Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

Bleed Trim - 8x10 Front Cover Live Area - 7x9 september 2010

in this issue

Veterinarian column Equine Column apples Agricultural heritage notebook

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 3

In 1918 and 1919, sugar beets were a popular crop in the Bitterroot Valley.

A note of introduction from the Editor Fall is the loveliest of seasons in the Bitterroot Valley, as the colors along the river intensify and then grow muted, preparing for winter.

It is the busiest season, of course, in the valley’s historic orchards – both those in the commercial apple-producing business and those with a handful of trees tended by SHERRY DEVLIN families and neighbors. photo KURT WILSON - Missoulian My children and I have long loved visiting the orchards in fall, sometimes picking our own apples, sometimes picking up a ready-to-go box and a gallon or two of cider. Combine that with a hike up a mountain canyon or along the river at the refuge, and there’s no finer fall day.

I was reminded of those outings while reading Stacie Duce’s great stories for this edition of the Ravalli Republic’s Agriculture Quarterly – one on the antique, and now hobby, orchards in the Bitterroot Valley; the other on her family’s much-loved canning traditions.

Fall is also the time, it turns out, to give serious thought to another agriculture pursuit: beekeeping.

Whether you’re a hobbyist or a commercial beekeeper, you’ll want to read Perry Backus’ story on the industry and the many local experts available to help novices and experts alike. Here’s a hint: Start planning (and ordering) now for next year’s hives.

This edition of Agriculture Quarterly also includes a pair of must-read articles on weeds – and their control – from Jeff Schmerker and Rob Chaney. One brings alarming news of a new and particularly aggressive weed invading western Montana: Japanese knotweed can grow 15 feet in a year, which makes it essential to get after quickly.

In addition, we have a variety of extremely informative columns from our friends in the Bitterroot Valley on cattle management, the care and tending of hobby cows, nitrates in hay and more.

I think you’ll enjoy our salute to fall and agriculture.

If you have ideas for stories you’d like to see in future editions, please drop me a line at editor@ravallirepublic.com.

Page 4 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

Agriculture Quarterly is published by the Ravalli Republic Newspaper a division of Lee Enterprises

IN THIS ISSUE Bitterroot’s Apple-laden Legacy Endures ... 5 Preserving Harvest An Important Skill ........ 9 Make Your Own Honey As A Beekeeper .. 11 County Weed District Adopts New Plan .. 14

Kristen Bounds Publisher Sherry Devlin, Editor Clint Burson, Dara Saltzman & Jodi Wright, Production & Design Brent Schlimgen & Cheryl Tenold, Project Sales

Japanese Knotweed ................................... 16 Animals Need Proper Nutrition Too ......... 18 Turn of the Gardening Season................... 21 The considerations of raising Cattle in the Bitterroot Valley .......................................... 24 Nitrate in Cereal Hay Presents Danger ..... 26 Local Ranches Recognized ........................ 28 Agricultural Heritage Notebook ............... 30

Agriculture Quarterly is copyright 2010, Ravalli Republic.

ravalli republic 232 west Main Street Hamilton, MT 59840 ravallirepublic.com

How did you like our second issue of Agriculture Quarterly?

Do you have any ideas you’d like to share with us for our next issue?

Let us know. Sent comments to: 232 West Main, Hamilton, MT 59840 or editor@ravallirepublic.com photos this page: top to bottom, Will Moss, Will Moss,

A

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 5

Bitterroot’s pple-Laden Legacy Endures

STACIE DUCE FOR THE

RAVALLI REPUBLIC

While Ravalli County’s apple business didn’t blossom as some hoped more than 100 years ago, remnants of vast orchards are an annual reminder that even small harvests can be sweet.

On the edges of many Bitterroot Valley ranches, farms and fields sit haphazard apple trees. Most are McIntosh by variety. Some are prized possessions yielding just enough

fruit to keep a family in applesauce and sweet cider for the season. Other deserted trees have become gnarled dessert buffets attended only by nibbling deer.

For the Rennaker family whose cattle ranch is nestled on Old Darby Road, antique apple trees lean against wooden fences. When the branches become heavy and lean nearly to the ground of the dusty road, it’s time for

the family to gather and press cider in ceremonious fashion.

“We have four trees and the neighbors let us have their apples,” said Lillian Rennaker.

They use an old cider press brought by her father-in-law when he came to the Bitterroot from Missouri in the 1920s, at age 18.

“It’s a cool old press,” she said. “It’s been fixed two or three times, but it certainly works.”

For years, they have turned

Page 6 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 7

their cider-making chores into a party. When their son, Loyd, was helping coach Darby varsity football, the boys would make and sell the cider as a fundraiser.

