Inside Ag July 2019

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JULY 2019

Herb farm fills niche

MAIN: Holly Mawby stands July 3 in her high tunnel, where she is growing basil and rosemary, at gardendwellers FARM. RIGHT INSET: Mint grows in the gardendwellers FARM herb garden.

Photos by Jill Schramm/MDN

gardendwellers FARM plans entry into freeze-dried market

By JILL SCHRAMM

Senior Staff Writer * jschramm@minotdailynews.com ESMOND – A new freeze-drying operation is spicing up the marketing strategy of a North Dakota herb farm.

This past spring, gardendwellers FARM near Esmond received a grant from the state Agricultural Products Utilization Commission to purchase a freeze dryer that will enable the business to preserve herbs and extend its season year-round.

“We have always focused, from the beginning, on fresh because I feel that’s where the flavor and quality are,” said Holly Mawby, who has operated the herb farm with her husband, Barry, for six years at the present location. They had started the operation near Devils Lake in 2002 and have sold wholesale to retailers and directly to consumers, including at farmers markets.

The Mawbys did their research before settling on freeze-

drying as the best method to preserve flavor and quality to compete with fresh.

Their efforts this year, in addition to direct sales to consumers, are going into freeze drying herbs and creating herb blends that will be sold this fall and winter. Freeze drying creates a shelf life of 25 years.

“We will start small so, again, we can wrap our heads around the marketing,” Mawby said. “We probably will start small at trade shows and craft shows. But the hope is to get back into that wholesale market eventually. It’s also a product that you can sell online, which we could never do before.”

She explained gardendwellers has shipped fresh product around the country but shipping must be overnight, which is too expensive for general sales. It also is a considerable drive from the farm to an overnight shipping point.

See HERB — Page 4

JULY 2019

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Herb

Continued from Page 2

Having freeze-dried herbs also means agri-tourists who visit gardendwellers will be able to take home a souvenir, which seldom was feasible with fresh herbs.

“Our first focus is get those tourists and visitors something in their hands to leave with,” Mawby said. “But we have to get a handle on it and make sure we have the quality and the packaging where we want it to be.”

Mawby, who is director of the entrepreneurship center for horticulture at Dakota College at Bottineau, offers other specialty crop growers the benefits of her first-hand experience in production.

“I have been in horticulture all my life,” Mawby said.

“We lived in southern Minnesota for a long time. When we moved back to North Dakota, I got a job working with small businesses at Lake Region State College, but I knew that I needed to keep my fingers in the dirt and needed to keep growing things. An herb garden was one of my first gardens.”

The Mawbys noticed no one in North Dakota selling herbs on a significant scale at that time. They also liked the idea of herbs because they both worked full-time, and herbs were less demanding

Jill Schramm/MDN

A row of cilantro will be harvested for sale and for a new freeze-drying operation at gardendwellers FARM. than some produce in the sense they can go an extra day or two and still have quality if they can’t be harvested right away.

When they started, the in-

terest in locally grown foods hadn’t yet exploded.

“So we had to do a lot of education on how to use and preserve them,” Mawby said of their farm-grown herbs.

Within several years, a shift came that was prompted by what people were seeing in the media. Herbs were showing up more in recipes, she said.

“The education part was being done by others. It was being done by the media and magazines. So we didn’t have to do that quite as much.

There are still herbs that people aren’t familiar with, that we have to do a little educating of consumers on. We find we also have to do a lot of education still on how to preserve,” Mawby said.

Gardendwellers grows up to 20 varieties of herbs every year, including new, less familiar herbs every year to give customers something different to try. Varieties of mint, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, dill or basil are among the regular herbs on the farm.

For nine years, gardendwellers was engaged in wholesale marketing, selling to 19 restaurants and 10 groceries and processing more than 10,000 packages of herbs. Last year, gardendwellers discontinued wholesale due to the cost increases in packaging and distributing.

“We would have had to raise our prices. We no longer would have been competitive,” Mawby said.

Last year, the company returned to farmers markets.

