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MOISTURE NEEDED across North Dakota
Submitted Photo
JANUARY 2021
Severe drought over much of state By KIM FUNDINGSLAND
Staff Writer kfundingsland@minotdailynews Dry conditions during the winter season are not particularly unusual in North Dakota, where winter snowfall is relied upon to replenish soil moisture. So far this winter though, snowfall has been very minimal. The lack of snow cover, following a year of much less than average precipitation, becomes more concerning as the days become longer. Without an ample snowpack to melt and soak into the soil the reversal of dry conditions heading into spring becomes dependant on sufficient rainfall. The U.S. Drought Monitor rates 62% of the state as being in “severe” drought. The designation includes all of Ward and surrounding counties. Precipitation in 2020, or rather the lack of it, became an issue mostly after the crop was in the bin last fall. Good spring soil moisture, courtesy of a very wet fall in 2019, and some timely rainfall, resulted in generally good crops throughout the state. Conditions now, however, are very different from a year ago. Rainfall in 2020 was far short of the long term norm almost everywhere in the state. At the North Central Research and Extension Center south of Minot the yearly precipitation total, a combination of melted
snowfall and rain, tallied 11.80 inches, much less than usual. The numbers from the National Weather Service reporting station at the Minot International Airport are equally telling at 10.94 inches, or 6.25 inches less than the 116 year average. Will the trend continue into the spring planting season? It’s possible. Meteorologists say an indicator of a lengthy drought period can be less than usual precipitation for a period of several months, which certainly was the case in 2019. December finished off 2020 with a mere 0.22 inch of precipitation recorded at the Extension Center, the least since 1936. While that fact may raise a few eyebrows, it must be noted that normal precipitation in December is 0.38 inches. December records range from a high of 2.78 inches in 2009 to a “trace” in 1905 and 1913. Another indicator of current dry conditions can be found in the water level of lakes, rivers and potholes, all of which are in decline over most of the state. Spring snowmelt is the primary source of replenishment, meaning snow conditions will have to change significantly before temperatures begin to warm in March and April if that is to be realized. Spring rainfall can also be a savior for dry soil conditions. An inch or so of soaking rain over a wide area would go a long ways toward relieving drought conditions and providing a good boost for spring planting.
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JANUARY 2021
Inside
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JANUARY 2021
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PAGE 5
Kim and Phil Newman stand at the retail counter in their shop, Mema’s Meats, Jan. 11.
Photo by Jill Schramm/MDN
Mema’s Meats opens in Berthold
Butcher shop helps fill need in ND By JILL SCHRAMM
Senior Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.com
BERTHOLD – A new butcher shop has been booking quickly since it recently opened in Berthold. Owners Phil and Kim Newman knew before they entered the business that the demand for meat processing was there, particularly after hearing other butcher shop owners say, “We need help in this industry.” Located at 28525 86th Ave. NW at Berthold, Mema’s Meats began butchering its first animals Dec. 22. Phil Newman said the plant should be able to process up to 25 beef a week, plus some pigs. Although interested in processing deer for hunters, whether the plant will take deer this fall will depend on whether it has capacity for that additional work. The shop can be contacted at 453-3401. See MEATS — Page 6
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Meats
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Jill Schramm/MDN
Employees cut beef in the processing area of Mema’s Meats Jan. 11. Continued from Page 5
Newman said his family has preferred getting their beef and pork from butchers for nearly 18 years. “Keeping a freezer full of meat was pretty important to us, and I just found that homegrown beef is way better than the stuff that you get at the store,” he said. “So I tried to take my perspective as a customer and my experiences and incorporate that into how we were going to conduct business here.” Among consumer-friendly measures include vacuum sealing meat and stamping packages with the customer’s name, date of processing and package weight. The shop also is designed to allow customers to back their vehicles into an indoor area to load their meat from the freezer. The shop has an observation window to enable people to view their animals on the killing floor. FFA, 4-H or other groups can bring young people for tours to gain an understanding of the butchering process and scout a potential career. Among his previous endeavors, Phil Newman worked in the copper mining and insurance industries and for a hot tub company in Utah. He worked in the oil and gas industry there, which led to his eventual relocation to the Minot area. He was a manager in an oil-field water and crude oil trucking company, later starting his own oilfield equipment trucking company. He built a shop for his trucking company at Berthold, moving in during September 2019 in anticipation that 2020 would be one of the biggest years he ever had. “By the middle of February, it was very