“Now we usually have church youth groups come and make an activity out of it,” said Lillian. “Anybody who comes usually has a great time.”

By the end of September, the apples are ready for harvest but if the goal is to make cider, the process can be much less particular.

“The thing with making cider,” said Lillian. “is you can lay down a tarp and shake the tree and you don’t have to worry about climbing and picking them.”

As for this year’s prospects, “I have noticed we don’t have a lot on ours this year,” she said. “We’re not loaded with

apples and I’ve heard a few people say their apples didn’t set on as good as usual.”

No matter how many gallons of cider they make, “we’ll enjoy it,” she said. “Freshly made cider from crisp apples is truly out of this world.”

Barbara Buckallew was just a baby when her parents put her and her brother in apple boxes to nap while they picked fruit in Corvallis’ east-side orchards.

When she was 7 years old, they bought four acres off Dutch Hill and planted an impressive garden. The land was part of the Bitterroot’s infamous orchard experiment, so several trees remained and her parents finally had apples of their own.

After Barbara married, she and her husband built a small house on the west side of her

parent’s property. On one side of the new house was a small stick of a tree poking up from the ground. Barbara left it undisturbed and over the next 38 years, it flourished.

On a crisp, yet sunny September afternoon, Barbara marveled at her bounty this year. Last year’s yield was minimal, “but we’re making up for it,” she said, looking up at the heavily laden branches. “I usually have a great harvest every other year.”

She picks the apples to make applesauce and pie filling and shares the fruit with her children. When apples fall to the ground, she throws them over the fence into the field where deer have the mess cleaned up by morning.

“I thought deer were the only ones who liked my apples, but the other night I looked

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out the window at the tree and saw a raccoon staring back at me,” she laughed. “I guess raccoons like my apples too.”

All but an acre around her home has been sold and the ground across her fence is now fallow. Her parent’s home is no longer standing and even her husband passed away seven years ago. But the stoic apple trees remain.

Barbara has no intention of leaving the land where she has spent most of her 60-plus years.

She has her dog, Cooper, for company and plenty of apple chores to keep her busy this autumn and beyond.

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 9

Preserving Harvest An Important Duce’s Wild

Stacie Duce

My parents’ kitchen recently transformed into a beehive of activity with a singular goal of all on duty – to bottle the baskets of peaches before bedtime.

The scene brought back vivid memories of my childhood, when gardening, canning and football seemed to be my dad’s only fall-time pleasures.

True to the past yet evolved with elements of the present: The flat-screen, highdefinition television was blasting college football, my mom was prepping glass bottles and lids, my sister sat slicing and pitting, and my dad ran in and out with bowls of blanched peaches boiled on his portable propane burner on the back patio.

In the midst of it all stood my 12-year-old

Skill

Page 10 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

twin daughters peeling peach skins with such precision that the rest were hard-pressed to keep up.

Before I had time to offer my services, my dad stuffed $10 in my pocket and commanded I run to the store for more canning lids. I returned just in time to be sent to the basement for more jars.

It wasn’t long before my sister’s back was aching and I took over pitting duties and the race to keep up with my daughters. As the last peach slid into the jar, they finally noticed their entire mid-sections were covered in sticky juice and they laughed instead of complained.

As my dad set the last batch of bottles to be processed in

his contrived outdoor kitchen, I said, “Your mother would be so jealous.”

He silently shook his head in agreement.

I remember my grandma’s kitchen in the fall. She was the epitome of homemaking prowess with her ability to bake bread, keep a spotless house and line her pantry with jars of preserves.

While I never learned to love a bowl of her bottled cherries or a bite of pickled beets, I’d give anything to sit and eat with her now.

My kids are lucky enough to have similar harvest-time memories with both sets of their grandparents. They have learned to pick raspberries and make blue-ribbon jam. They

know the process of taking fruit from the tree to the jar and enjoying it midwinter. They’ve shredded zucchini and stacked the bags in the freezer for future baking treasures.

But I have shielded them from canning tomatoes, mainly because I don’t have to try very hard to still feel the sting of tomato juice in my eye while smashing them through the Victorio strainer as a kid.

Nevertheless, when I really need tomatoes, I know mom’s got a shelf full.

Of all the activities grandparents can do with their grandchildren, teaching harvest-time skills might just be at the top of our family’s list – right next to learning the intrinsically important game of football.

Make Your Own A Beekeeper

PERRY BACKUS RAVALLI REPUBLIC

So you want to become a beekeeper, but you have no idea how to make that happen.

Well it’s not really all that hard, says Scott Debnam, the University of Montana’s senior beekeeper.