In addition to learning how

JULY 2019 to educate consumers and preserve product to extend sales, the Mawbys have come to understand the need to watch the market. Mawby recalled taking mint to a farmers market and seeing little interest. Then one day, the mint sold out quickly.

“At the time Bacardi was doing a big push for mojitos.

Fresh mint was in every one of them,” she said. “All of a sudden we are selling out of mint. So we learned we really have to watch the national and regional marketing that’s around us because that really affects what we do.”

Later, when they began seeing advertising for stevia sweeteners, they upped their planting of the herb the next spring.

“We are capitalizing on the marketing of others by being able to have this product available,” Mawby said.

“That’s probably the biggest thing is knowing where to watch so we can react to the market appropriately.

“We are very conscientious about trying to grow everything sustainably and although we are not organic certified, we do follow organic practices. The way we have it set up, we only have to use half our production field at a time to produce everything we need. You can put out a whole lot of herbs in not a lot of space,” she said.

At gardendwellers, half

the crop ground is seeded to herbs each year and half to cover. The plots are swapped the following year. To maintain crop quality, herb plantings are rotated within the field. Planting happens throughout the season, ensuring fresh plants to replace older plants.

“We harvest so hard and work those plants so hard,” Mawby said. “You start to lose quality when the plant has to work that hard to grow and come back from being cut back so many times. It starts to get tough or lose flavor or it just doesn’t look as nice. We succession plant to make sure that we always have that nice looking, fresh growth.”

A high tunnel enables gardendwellers to extend the season of less frost-tolerant herbs.

Food safety is also a priority. Although exempt from federal rules for larger farms, gardendwellers does follow the safety and sanitation procedures, and its processing facility is state-inspected, Mawby said.

That focus on food safety carries over to the new fooddrying process, which will get under way soon. The first harvest that typically happens in early July was somewhat delayed by the weather, but once started, the Mawbys expect to be cutting and preserving herbs until well into the fall.

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JULY 2019

BEE KEEPING is exciting, addictive Nissens operate Five Star Honey Farms

INSIDE AG

By ANDREA JOHNSON

Staff Writer ajohnson@minotdailynews.com Bee keeping is a family affair for the Nissens, owners of Five Star Honey Farms in northeast Minot.

Will Nissen said he started beekeeping in 1978 and he and his wife, Peggy Nissen, launched Five Star Honey Farms in 1998.

Their three grown sons, Matt, Levi, and Evan Nissen have joined the family business and a 16-yearold grandson is receiving on the job training by helping out with the operation, which has expanded.

“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have what we have,” said Peggy Nissen.

Five Star Honey Farms is a member of the Sioux Honey Association Co-Op, an American cooperative that markets Sue Bee Clover Honey and other varieties.

“North Dakota is the number one tabletop (honey) producer in the nation,” said Will Nissen.

Nissen estimated that there are more than 200 registered bee keeping operations in the state and more than 700,000 bee colonies.

Like most other operations in North Dakota, the Nissens spend their winters in California, where they

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also have a farm, and the spring and the summer in North Dakota.

In California, producers pay for bees to pollinate crops such as almonds, blueberries and cherries.

In North Dakota, the bees fly over the fields in 300 locations across nine counties in search of nectar.

Then the bees – and the Nissens and their employees – will be hard at work producing honey that will eventually make its way to the table.

Bee keepers have run into some challenges in past years.

Will Nissen said that honey prices are down, which is hurting bee keepers. Tariffs are not likely to have much impact on bee keepers, as the United States has never produced enough honey to meet all the demand for the sweet spread. Tariffs on Chinese made honey meant that more honey is being imported from countries such as Vietnam. Americangrown honey is often blended with honey from other sources to create the table top honey.

Nissen also said that bee keepers are worried about parasites such as mites that attack bees. The Nissens, like other bee keepers, must use Food and Drug Administration approved chemical strips to treat bee hives for mites.

See BEES — Page 7

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JULY 2019

A Minnesota robotic dairy survives amid trade war LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — On a dairy farm in rural Eyota, Minnesota, a day-old calf wobbled up to a robotic feeding stall. An RFID reader scanned the tag clipped to the calf’s ear and measured the amount of milk allotted to the baby as she drank from the feeder.