“Number one,” Newman had replied, “all my kids and my grandkids live in North Dakota now. They’ve all followed me up here from Utah. Over the course of 10 years, this has become home to us. “We were just looking for something that we could do that would be sustainable here in North Dakota that is a need, to be of service to the community and something that we can carry on through generations that will be, hopefully, building a legacy for my family,” he added. The business has hired several employees, both family members and nonfamily members from the community. “Mema” comes from the name the grandchildren call Kim Newman. “We want the butcher shop to have a certain family-oriented feel,” Newman said. “You spend the majority of your time at work. When you are there, I want it to be a welcoming place for my employees as well as my customers. I don’t want to go halfway on everything. I want to create almost an experience when you come in.” The Newmans created their retail space to feel like North Dakota. Reclaimed oak and tin from a former machine building were used in the furnishings to give it a rustic yet home-like look. Mema’s Meats is located in Newman’s remodeled and expanded trucking building. The plant has multiple coolers for various stages of the meat preparation and they expect to be adding a smokehouse be-
JANUARY 2021 fore long. The plant is state inspected. Newman explains USDA-inspected plants are able to sell across state lines, but his business plan isn’t to service that large a market area. “That’s not my niche. I really just want to serve the local community and develop the relationships around here and help give those farmers and ranchers a place that they can get their animals processed,” Newman said. He also wants to build relationships to purchase quality beef directly from ranches to sell through his retail outlet. “Prior to coming to North Dakota, I used to do Dutch oven cooking contests. So, I enjoy coming up with new recipes and coming up with flavor combinations and trying and testing things. So this fits,” he said. Part of his vision is to someday offer samples and recipes and maybe even a cookbook. He sources his sausage seasonings from a Greek family-owned business in Utah because of the products’ taste and quality. “I’ve always enjoyed time in the kitchen and I’m serious about my food. That’s how we like to keep it around here. I want people to have the confidence that when they bring their animals here, they’re going to get back quality products. If they come to shop at a retail store, they know that what they take home is going to be some of the best quality they can get and, hopefully, it’s going to be North Dakota raised,” he said.
apparent that was not going to be the case,” Newman said. “I’m like, ‘Now what am I going to do?’” During one of his trucking trips, he and an employee began seriously talking about starting a butcher shop. “I had seven pigs that I raised at my house, and I couldn’t get kill dates on them,” he said. “I had cows, and everybody at that point in time, they were starting to book a year out, and I could see the need in the community to have additional capacity for processing animals.” He spent about two months traveling to visit other slaughter plants in the state. He also visited plants in Utah during a family trip there. “I just spent a ton of time trying to do the research on it so I could put this together as efficiently as possible,” Newman said. “I had hired a consultant to help me put together a spreadsheet to find out – ‘Was this going to be financially viable? Could we make it if we were going to do it?’ I figured we could, but I figured we were going to have to go pretty big if we were going to do it.” Newman has some farm-related experience with butchering, and his son-in-law who works for the business has prior experience with a Kansas packing plant. The Newmans also invited friends from Montana, who retired after successfully operating a butcher shop for many years, to help Mema’s Meats get started. In addition, the meat processing industry in the state is a welcoming group, with butcher shop owners eager to help and encourage the new person, Newman said. The consultant who helped him develop Jill Schramm/MDN a business plan asked why he wanted to Phil Newman demonstrates a cattle chute at Mema’s Meats Jan. 11. open a butcher shop.
JANUARY 2021
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PAGE 7 Submitted Photo
An overview of Minot’s intermodal facility shows containers available to carry products to a Seattle port for export.
By JILL SCHRAMM
Intermodal up and running Minot’s new intermodal facility sees activity
Senior Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.com Containerized products are shipping almost weekly from Minot’s new intermodal rail facility. “Since the opening and the day we made the announcement, there have been nine trains that traveled from Minot to Seattle, carrying North Dakota commodities to the Pacific Coast,” John MacMartin, president of the Minot Area Chamber Economic Development Corp., said Jan. 13. The first shipping containers arrived at Minot’s intermodal operation Oct. 14. Rail Modal Group Minot operates the intermodal rail service in cooperation with BNSF Railway in the industrial park in east Minot. Also in cooperation with BNSF, RMG operates two other intermodal ramps in Fremont, Nebraska, and Amarillo, Texas. The state has worked for about two decades to gain access to intermodal service to reduce shipping costs for agricultural producers and other industries. The process of bringing intermodal to Minot was a collaborative effort of a See INTERMODAL — Page 9
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JANUARY 2021
JANUARY 2021 Submitted Photo
A container is moved for loading onto a unit train at the intermodal facility in Minot.