You can get all the supplies you need in starter kits that range from $145 to $359 for the advanced package that includes a hive, frames and a full bee suit from wholesalers on the Internet.

The most important part comes from right here in Montana.

Beginning beekeepers can purchase a three-pound pack-

H

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 11

oney As

age of honey bees – that’s about 15,000 to 20,000 of the critters – and a queen bee from Western Bee in Polson.

“They are the No. 1 supplier of bees in the whole world,” Debnam said. “They have a long history in the business of bees.”

Typically, a package of bees will run you about $70 or so.

By midsummer, your investment will have more than tripled.

“By July, you could have 75,000 bees working for you,” Debnam said. “Once a queen starts laying, she produces up to 3,000 eggs a day. She lays up to three times her body weight.”

You need to plan ahead to

make this all happen, though.

Bee orders need to be placed by February.

The folks at Western Bee will make the trip to California to pick up your bees.

And then, just to make it all a bit easier, the University of Montana’s beekeepers make the drive back and forth from Polson to pick up the packages for beekeepers in the Missoula area.

“For the last two years, we drove to Polson to pick up everyone’s bees who live close to Missoula,” Debnam said.

“And then those people who come to Fort Missoula to pick up their bees can watch us hiving our packages.”

Page 12- Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

“Hiving a package” is beekeeper’s speak for introducing the bees to their new home.

Debnam said the event is kind of like a mini-seminar. If people want, they can even try it out for themselves so they’ll know just what to do when they get home.

Once the bees are introduced to their new hive, beekeepers need to perform a couple of simple precautionary steps to ensure their bees don’t come down with the dreaded foulbrood disease.

That’s as easy as picking up the common antibiotic Tetracycline from an agricultural store and mixing it with powdered sugar to feed to the

hive over a 15-day period.

“You just sprinkle it on top of the frame,” Debnam said.

“It’s very important to treat for foulbrood. It’s such a vicious disease that once it gets into a hive, the only way to treat is to destroy the hive.”

Most beekeepers treat their hives for mites, too.

After that’s done, it’s time for the new beekeeper to learn some patience.

The first year, the bees will be focused on filling the frames inside the hive with wax. Once the combs are filled, then beekeepers can begin harvesting the superfluous honey their bees will produce.

One frame will produce 10 pounds of honey, which is

enough to feed a family.

“Bees are awesome,” Debnam said. “If it was me or you that was snatched out of our bed and then moved 2,000 miles, we’d be mad and want to leave … bees just go right to work as soon as they’re put into their new hive.”

“Bees will take care of themselves,” he said. “You just need to give them the freedom and space to be themselves. Bees just want to be bees.”

“Treat them good and they will treat you good,” Debnam said.

Want to learn more, go to http://agr.mt.gov/crops/beekeepers.com

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 13

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County Weed District New Plan

JEFF SCHMERKER

Ravalli Republic

You can do all the pulling and spraying you want, but if your neighbor’s got weeds, it’s pretty likely you will get them, too.

Enter the Ravalli County Weed District, which recently won approval from the Ravalli County Commission to implement a plan aimed at controlling weeds.

The plan formally adopts current weed district practices and a state law available to counties on a volunteer basis

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for years; state law prohibits allowing weeds to go to seed or propagate, but enforcement of that law has been at the discretion of counties. Kellieann Morris, the county’s weed control supervisor. said now landowners can report problem weed areas off their property to the weed district, which can then assess the problem and take action if necessary.

Weeds are often difficult to control, Morris said, so there is a small window for getting rid of them -- just a few months in summer.

“You have just a couple of

dopts

months to treat weeds before they go to seed,” she said.

Morris said she hears from landowners several times a day about problem weeds on neighboring properties.

If Morris or her office does determine a property to have problem weeds, that landowner will be notified and given 10 days to develop, with the office’s assistance, a weed-riddance plan. Failure to do so means Morris makes second contact. Failure to act after a second 10-day warning gives the county the ability to conduct weed killing on its

own -- and bill the landowner for the work, plus a 25 percent fee.

Failure to pay the bill means it can get tacked on to property tax bills or attached as a lien to land titles.

Since the measure was adopted in August, Morris said she’s been deluged with calls about problem weed areas.

There’s been wide support for the plan, she said, although there has also been scattered criticism from residents upset that their rights are being violated.

While anonymous complaints are being responded to, Morris said, priority is being given to complaints from individuals who give their names when raising concerns about weedy areas.

“What we are doing now is looking at the property and making sure the complaints are legitimate,” Morris said. “Once we do that, we can work with the landowner to develop a plan.”

Key to the program is making sure the weed office has a big toolbox to use when addressing weed problems on private land. Some people may not have the money to create an ambitious weed-killing program; others may have limited mobility; still others may want to kill weeds but not use a chemical.