In just a generation or two, farmers have embraced hightech advances in their fields and barns.

But those advances led to a sharp increase in production in the midst of a trade war with two of the U.S.’s largest dairy export markets. That has left many American farms awash with excess product with no one to sell it to. But the economy of scale has kept some larger dairy producers afloat.

“There’s been a crazy amount of technology added to farming,” said Dana AllenTully, a manager and operator of the multigenerational GarLin Dairy Farms Inc. “We can access our cow files on our phone, I can look up a specific cow on my phone, or I can see what the feeders are doing on my phone.”

The automatic feeders allow calves to have multiple, smaller meals throughout the day to mirror the feeding schedule they would have if they were out in the pasture with their moms.

Each calf is fitted with an ear tag shortly after it’s born that has an identification code, similar to a Social Security number, that can be scanned by the automatic feeder when the baby approaches the milk distribution stall, according to the La Crosse Tribune.

Information associated with that code, such as how much a calf should eat and when it should eat, is transmitted to the feeder and governs the flow of milk through the dispenser.

Data from robotic feeders is fed back to a handheld device, where supervisors can monitor how much the calves drink and how fast.

“Calf feeding is by far one of

AP Photo

A baby cow with an RFID tag on the inside of her ear checks out visitors to the calf barn at Gar-Lin Dairy Farms in Eyota, Minn.

the hardest jobs on the farm because it’s so physical. You’re dealing with a calf that weighs 100 pounds and you’ve got to lift it and work with it, so this was built to improve the environment for the employees too,” Allen-Tully said.

Gar-Lin is an efficient operation. It pasteurizes waste milk to feed to calves, instead of dumping the milk and purchasing milk replacement, and roughly half a mile away GarLin employees harvest hay to feed their herd.

They grow their own to reduce the cost of feed and they use manure from their cows to fertilize their fields.

Of the 4,500 acres they farm, 3,100 of that goes to feed the animals.

They’ve become partially independent of external suppliers to keep their cost down and to keep in line with federal EPA regulations that apply to

dairy farms of 700 head or more. They have an on-site nutritionist who analyzes the feed and balances rations to optimize milk production as well as cow health and performance.

“Our cows eat a way better diet than I do,” Allen-Tully said, laughing.

Gar-Lin Dairy was purchased by Allen-Tully’s parents from her grandparents in the mid-1970s. At that time, they were milking about 40 cows.

Allen-Tully’s parents decided to expand the dairy, and by the time she graduated from high school, they were milking 300 cows. When Allen-Tully returned to the farm after college, her parents had doubled their herd to 600 cows.

In 2006 the herd expanded to 1,100, and from there it’s grown to the current size of 2,000 cows and 45 employees.

Allen-Tully attributed the growth as necessary to make a profit in an industry with stagnant milk prices but inflation in equipment and supply costs.

“Consolidation in the dairy industry is happening way faster than I expected it to,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll be considered a ‘big farm’ for very long, I think we’ll be average.”

She noted that the cost structure of products in the market, such as deeper discounts on supplies for producers who buy in larger bulk orders, is driving smaller farmers out of business and prompting mid-size farms to expand to survive.

“I can buy a gallon of teat dip so much cheaper than someone who uses only a gallon, because I buy 275 gallons at a time and they’re going to buy 15,” she said. “I think it’s sad.”

Gar-Lin fills three 6,000-gal-

lon tanks to be shipped per day to manufacturing and distribution facilities.

The dairy’s semi-robotic carousel in the parlor can milk up to 50 cows at a time and 270 cows in an hour. The machine monitors and records the amount of milk each animal produces, as each cow walks on and off the carousel on their own.

They send their milk to Land O’Lakes, which sells dairy products internationally through partnerships with major food manufacturers across the globe.

“I think trade has affected us, but the issues that they’re trying to fix should have been fixed a long time ago,” AllenTully said.