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Intermodal
PAGE 9
Continued from Page 7
number of groups. Among them were the governor’s office, congressional delegation, legislators from across the state, the North Dakota Trade Office, North Dakota departments of Commerce, Transportation and Agriculture, Bank of North Dakota, private industry and financial institutions, BNSF and the Northwest Seaport Alliance. The proximity of the Minot facility for regional customers means significant savings on trucking to more distant intermodal facilities in places such as Minneapolis or Regina and Winnipeg in Canada. Having greater accessibility to rail transport also takes trucks off the road, making it more environmentally friendly. Since the intermodal service start-up and completion of training, the port has shipped almost a train a week of around 220 to 230 containers, MacMartin said. The port loads Monday through Friday and occasionally weekends, with trucks often lined up to offload products. Typically, trains depart on a Friday, MacMartin said. “They’re busy loading containers and having shipments of products come in, and those shipments of products come in from individual producers. It comes in from area elevators,” he said. Also, dried distillers grain from Blue Flint Ethanol near Underwood, and AGT Foods in Minot’s agricultural park are major users of the service. MacMartin said ADM is looking at shipping canola meal from its plant near Velva. “There’s a variety of products coming from a variety of locations. And at this point, most of it’s been agricultural,” he said. Products are shipped in containers that preserve the identity of the products, which is valuable for exporters and the foreign buyers. Products can be shipped from a specific seller to a specific buyer. Each container also can be tracked by serial number. “That manifest of the train that RMG is required to provide to the railroad and to the steamship operator will tell them exactly where that container is on the train and what’s inside the container,” MacMartin said. The intermodal facility has close to 20 employees, he said, estimating growth to more than 30 employees eventually. “If we can be at a train week – solidly a train a week – that’s a huge accomplishment, and whether or not we can increase beyond that at this particular juncture is unknown,” MacMartin said. RMG sends two trains a week from its Nebraska operation and one a week from the Texas operation, all to Pacific Coast ports in California.
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PAGE 12
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By ELOISE OGDEN
Submitted Photo
The winter of 2020-2021 has been very mild and a good one for livestock. Photo by Paige Brummund.
Brummund: Warm winters good for caring for livestock
JANUARY 2021
Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com Warm winters are always appreciated when caring for livestock, says Paige Brummund, Agriculture and Natural Resources extension agent with NDSU Extension Service-Ward County. “The cattle are more comfortable and they gain a higher body condition score with less feed,” Brummund said. Brummund, responding to questions from The Minot Daily News, said there are no real problems with the above average temperatures this winter. “Maybe in a snowy year it would be a nuisance to have the snow melting and refreezing causing icy conditions, but that is not a concern this winter. Extreme temperature swings can be stressful to livestock, but we have had steady above average temps so we just haven’t seen any troubles with the warmer weather switching abruptly to subzero temperatures. I guess there is one concern…sometimes with warm, snow free
Brummund
See CATTLE — Page 15
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JANUARY 2021
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JANUARY 2021
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JANUARY 2021
Cattle
PAGE 15
The winter of 2020-2021 has been very mild and a good one for livestock. Photo by Paige Brummund. Continued from Page 12
winters we are tempted to leave cattle out grazing longer than we should. Remember that spring calving cows are now in their last trimester of gestation and require additional energy (at least 60% total digestible nutrients) and protein (at least 9% crude protein). Be sure to be checking the body condition of your cattle regularly and work with Extension, your veterinarian, or a nutritionist to be sure you are meeting their nutritional needs,” she said.