“We have been doing this already for years and a lot of people did not realize that,” Morris said. “And what we have now to tackle this problem are options to fit everyone’s budget and lifestyle.”

Treatment options available to the county and landowners include herbicide, biological controls and good-old weed pulling. Any chemical used by the county under this program, Morris said, will be non-residual.

Morris said the department aims to be friendly and proactive in weed control on both private and public lands. Most people who have a weed problem on their land likely don’t know it.

“In many cases, people don’t know what noxious weeds are,” Morris told commissioners.

“They think knapweed is the Bitterroot alfalfa.

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 15

It’s hard to convince folks these weeds are bad.”

For more information, call the weed office at 777-5842.

Reach reporter Jeff Schmerker at 363-3300 or at jeff.schmerker@ravallirepublic.com.

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Page 16 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

Japanese

K

notweed

ROB CHANEY/Missoulian

A wall of Japanese knotweed growing near Hawthorne Elementary School hides a neighboring house as Missoula County Weed District analyst Lindsey Bona displays a sample stalk. The noxious weed regrows quickly when cut or dug up, and is resistant to many herbicides.

ROB CHANEY OF THE

MISSOULIAN

Japanese knotweed is the latest reason staff members at the Missoula County Weed District are losing sleep.

“It grows 10 or 15 feet in a year – it makes you feel like an excellent gardener,” weed district biologist Lindsey Bona

said as she surveyed a wall of the bamboo-like plant near Hawthorne Elementary School.

“People are still mistakenly giving it to each other.”

Like the attractive-buttreacherous Dalmatian toadflax and oxeye daisy, Japanese knotweed probably got started in Missoula as an ornamental

garden favorite. It puts out leaves as large as a man’s hand and sprays of white flowers. A single season’s growth will create a fence between neighbors even a cat can’t get through.

Then it reveals its true nature. Virtually nothing can out-compete knotweed, including all the native cotton-

woods, rushes and willows that line Missoula’s waterways. Knotweed has sprung up along many of the city’s irrigation ditches, and the fear is it will reach the Clark Fork or Bitterroot river banks.

And once there, it’s very tough to kill. Even tiny root fragments left in the soil can start new plants. Cutting it triggers greater growth. And cut pieces can form their own plants. It can muscle through cracks in sidewalks and driveways.

Knotweed also appears very resistant to most common herbicides. A big patch near the city sewage treatment plant along Reserve Street shows little ill effect, despite a concentrated effort to kill it.

Its love for waterways further complicates matters, because herbicides used to kill the knotweed can flow downstream to others’ lawns, gardens and farms. Missoula County weed managers started their attack this month, trying to cut down patches and then spray the new growth as other plants go into fall dormancy.

Bona cautioned that other removal methods need to be thorough. Those who’ve cut and piled knotweed have returned to find new sprouts growing in the debris. Someone brought in a photo of an osprey nest with a stalk of knotweed growing in it.

This year, Missoula County has some grant money to send crews out to attack knotweed infestations and help revegetate areas. Bona said plants like lilac, buffalo berry, dogwood and chokecherry make good replacements, although they don’t grow nearly as fast as knotweed.

For more information about controlling Japanese knotweed, call the Missoula County Weed District at 258-4211 or visit the office at 2825 Santa Fe Court.

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 17

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Animals Need Nutrition Too

BOBBIE ROOS MSU RAVALLI COUNTY EXTENSION

Just like the humans who care for them, all domestic grazing animals need adequate essential nutrients in their daily diets. Essential nutrients are needed by all living animals. Grazing livestock need carbohydrates and fat for energy along with protein, vitamins, minerals and water.

Nutrient requirements vary by species, age, stage of production and environmental conditions. Understanding nutrient requirements of graz-

P

roper

ing animals is fundamental for managing forage resources to meet production goals and objectives.

Energy is the fuel for all bodily processes – breathing, walking, eating, growth, lactation and reproduction. Except for water, energy is the No. 1 substance needed by animals.

The primary form of energy for grazing animals is forage.

Forage plants contain digestible fibers, sugars and soluble carbohydrates and a limited amount of starches and fats.

Grazing animals use energy for both maintenance and non-

maintenance functions.

Maintenance energy is the fuel used to keep the animal alive without losing or gaining weight. Cold weather, mud, increased walking and larger body size increase the amount of energy needed for maintenance.

Energy above maintenance use is converted into nonmaintenance functions such as reproduction, lactation, growth and work.

Protein is the basic component used to make all tissue – muscle, bone, shin, hair organs and milk. Protein is also

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 19

important for daily repair and replacement of cells and tissue. Plant protein is a grazing animal’s primary source of protein and the amino acids from digested protein are used to build and replace tissue.