She hopes Congress will pass the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, noting that Mexico received more dairy products from the

United States than any other trading partner before the trade war.

“We’ve got a lot more product in the country than what we would have had before” and that additional product within the U.S. leads to the surplus that helped to drive the cost of milk down, she said.

“The ag economy is in a tough spot, so hopefully we’ll see some price recovery.”

In La Crosse, 60 miles southeast of the Gar-Lin Dairy, Dona Goede, Brad Sirianni and Aimee Schomburg, farm business management instructors at Western Technical College, sat around a table in a conference room looking over years’ worth of milk production numbers.

Each has experience with the fluctuation of the ag and dairy market. Sirianni farms 170 acres of land in Trempealeau County to supply feed to dairy farmers; Schomburg milks 130 cows and farms roughly 220 acres to feed her herd; Goede’s inlaws are getting ready to expand their organic farm into the organic dairy industry as a way to use leftover hay supplies.

Goede said her in-laws crunched the numbers and decided to invest in the kind of cattle that will produce milk high in butterfat, proteins or components that lend themselves well to cheese production.

“You need to supply the market with what it wants, and we’re in Wisconsin so it’s cheese. By jumping in on organic and the components with high butterfat, every time we do the cash flows, it works for that operation,” Goede said.

“The farms that we have struggling right now from what I see are the ones that aren’t willing to give the market what they want.”

Schomburg nodded in agreement, as her newborn daughter cooed in the background.

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Bees

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They have also noticed that chemical exposure seems to be having an effect on the bee keeping population. Years ago, a queen bee might last four or five years.

“Now it’s hard to get a year out of them before they flop,” said Will Nissen. “Or two (years).”

Peggy Nissen, who grows queen bees as a side business in California, said that a queen bee is supposed to lay about 2,000 eggs each day.

“If she doesn’t, we boot her out and put a new one in,” said Peggy Nissen.

The Nissens have also hired foreign workers who received special visas to work in the bee keeping operation. Especially during the years of the oil boom, they had trouble attracting American born workers for bee keeping, which they said can be physically hard

work that also requires travel.

The bees they use in their operation are specially bred not to be aggressive, but bee keepers still can expect to be stung.

The Nissens said they love their unique business, which people may not know much about.

“That’s one thing about bees. If you want to go into a business that’s not black and white, go into (the) bee business,” said Will Nissen. “It’s like, I suppose it would be like a gambling addict going to Vegas ...I mean, like we come up here, we throw the bees across nine counties, hoping somewhere they’ll hit a honey crop, but you know, there’s no guarantees, there’s no backup, there’s no insurance policies.

You just basically just got to stand on your own. It’s exciting.”

“It takes you awhile to learn it and to like it, but once you like it, you get addicted to it,” said Peggy Nissen.

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Study: Iowa nation’s top human, livestock waste producer DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa leads the nation in the amount of human and animal waste it produces, and the management of animal manure continues to be a pressing environmental concern, according to a University of Iowa research engineer.

Chris Jones’ study found that the state — with 3.2 million people and a total livestock population of 110 million — produces as much manure as a human population of 168 million, the Des Moines Register reported.

“Just to ensure clarity, in Iowa, we are generating as much fecal waste in every square mile as 2,979 people,” Jones wrote in a blog on the university’s website.

“For reference, Iowa City is the second most densely populated city in Iowa and has 2,775 people per square mile. So imagine an Iowa-sized Iowa

City,” he continued in the blog discussion explaining his study.

Pigs are responsible for driving Iowa to the top of the rankings, Jones found.

Jones flagged his concerns about the impact of livestock waste on water quality.

“Our statewide nitrate load has increased over the last 20 years or so, and part of that is due to an increase in the number of livestock animals that we have, especially hogs,” Jones said.

In a 2018 study , the scientist found that water in areas with more livestock contains higher levels of nitrate. The study found that nitrogen pollution flowing out of Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico grew by nearly double over almost two decades, despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent to

stop it from entering the state’s waterways.