Brummund said she’s not certain how long it has been since there’s been such a nice winter for cattle owners. “I haven’t heard anyone refer back to another year,” Brummund said, adding, “I do know that we are not only warmer this winter, but also very dry. We are in a moderate drought in this part of the state, and while it is more unusual to be in a drought in the middle of the winter, it is not unheard of. We had the highest drought rating in the month of December since 2003. As for if hay supplies are holding out for cattle owners, Brummund said, “There were some
people who ended the growing season with around 50% less hay production than normal due to the dry summer. However, others were able to get more amounts of hay put up because the weather was dry enough to allow more ideal days for cutting and baling hay. It didn’t take long this year to get hay dry enough to bale. Most of the hay this year was good to excellent quality, and that helps. Also having these warmer temperature is easier of the feed supplies. Livestock require higher energy feeds and more quantity of feed when we experience low temperatures and wind chills. When temperatures are
below 5 degrees, cattle consume up to 25% more feed.” In regard to hay, she also said, “I think the hay is out there, but people are considering keeping their extra and carrying it over for next year in anticipation that there will be hay shortages next year if we do not get spring rain. When I look around, there are quite a few ‘hay for sale’ ads with hay priced fairly. The trucking costs adds up though if it is not close to you. Hay doesn’t store great from year to year so while it’s good to look ahead and maybe consider carrying some hay over, keeping too much around will end up with much more of it
Submitted Photo
going to waste.” Dan Erdmann, program manager for Farm Rescue, said, “We really haven’t had many requests for livestock feeding or haying assistance as of late, but I know it was a pretty dry year for many ranchers (especially in the western part of the state). We did assist with several haying cases this summer/fall, as well as a recent hay hauling case, but those were the result of injury or illness. We’re always taking applications from folks who may need a helping hand as a result of injury, illness or natural disaster.” See CATTLE — Page 17
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JANUARY 2021
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JANUARY 2021
PAGE 17
Continued from Page 15
Farm Rescue, based in Horace, is a nonprofit organization to help farmers and ranchers who have experienced a major illness, injury or natural disaster by providing the necessary equipment and manpower to plant, hay or harvest their crop. Livestock feeding assistance is also available to ranchers. The organization helps farm and ranch families in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas. For more information and for applications visit farmrescue.org. If there isn’t much snow this winter, Brummund responded to what is forecasted to be ahead for cattle owners. “The entire state is experiencing some type of a drought currently,” Brummund said. “Even if we get some snow, we will need
Submitted Photo
The winter of 2020-2021 has been very mild and a good one for livestock. Photo by Paige Brummund. timely spring rains to replenish soil moisture to provide for pasture growth and hay production in 2021. There isn’t much moisture present
in snow, and the little that is there typically runs off in the spring melt while the ground is still frozen. This helps to recharge dugouts, streams,
and sloughs; but does not provide enough moisture to recharge the soil. Timely spring and summer rain will be essential to pull us out of
49
drought conditions.” She offered some advice to cattle owners: She said producers should always have a drought mitigation plan in place to help them make decisions in case it stays dry through 2021. “Some things to start thinking about are marketing plans, sourcing and pricing next year’s feed, managing drought-stressed pastures, managing poor quality water sources, culling priorities, early weaning strategies, and the animal health issues that are more prevalent in times of drought,” Brummund said. She said drought resources from NDSU get posted at: www.ag.ndsu.edu/drought. “NDSU Extension will be having some meetings to help producers work through their drought plans,” she said. It should be a great winter/spring for calving if we
We really haven’t had many requests for livestock feeding or haying assistance as of late, but I know it was a pretty dry year for many ranchers (especially in the western part of the state).
— Paige Brummund
don’t get a lot of snow. The majority of cattle calve in the spring in this region, time will tell what the weather will bring. We hope for warm, dry conditions for calving season as well, yet need some spring rains.
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JANUARY 2021
Rising grain market cause for optimism By KIM FUNDINGSLAND
Staff Writer kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com
Soybeans, spring wheat lead change
Grain markets have been trending upward recently, especially soybeans and spring wheat. “On January 8, 2020 spring wheat was at $4.98 cash,” said Jeremy Burkhart, multi-commodities and project manager at CHS SunPrairie of Minot, earlier this month. “Today it was 5.47.” Wheat futures are at their highest prices in nearly six years, spurred somewhat by a growing concern about dry weather over much of the United States and Russia. “We’ve been buying spring wheat like crazy,” said Burkhart. “It’s dry down south, terrible. We’ll know more once the winter wheat crop breaks dormancy.” While improved prices for spring wheat is good news for producers, even more good news continues to come out of the soybean market. “That’s the big one,” remarked Burkhart. “Soybeans a year ago were at 8.24 and the latest this year they were at 12.94. A tight supply runs the market up. We’re trying to ship them to the West Coast before the program ends out there. We use the same bins for soybeans as we do for wheat.” According to the publication Ag Week, the rally in the grain markets in late 2020 is expected to continue at least thought the early part of this year. Much of the activity has been led by the sale of soybeans to China which hit 1.17 million bushels in late December. Speculation is that dry conditions in Argentina and Brazil will lead to a later soybean crop there, potentially opening the door for additional U.S. sales in February.
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MARCH 2021
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JANUARY 2021