Grazing livestock that have fully developed rumens utilize forage differently than simple stomach animals. An animal with a rumen is known as a ruminant and digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the first stomach, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again. The process of rechewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called “ruminating.” This enables the animal to utilize lower quality protein and the fibrous parts of grasses, legumes and forbs. Ruminating mammals include cattle, goats, sheep, giraffes, bison, yaks, water buffalo, deer, camels, alpacas, llamas, wildebeest, antelope, pronghorn and nilgai. The word “ruminant” comes from the Latin ruminare, which means “to chew over again.”

Minerals are important for a variety of functions in the grazing animal. Minerals combine with proteins to form structures such as bones and teeth, help transmit nerve impulses, form enzymes or carry oxygen. In areas with sufficient rainfall or irrigation, well-managed forages supply a large percentage of the minerals needed by grazing livestock. However, soil fertility, soil pH, forage species and forage quality all affect forage mineral content.

Vitamins are involved in the regulation of metabolism and affect reproduction, skin and coat quality, and immune system function.

Grazing animals usually get enough vitamin A and E from lush green forage and the produce vitamin D in response to sunlight. Vitamin C and K requirements are low and are provided by the diet, and in ruminant animals the microbes found in the rumen produce nearly all the B vitamins needed. However, nonruminants must consume these vitamins daily.

Water is probably the most vital of the essential nutrients required by all animals.

Water is required to maintain proper bodily functions. Water is lost through sweating, respiration and urination. An animal can lose only 10 percent of its body weight before the situation becomes critical. This loss can happen in a matter of days and can result in death.

Therefore it is important to provide animals with adequate quantities of the best quality, clean water available at all times. Animals can obtain water from three sources: drinking water, feed and metabolism. Drinking water is the most important.

Water requirements vary, depending on animal species, age and stage of production, environmental conditions, and quantity and quality of feed. For example, when the temperature

Page 20 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

is around 40 degrees, beef cattle need 4 to 9 gallons of water daily. Horses need 6 to 18 gallons of water and sheep require 2 to 7 gallons of water daily.

Again all water requirements are dependent on animal size, level of activity, stage of production, and temperature and environmental conditions.

The moisture content of the feed also affects how much drinking water the animal will need. Animals grazing lush pastures in the spring require less drinking water than those grazing drier fall pastures or eating hay. Feeds higher in

protein, salts and fiber also require higher water intake to facilitate digestion and to balance body metabolites.

Understanding the nutritional needs of your grazing animal is very important to ensure the well being of your livestock throughout the year.

Knowing how forage quality fluctuates in your pastures and hay will help you manage your production calendar and adjust your feeding plan to meet your animals’ nutrient needs.

Pasture plants can vary widely in quality, depending on their growth stage, leaf concentration and age – as well as on

environmental factors and time of year.

Livestock owners are always encouraged to check with their veterinarian on the nutritional needs of their animals. The MSU Ravalli County Extension Service can assist landowners in determining the quality of their forages.

To learn more about managing your pastures for livestock use, contact the Ravalli County Extension Office at 375-6611 or broos@montana.edu.

s

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 21

Turn of the gardening eason

MOLLY HACKETT

GEORGIANNA TAYLOR

After three months of frantic attempts to keep up with the garden, there is finally time to draw a breath, look around at all the plants we have been caring for, and enjoy the results of all that hard work in the long, hot days of summer. Sunrises are later, some days the wind has a cold bite. Sunshine on the shoulders feels friendly and warm instead of scorching and dehydrating. Gardeners are ready to move on from one season to the next.

There is time now to check the compost pile, to turn it, and to harvest whatever brown gold may be hiding at the bottom.

There is never enough to satisfy our greed, of course, but plants will all show their gratitude next spring for compost spread around their roots this fall.

There is no worry about a fall dusting of compost leeching all its nutrients down through the soil to contaminate the water table with excessive amounts of chemicals. Compost breaks down so gradually that it can provide both winter mulch and spring fertilizer. Mature compost, ready to come out of the pile, looks like rich, dark brown soil. If there are still recognizable pieces of plants in the

Page 22- Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

compost, they are better left in the pile for another year.

Usually the top threequarters of a pile needs more decay time and only the bottom few inches are ready for their next cycle through the garden. There are several ways to separate finished and unfinished compost. We like to fork piles of it onto a piece of half-inch screen, or hardware cloth, and rub it with the edge of a garden knife or trowel.

Everything that falls through is finished compost. The rest goes back into the compost bin to continue its recycling until next year.