Jones acknowledged that livestock production helps rural economies and that manure is a good fertilizer that promotes healthy soils. But manure can be difficult to manage with extreme weather, he explained. Applying manure to snow-covered fields means that the fertilizer is more likely to wash into nearby streams.

“Managing the waste from these animals is possibly our state’s most challenging environmental problem,” Jones wrote in his first blog calculating Iowa’s fecal equivalent population.

The nation’s top manure-producing states after Iowa are Delaware, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, based on waste created per square mile, the study shows.

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Crops boosted by recent rains

INSIDE AG

By KIM FUNDINGSLAND

Staff Writer kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com What a difference a day makes, especially a rainy one.

Many crops throughout the Minot area were a little slow to get growing this year.

Planting was generally a few days later than normal and soil temperatures remained less than ideal during a cool spring and early summer.

As temperatures warmed and crops began to emerge drought conditions also began to develop. However, growing concern about a potentially dry growing season quickly dissipated thanks to recent heavy rainfall over a wide area of the state. Many crops that appeared to be struggling a bit now look to be in greatly improved condition.

See CROPS — Page 10

JULY 2019

Bright fields of canola can be seen in the Minot area and elsewhere. This year’s canola crop, boosted by recent rainfall, appears to be very good in most locales.

Kim Fundingsland/MDN

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PAGE 10

Crops

Continued from Page 8

“Everything is going pretty good here. We finally got some rain, maybe an inch throughout the whole territory. It really turned things around,” said Shane Crawford, agronomist at CHS Garrison. “Early wheat may be hurting more than anything else. All in all though everything, soybeans, corn, canola, they all look pretty good.”

Crawford said peas in the Garrison area look “pretty good” too. He credits the first substantial rain of the year, which fell July 9-10, for boosting crop growth. Crawford added that crops in the Raub and Roseglen areas are maybe a little better off than those close to Garrison.

East of Minot, which also received substantial rainfall earlier this month, crops have begun to catch up to

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JULY 2019

last year when growers got into the fields earlier than usual.

“This year started out cool and dry. That set us back a little bit,” said Joel Schimke, manager, Harvey Farmers Elevator. “Now I’d say we’re about a week behind the five year average.

With the rain wheat, corn and beans all look pretty darn good. Our growing area got and inch and a half to 4 1/2 inches of rain. A little bit of crop was drowned out where they got the worst of it, but nothing major.”

Schimke rated 80-90% of the wheat crop in the Harvey region at good to excellent and 70% of the corn crop at good to excellent condition.

“Beans are a little on the short side for this time of year but are ready to take off and they will,” remarked Schimke. “Beans mature Kim Fundingsland/MDN based on the length of the Crops like this barley field west of Minot may have gotten off to a slow start but have received a big day. They are 80-90% good boost from heavy rain that has fallen throughout the region this month. to excellent as well.”

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Come see us at the JULY 19-27, 2019

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JULY 2019

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Farmers markets are open for business Minot is home to two farmers markets for shoppers to enjoy

By SHYANNE BELZER We’re all very local and lo-

cally grown,” Olson said.

Staff Writer The many vendors who sbelzer@minotdailynews.com take part sell a host of With the summer things from a variety of months well underway, a jams and jellies to different summertime favorite has fruits and vegetables. They kicked off to offer residents sell herbs, different meat of the Minot and surround- products, baked goods and ing areas a spot for fresh more.

This years Minot Farmproduce and fresh products every week. The ers Market will also feature Minot Farmers Market and Minot Daily Bread and the North Prairie Farmers Prairie Sky Breads as venMarket are open for busi- dors.

Those interested can ness.

The Minot Farmers keep up to date on the Market is open Tuesday, Minot Farmers Market and Thursday and Saturday of all their happenings on every week in Oak Park. their Facebook and InstaThey start early at 9 a.m. gram pages.

The North Prairie Farmand go until noon each day ers Market is open every with a variety of vendors Saturday at the intersecselling their products.

The Minot Farmers tion of Broadway and Market is the longest run- Third Avenue SW. They ning farmers market in open at 11 a.m. and run Minot with one vendor until 2 p.m.

