everyone Knows It's Windy Dabbling in Weather Writing for the Courier

GINEVRA KIRKLAND FOR FARM & RANCH Recently, a farmer stopped by the Courier office in Glasgow and asked why the weather report had changed. In response, editor James Walling has tasked me with providing some additional detail to assist the agriculturally inclined get a better feeling for what the sky has in store for us each week.

Fair warning: I have no formal training in this. And my approach to writing about the subject is different. As the weather grows more unpredictable, I watch for frost dates, light duration, precipitation, and something about what to expect from temperatures.

This long-range weather forecast will be based on information from trusted scientific resources and references, along with a good dose of old-fashioned common sense and hopefully a little assistance from Tanja Fransen & Co. at the National Weather Service in Glasgow.

Sources for my information are the U.S. Farm Report, the Agricultural Weather Information Service, Skybit, Ag Web, and The Old Farmer’s Almanac. The Almanac is our nation’s longest-running printed periodical, started in 1792, and yet still

correctly predicted our recent snow within two days.

I’ve been listening to farming weather reports since I was a kid mucking the stalls and collecting eggs at the neighbors’ small farm. Day-long trail rides into the state park on a dusty, retired Thoroughbred meant a feeling in your bones for summer thunderstorms.

My dad had a field notebook with the important weather events of each passing season. One of my fonder memories is of sitting with field guides to birds, snakes, spiders, and all the other creepy crawlies of the South, and learning about the kind of weather would bring them out or send them scurrying back out of sight.

In this column, I plan to share a monthly and 90-day outlook, along with weatherrelated information I think is interesting and helpful as a gardener and a weather nerd.

As a transplant to the area, I’m bound to make cartographical or vocabulary errors.

Please send me a note to let me know what I’ve missed, what you could do without, and anything in between.

To contact Ginevra with feedback, write to courier@nemont.net with the subject line: Writing the Weather.

19 26 Thursday

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YOU’RE READING HI-LINE FARM & RANCH – THE AG MONTHLY FOR NORTHEAST & NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA

MARY KATE TESKE / FOR FARM & RANCH

A trio of curious cows investigate Billings-based photographer Mary Kate Teske as she shoots on her family's property in Terry, Montana, this past March.

Shooting from the Hip(ster) A Terry Photographer Plans a Road Trip to the Coast JAMES WALLING FARM & RANCH Hailing from the Portland (OR) metro area, as I do, it's not everyday that you come across young photographers from rural Montana. Before relocating to Glasgow to take over the Courier, I met Mary Kate Teske working at a favorite restaurant of mine in the city and instantly took a liking to both her and her work.

The 22 year-old photographer is currently living in Billings, but traces her roots to Terry, where her family's homestead is located.

In a forthcoming opinion column for the Courier, Teske explains her reasons of relocating: "I moved to Portland when I was nineteen. I had never visited, and never lived on my own, but I saved enough money to leave, so I did."

Asked why she gravitated back to this region, she states:

"My heart missed home. I missed the open fields, the sagebrush and the cottonwood trees."

She is currently enrolled in the PreEngineering department at MSU-Billings and works at The Divide Bar and Grill.

Being an avid hiker, rock climber, photographer, and driver she plans to travel across the west coast this summer reaching destinations ranging from Glacier National Park to Yosemite all the way through to the Grand Canyon.

Teske's main form of transportation will be her 1961 Dodge Lancer named Frank. She plans to document her travels through photographs and video and will be posting about her adventures along the way on Instagram and YouTube with the hashtag #followfrank.

To contact Teske regarding her work, visit facebook.com/teskephotography. To donate to her GoFundMe campaign, visit gofundme.com/travelwithmk.

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arch 2015 ay 2015 arch 2015

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12 12 May May2016 2016

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te from Around Around the the State State te FFA FFA Conventions Conventions Draws Draws Students Students from

FOR THE HI-LINE FARM & RANCH FOR THE HI-LINE FARM & RANCH

n,n,Brett BrettJohnson, Johnson,Dallas DallasCapdeville, Capdeville,Kyle KyleAlbus, Albus,Wyatt WyattPattison Pattisonand andAdvisor Advisor Patti Patti Armbrister Armbrister at at enstion in Billings. venstion in Billings.

WYATT WYATTPATTISON PATTISON HINSDALE HINSDALECHAPTER CHAPTERREPORTER REPORTER

e(Future (FutureFarmers FarmersofofAmerican) American)FFA FFAConvention Conventionwas washeld held in in Billings Billings on on March March 25 25 -- 28.

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FFA members from around the state gathered to compete in State CDEs, ranging FFA members from around the state gathered to compete in State CDEs, ranging from from oopublic publicspeaking. speaking. bers mbersofofthe theHinsdale Hinsdalechapter, chapter,including includingSophomore SophomoreCache CacheYounkin, Younkin,competed competed in in mechanmechany, farm business management, star greenhand and state creed speaking.

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time save both. both. time is money, money, save time is is money,

gback backand andforth forthto toBillings Billingsminus minusthe thedrive drivejust justmakes makes g back and forth to Billings minus the drive just makes Next time, hop on one of our fast, daily flights Next time, hop on one of our fast, daily flightsand and Next time, hop on one of our fast, daily flights and efreshed. refreshed.Enjoy Enjoythe theride. ride. refreshed. Enjoy the ride.

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Creed third place place winner winner and and greenhand greenhandsecond secondplace placewinner winnerMickayla MickaylaJohnson Johnsonaccepting acceptingan anaward awardatatthe the Creed third state convention in Billings. state convention in Billings. competing they went went to to various various workshops workshopspresented presentedby bypast paststate stateofficers officersand andeven evennational nationalofficers. officers. competing they Three of our younger members, Elise Strommen, Chaykota Christensen and Halle Beil Three of our younger members, Elise Strommen, Chaykota Christensen and Halle Beil served on the courtesy corp and helped out with contests whenever needed.

Our five seserved on the courtesy corp and helped out with contests whenever needed. Our five seniors, Lukas Johnson, Brett Johnson, Dallas Capdeville, Kyle Albus and Wyatt Pattiniors, Lukas Johnson, Brett Johnson, Dallas Capdeville, Kyle Albus and Wyatt Pattison were awarded awarded their their State State Farmer Farmer Degrees Degrees at at the the State State Degree Degree dinner dinner on on Friday Fridaynight. night. son were There were over 500 members, advisors and their families attending that dinner.

Mickayla Johnson There were over 500 members, advisors and their families attending that dinner. Mickayla Johnson competed for star star greenhand greenhand and and received receivedsecond secondplace. place.She Shealso alsocompeted competedwith withother othercreed creedspeakers speakers competed for from around the state and received third. from around the state and received third.

PUTTING IN SOME DAM DAM WORK WORK

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MARY KATE TESKE / FOR FARM & RANCH

TOP: A lone horse poses near Terry, Montana, in October of 2015. BOTTOM: Photographer Mary Kate Teske snaps a portrait of Amanda Teske at their family farm (same location).

To read more Mary Kate and her ANDREW MCKEAN FOR THEabout HI-LINE FARM RANCH ANDREW MCKEAN / /FOR THE HI-LINE FARM &&RANCH plans for a Iris photojournalistic roadwork trip toon the west coast, SHOOTING on Page 11.

Lih-An Yang, Ellis McKean McKean work on clearing outasee abeaver beaver damFROM alongTHE theHIP(STER) LittleBrazil Brazil Creek, Merlin, and Ellis clearing out dam along the Little Creek,

southwest of Glasgow.

Bulls Stay Steady Bulls Stay Steady Writing the Weather

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