This is a good time of year to spread some of that compost on the patches of lawn that look less than lush. With

cooler weather and shorter days, the grass looks happy again and any patches of poor soil underneath are very visible. Spreading half an inch of compost, home-made or purchased, on those patches will feed the grass. Too deep a layer might kill the grass underneath, but the plants can grow right through a half inch.

Annual flowers are finishing their time of bloom and ripening seeds to grow seeds to grow next year’s plants. Some of them can be left alone. The seeds will ripen, drop onto the ground, live through the winter and begin to grow at the proper time next spring.

These are called half-half hardy annuals. They include poppies, cornflowers, larkspur, love-in-a-

mist.

Other plants, often called tender annuals, have seeds that will not survive a Montana winter. They include nasturtiums, heliotrope, zinnias, and marigolds. If gardeners want to keep them growing from year to year instead of buying new seeds or plants, they must harvest and store the seeds. Any seed to be saved has to be ripened on the plant. If seed pods are cut off while they are still green, the seed will be immature and will never grow. The best way to identify mature seeds is to watch for the seedpods to change color. When the pods are tan or brown, the seed is ripe. Since many plants open their seed pods and scatter their seeds, gardeners must

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - -Page Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 Page 23 Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 23 23

vigilant seeds before they blow be vigilant tocatch catch the seeds before they blow bebe vigilant to to catch thethe seeds before they blow away on the wind. away on the wind. away on the wind.

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Only aaflower bed isisto minate next spring.

Only flower bed to minate next spring.

Only if aififflower bed is to be tilled, burying seeds too deeply to survive, be tilled, burying seeds too deeply to survive, be tilled, burying seeds too deeply to survive, need seeds harvested and stored ininthe need the seeds be harvested and stored the need thethe seeds bebe harvested and stored in the house. house. house.

The perennial plants themselves The perennial plants themselves can be The perennial plants themselves cancan bebe cut down whenever they look ugly.

Some cut down whenever they look ugly.

Some will cut down whenever they look ugly. Some willwill stay green until spring.

Some, like ornamental stay green until spring.

Some, like ornamental stay green until spring. Some, like ornamental grasses turn brown, blow gracefully ininthe grasses turn brown, but blow gracefully the grasses turn brown, butbut blow gracefully in the wind.

Some disappear into dormancy.

Some wind.

Some disappear into dormancy.

Some wind. Some disappear into dormancy. Some offend eye There isisno rule offend the eye byearly early fall.

There no rule offend thethe eye byby early fall.fall.

There is no rule about when they must be cut to the ground. about when they must be cut to the ground. about when they must be cut to the ground. green they continue Aslong long asleaves leaves are green they continue to AsAs long as as leaves areare green they continue to to feed the roots.

As long as plants stay in flowfeed the roots.

As long as plants stay in flowfeed the roots. As long as plants stay in flowerbeds, they protect from wind and erbeds, they protect the soil from wind and erbeds, they protect thethe soilsoil from wind and encourage weed seed to stay airborne and encourage weed seed to stay airborne and encourage weed seed to stay airborne and land somewhere else.

The good principal isisto land somewhere else.

The good principal to land somewhere else.

The good principal is to leave the perennials in the garden as long as leave the perennials in the garden as long as leave the perennials in the garden as long as possible. possible. possible.

Gardeners often working and thinking Gardeners are often working and thinking Gardeners areare often working and thinking months ahead of the calendar and now isisno months ahead of the calendar and now no months ahead of the calendar and now is no exception.

The focus now is preparing the soil exception.

The focus now is preparing the exception. The focus now is preparing the soilsoil and plants next year’s gardens.

Within two and plants for next year’s gardens.

Within two and plants forfor next year’s gardens.

Within two months, the first seed catalogs will be availmonths, the first seed catalogs will be availmonths, the first seed catalogs will be available.

Within months, there baby able.

Within five months, there will be baby able.

Within fivefive months, there willwill bebe baby plants growing in houses, greenhouses and plants growing in houses, greenhouses and plants growing in houses, greenhouses and cold frames.

The next garden season is already cold frames.

The next garden season is already cold frames. The next garden season is already upon upon us. upon us.us.

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Page 24 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

The considerations of raising attle in the Bitterroot Valley

c

LINDA KAUFFMAN FOR THE

RAVALLI REPUBLIC

As I have watched the Bitterroot Valley change from the early 1980s to the present, my opinion is that it has changed for the most part from rural to urban in setting. I have found many families that for various reasons want to share in that rural atmosphere by owning livestock.

In deciding if you want to have cattle, there are several questions you should address: Am I raising animals to produce offspring? If so, am I going to market these animals or am I planning on increasing the herd size? This might easily be answered by the amount and type of land available to you.