The market sells a direaching their 50th or 51st year of selling, according to verse list of items from Ann Olson. All the ven- fresh and local produce to dors, new and old, come baked and canned goods to from a 100 mile radius of pottery and homemade soups and more. Each year, miles.

“Every farm or business according to Marvin Baker, is a family run vendor. the market draws out a

Shyanne Belzer/MDN

Shoppers lined up around the different vendors at the Minot Farmers Market on July 11 as they held their grand opening for their season. The market is open from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of every week through the month of October. great crowd.

The North Prairie Farmers Market was started in 2007. It started with four vendors, three who sold produce and one who sold baked goods.

“I met with the Downtown Association and they unanimously supported having a farmers market in downtown Minot. So my wife and I spent July 2007 recruiting vendors and we got started the first Saturday in August 2007 with the four of us,” said Baker.

It has expanded over the years and now offers a wide range of items.

The Minot Farmers Market and the North Submitted Photo Prairie Farmers Market are each open until the end of The North Prairie Farmers Market offers a variety of locally grown and loOctober as long as weather cally produced products. Here Peggy Walter of Cutbank Creek Produce is permits. serving consumers.

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JULY 2019

ND State Fair brings ag to Minot Air Force Base

By ELOISE OGDEN

Schoenrock wants everyone to know all about the North Dakota State Fair.

She told the Military Affairs Committee members that every year over 46,000 The State Fair brought agriculture to projects from 4-H, FFA and open class are brought to the fair to be judged.

Minot Air Force Base recently.

She said the only funding the “We are a state fair, we are State Fair receives from the the state’s largest event,” state is for premiums and Stephanie Schoenrock, MORE prizes for 4-H, FFA and the fair’s new director of INFORMATION open class. The fair also Development and Comreceives money from the For more about the munication, told memstate for special projects North Dakota State bers of the Minot Area such as the construction Chamber of ComFair visit of the new Grandstand. merce’s Military Affairs ndstatefair.com.

“Agriculture and 4-H Committee recently. and FFA are the absolute “We are close to over heart and soul of the fair so 300,000 people every year when you come out there with and it is nine days. We’ve got a your kids or whoever you are coming little bit of everything,” she added.

This year’s State Fair runs from July 19-27.

See FAIR — Page 17 Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com

Submitted Photo

Fair

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Continued from Page 16

out with we’ve got all kinds of cows, horses, sheep and pigs to see.

“We’ve got a whole barn dedicated to bunnies. We’ve got tons and tons and tons (of projects) so the funding we get from the state is actually for those projects. Every dollar we get from the state is given out in the form of prizes,” she told the group, many who are newcomers to the area.

For those who don’t show livestock, she said the fair has many other opportunities for individuals to show their work.

“We’ve got quilts, photography, baked pies,” she said, naming a few. “I can assure everyone whatever your hobby is, whatever you like to do in your free time, that we have where you can show it at the fair,” she said. She said everyone who is an exhibitor has a chance for a prize.

State Fair entertainment receives a great deal of attention, Schoenrock noted, adding, “The economic engine is our Grandstand but our heart and soul will always be agriculture and 4-H and FFA and the people of North Dakota. “ “Every night we get a lot of people in our Grandstand,” she said.

Last year over 318,000 people attended the fair with Submitted Photo

See FAIR — Page 18

Submitted Photo

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Fair

Continued from Page 17

weekends averaging 40,000-50,000 people. On weekdays it’s in the 30,000 range, she said.

The fair also has 12 free stages with various types of entertainment plus the free Fur Traders Rendezvous, she told the group.

She said one of the stages, the Dakota Talent stage, is “basically anybody who wants to get up and sing or dance… So there are a lot of ways to participate and become involved in the State Fair,” Schoenrock said.

Kids can go fishing or do other activities at the North Dakota Game and Fish Skills Park. “That is so fun to watch. The kids have a great time,” Schoenrock said, referring to kids fishing there.

To take advantage of being good community and statewide partners, Schoenrock said there will be a new free children’s area– a building just for kids to learn and explore. The new area for children is called KidSpace and is located on the west

INSIDE AG side of the fairgrounds near the Bunny Barn.

Sponsored by Xcel Energy, the State Fair has partnered with the Magic City Discovery Center, NASA Stem Ambassadors and Full STEAM Ahead with each group providing activities for different age groups and interests.

The Magic City Discovery Center will have activities relating to moon and space. NASA Stem Ambassadors will lead kids through several activities including building a mini solar system. At the Full STEAM Ahead area kids will go “Into Orbit” and learn to program a robot, work toward launching a rocket, send meteors flying or move an astronaut to safety.

“The idea is to get kids more involved in robotics with hands-on experience there,” Schoenrock said.

“This is free,” she said of the new KidSpace exploration center.

“That’s one of the buildings we have that we expect will be a highlight for the fair this year.”

“We’ve got all sorts (of activities) from the pedal pull to the hippity hop barrel race. If you’ve got kids go

JULY 2019

on our website and look at all the contests, and all the others things to see and do,” she said.

She said the fair has a number of special days including Military Day on Tuesday with free carnival rides for children of military members for two hours and a free lunch for military and their families sponsored by the North Dakota Beef Commission.

“There’s tons of free things to do once you get in.” she said.

Besides the State Fair, other events, big and small, are held at the fairgrounds throughout the year, Schoenrock said. She said the North Dakota State Fair Center has 250,000 square feet of rental space.

“It’s a very flexible space so we’ve got a little bit of everything out there,” she said. She said something is going on at the N.D. State Fair Center every weekend and there are opportunities for things to do in Minot.

“The North Dakota State Fair is proud to be in Minot and absolutely proud to be partner to Minot Air Force Base,” Schoenrock told the Military Affairs Committee members.

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Montana farm rescues, finds homes for penned wild horses KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — On a bright, cold morning at Triple Take Arena, Danica Yates leads a mare through a morning practice session.

The horse lifts her head as she trots around the ring, each step perfectly aligned to her rider’s command.

Looking at her, primly groomed beneath her bridle, it’s hard to believe that when Yates rescued her three years ago, she was wild.

The horse, Crystal, had been living on rangeland with no human supervision until Yates found her and brought her back to Triple Take near Kalispell. She is one of several horses Yates has rescued throughout her years as a trainer, the Flathead Beacon reported.

Yates hopes to save many more with her new horse rescue venture, Freedom Horse Farm. The nonprofit, which Yates founded with Michele Binstock and Rochelle Lombardi, will find homes for mustangs in holding pens managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They will also train them in dressage and offer horse

AP Photo

Danica Yates, a dressage instructor and member of the Freedom Horse Farm, pets her horse Crystal in the Triple Take Arena west of Kalispell, Mont.

therapy.

The organization responds to an urgent need. According to Yates, there are currently 47,000 mustangs currently in off-range holding pens,

removed from the land in an attempt to control the wild horse population.

These horses need new homes, but last year only 3,660 were sold or adopted, said Yates.

Freedom Horse Farm aims to find sensing their movements. While adopters, but its rescue process also other equestrian sports might be features an unconventional strategy. about speed or energy, dressage, Yates After bringing wild horses out of BLM explained, “is about harmony.”

The connection between horse holding pens, Yates will train them in dressage, a highly skilled riding tech- and rider fostered by dressage will nique that is also an Olympic sport. help the rescued horses to participate With this training, the mustangs will in the second arm of Freedom Horse Farm’s program, horse be able to compete and therapy.

The participate in therapy will s h o w s . be proWhile it For more information about vided by might the organization, go to Freedom multiple s e e m Horse Farm’s website at licensed counterwww.freedomhorse.org/about/. therapists intuitive and eventuto teach preally by Yates, viously unwho is currently in trained animals such graduate school for counseling. It an advanced sport, Binstock said the mustangs have an advantage in will cater to a broad range of clients and focus on improving communicabeing a “clean slate” for training.

Many people think of dressage as tion in families.