What land resources do I have available to

keep these animals? Is my land irrigated or dry?

How many animals will my property support?

Am I going to lease pasture? Do I have the financial resources to buy hay to feed the animals 9 to 12 months out of the year, depending on pasture availability and the weather?

Is there a year-round natural water source?

How will I water the animals in freezing or subzero weather?

Do I have the fences and facilities to handle these animals?

Will I grain-feed these animals? Am I set up to feed them in a corral or small pasture? Cattle are often like schoolyard bullies: One takes charge and gets most or all of the feed, not letting the others eat – if the facilities are not set

up to control this.

Do my neighbors have cattle? Are the fences good? A heifer or cow in heat (ready to breed) will attract a bull from a great distance – fences are usually NO obstacle to him.

In other words, if you don’t remove the bull and keep him separate except during the assigned breeding season, he will breed his 5- and 6-monthold daughters if they come into heat.

As a veterinarian, my primary concerns is, do you have facilities to handle these animals or a way to move them to a place where they can be confined and treated? At the very least, you need some way of confining or corralling them to load in and out of a stock trailer.

My preference is heavy metal cattle panels, anchored to large diameter wooden posts, and ideally head catch equipment to further restrain them.

Another consideration is, are these animals pets or livestock in your eyes? How much money are you willing to spend if they get sick? In the changing atmosphere of the valley, these are questions I have learned to ask to better determine a course of action or recommendation for a particular situation.

It comes down to finances and what you are willing to do as an owner regarding treatment of the animal if they are sick.

How will you handle these animals health-wise? Will you vaccinate to avoid preventable disease and possible death?

Will you try to control parasites, internal and external?

Once you have decided that indeed you do have the facilities and financial resources to have cattle, then you likely will want to give some thought to what type of cattle best meet your needs and plans.

In general, the main difference in types of cattle is: beef cattle and dairy cattle.

More recently a third choice is miniature cattle. I have seen these cattle in a show or exhibition situation, but have little firsthand information. I would imagine they would make good pets, be fairly low cost related to feed and would likely be a choice for grazing down a few acres of grass. One of the original intentions was to reach a market for consumers who prefer smaller cuts of beef.

If you consider raising dairy cattle or even have just one cow for milk, remember she must be milked twice daily.

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the cow needs to be milked.

Another option in this regard is to raise purchased calves (in addition to her own), that nurse the cow out once you have obtained the milk you want for your home use. The calves can then be sold or fattened and raised for slaughter.

Beef cattle – cows, calves or yearlings – are often purchased just to graze down a few acres.

The questions I posed earlier are still very relevant whether you are talking about beef, dairy or miniature cattle.

I have not addressed specific nutritional needs or specific health care in this article, but these are things you need to discuss with your chosen veterinarian.

Whatever you decide to do with regard to raising cattle, be sure you’re prepared and informed before the auctioneer’s gavel hits the podium or the handshake with the producer down the road occurs.

I hope you can get a glimpse of the lifestyle I’ve known all my life and share the love I have for those big brown-eyed creatures.

Enjoy them, but be sure you know what you are getting into!

Page 26 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

Nitrate In Cereal Hay Presents

MAL WESTCOTT FOR THE

RAVALLI REPUBLIC

Cereals such as barley, oats, wheat and triticale are sometimes grown for forage crops rather than for grain. This is a common practice in the Bitterroot, most often seen in fields being rotated out of alfalfa for a year or two. The cereal is harvested for hay at an immature stage, most desirably

in the period between flowering (anthesis) and soft-dough stages of development. This will provide the highest quality of forage.

A common problem in cereal hays is the accumulation of nitrate to potentially toxic levels. Nitrate presents a hazard to livestock once it enters the bloodstream, where it replaces oxygen on hemoglobin mol-

Danger

ecules, resulting in anoxia, a lack of oxygen. This can be manifested as aborted calves or even the death of adult animals.

If a hay contains nitrate levels over 0.3 percent, recommendations call for mixing it with nitrate-free feeds before being fed to livestock. The percentage of nitrate-free feeds in the ration should be increased as

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 27

the nitrate level in the affected hay increases. If the hay has a nitrate level over 1.2 percent, it shouldn’t be fed at all.

What can be done to reduce the chances of growing a hay crop with toxic levels of nitrate?

Bear in mind that nitrate will be present in your soils regardless of farming practices. Even without fertilization, nitrate is a naturally-occurring molecule playing a significant role in the nitrogen cycle. But also be aware that application of nutrient sources, whether from chemical fertilizer, manure, compost, or turning under of nitrogen-rich crop residues (such as alfalfa roots) will increase the level of nitrate in the soil. The higher the soil nitrate level, the higher the chances of toxic levels of nitrate in the hay produced.