“Dressage is about connecting stuffy, formal riding, but Yates said that it’s actually “the most ancient, with the animal,” Yates said. “So the most classical form of horse riding.” therapy we’ll do with the rescue Through this training method, horses horses is connecting people with learn to be in tune with their riders, themselves.”

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On Virginia farm, microbes turn organic waste into compost EVINGTON, Va. (AP) — More than 60% of organic waste goes into local landfills, according to Ken Newman, owner and operator of Royal Oak Farm.

That organic waste — everything from paper products to scraps and leftovers — could be recycled into compost that is healthy for the environment, he said.

Royal Oak Farm, located in Evington and in operation since 2008, is the largest multifeedstock waste composting facility in Virginia and is authorized by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

On the 115-acre property, billions of microbes do most of the work creating compost from waste generated by municipalities, industries, businesses and universities, including James Madison University and Virginia Tech.

The week of July 8, Royal Oak began accepting waste from the University of Lynchburg's dining services.

Newman said this includes things such as paper towels, napkins, meat and leftovers, which will be shipped to the farm to be composted. Neal said the compost will not come back to be used at the school but instead it will be sold by Newman.

Michial Neal, co-director chef at University of Lynchburg Dining Services, said the university has been in contact with the farm for at least a month hoping to launch the partnership.

Neal said although the price to compost with Royal Oak is about the same price as taking the waste to the landfill, the partnership was the latest step toward completing the school's goal toward sustainability and supporting regional producers and farmers. Dining services sends its pre-consumer waste, things like leftovers from food prep to Lynchburg Grows, a nonprofit urban farm, where it is used for gardening purposes.

The university uses two

AP Photo

Several rows of compost spread across Royal Oak Farm, the largest multi-feedstock waste composting facility in Virginia July 3, in Evington, VA. bins for trash and recycling in each dining facility. It will begin using a third bin for collection of waste for compost, which will be sent to the farm about every two weeks, Neal said.

Most of the time the farm sends a truck to pick up the waste, but UL will send its waste to the farm by way of County Waste which will collect the waste in a dedicated container to avoid contamination.

Royal Oak makes compost from food processing plant discards, animal manures, sawdust, leaves, trimmings from local tree services, and agricultural byproducts such as straw,

hay and silage.

Though many customers have confidentiality agreements, those who partner with the farm have come from solicitations from Newman after he raises awareness about food waste and how the compost can be used in beneficial ways such as for athletic field mixes, putting greens and compost for planting soil, Newman said.

On Royal Oak Farm, billions of microbes work in 15foot-wide by 8-feet-tall windrows — a method used to produce compost by piling organic waste in long rows.

The rows have to get above 131 degrees for a minimum of 15 days and have to be turned

a minimum of five days before the compost is sterilized and ready, Newman said.

Afterward, the compost is sent to a lab to be tested for pathogens like salmonella and E. coli as well as for heavy metals.

It then needs to be cured, which takes between six months and two years, Newman said.

Last year Royal Oak accepted and composted more waste than any other DEQ-permitted agency in Virginia — approximately 45,000 tons — and accounted for about 24% of total material composted in Virginia, according to Jenny Poland, solid waste permit

writer for DEQ Blue Ridge Regional Office located in Salem.

Royal Oak Farm is permitted to handle 150,000 tons of waste per year and the charge for the customer can be anywhere from $45 to $60 per ton.

Poland said her office has 15 recorded active solid waste compost facilities in the state.

Newman said the next closest facility is Black Bear Composting in Crimora, which is permitted to handle 4,000 tons of waste a year.

Newman said with the costs of permitting from DEQ — $350,000 initially and then $1,500 annually — and the cost to pay employees on a $4 million facility with $4 million

worth in equipment, he said he barely breaks even on the front end.

"The only profits we make are on selling the product," he said.

Though composting has been around forever, Poland said, and Royal Oak is using a windrow method which is not considered "new technology," it does have state-of-the-art equipment like the windrow turner and a grinder.

Large scale composting is not widespread across the state and Poland thinks this is because of the costs. It is cheaper to go to the landfill, where there are no bans on organic waste, than it is to compost.

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