So there’s a balance that needs to be considered between fertilization for yield and quality vs. the potential for nitrate problems developing.

But, obviously, coming out of alfalfa, there’s going to be a fair amount of residual nitrate beyond the control of the producer.

Crop maturity is also a consideration. The nitrate level in plants will tend to decline as the plant matures. A field of cereal hay might be at the

desired stage for forage quality considerations, but if a tested sample shows undesirable nitrate levels, a producer can choose to wait before harvesting and in most cases will see a decline in nitrate levels.

Thought should be given to the selection of a suitable cereal forage species. Field research conducted here in the Bitterroot Valley at the Western Agricultural Research Center (WARC), Corvallis, and in the Judith Basin at the Central Agricultural Research Center, Moccasin, showed clearly that of five different cereal species (two varieties of each of oats, wheat, barley, triticale and spelt), oats accumulated nitrate much more readily than the other species in high-nitrate environments.

If the potential for nitrate accumulation was low, for instance where the nitrogen fertilization was low and the crops were harvested at a late stage of maturity, nitrate was uniformly low in all species.

But when nitrogen fertilization was high, and the crops harvested at anthesis, oats were significantly higher in nitrate levels than the other species. Oats were also significantly more likely to accumulate toxic levels in the mid-range of accumulation

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potential.

Another point for consideration is the balance of other soil nutrients. Work conducted at WARC and at the Northwestern Agricultural Research Center, Creston, showed that in some instances, the addition of sulfur to the soil, along with the nitrogen fertilizer, significantly reduced the accumulation of nitrate in Haybet barley.

This was the case when the nitrogen to sulfur ration in harvested plants was over 14 to 16. This is roughly the ratio of nitrogen to sulfur in plant protein, indicating that a deficiency of sulfur may lead to nitrate accumulation by restricting protein manufacture in the plants.

The take-home message is that an overall soil fertility program is as important in cereal nitrate management as it is in overall yield and quality.

Your County Extension office can provide you with additional information on managing cereal hays.

Mal Westcott is a professor and superintendent of the Western Agricultural Research Center at Montana State University.

Page 28 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

R

Local Ranches ecognized in 2010 American Angus Association Fale Sire Evaluation Report

RAVALLI REPUBLIC

Two Bitterroot Valley ranches have been recognized in the American Angus Association’s 2010 Fall Sire Evaluation Report.

Mytty Angus Ranch of Florence owns six bulls listed in the fall report published by the association, which is based in St. Joseph, Mo., and issues reports in spring and fall.

The new report features the latest performance information available on 5,871 sires, and is currently accessible at www. angussiresearch.com.

In addition, Cara P.

and Thomas W. Ayres of Stevensville own one bull listed in the fall evaluation.

“This report provides both Angus breeders and commercial cattle producers using Angus genetics with accurate, predictable selection tools for improving their herd,” says Bill Bowman, American Angus Association chief operating officer and director of performance programs.

Expected Progeny Differences are generated from the performance database of the American Angus Association, which

includes information submitted by nearly 9,000 Angus breeders this past year through the Association’s Beef Improvement Records program.

The fall 2010 evaluation includes updated research reports for heifer pregnancy and docility. Expected Progeny Differences are listed for growth and maternal traits, as well as carcass traits that integrate performance records from the carcass, ultrasound and DNA databases.

Decision-making tools also include $Values, the suite

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 29

ROB CHANEY/Missoulian

A recent sale of Mytty Angus Ranch Bulls.

of bio-economic indexes designed to assist commercial producers in simplifying the genetic selection process. In addition, the Fall 2010 Sire Evaluation Report includes updated research reports for docility and heifer pregnancy.

The semi-annual analysis for the Sire Evaluation Report utilizes more than 19 million measures used to generate over 55 million EPDs for the Angus breed.

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Page30 6 -- Agriculture Page Agriculture Quarterly, Quarterly, September September 2010 2010

Agriculture Heritage Notebook The Bitter Root Cultural Heritage Trust works in partnership with families, neighborhoods, and communities to restore historic structures, bring back traditional events and celebrations, encourage interpretation, and affirm cultural values.

The Heritage Trust is delighted to be a part of the Ravalli Republic’s Agriculture Quarterly and will be bringing you stories of our local agricultural history and heritage in each issue.

For this issue we asked Wendy Beye to highlight an historic valley barn and the family that owns it. Wendy, is working on the BitterRoot Barns Project. Wendy’s barn photos will ultimately serve many purposes, but her primary objective is to write a book about selected historic Bitterroot barns. Beyond their architectural beauty on the landscape, Wendy incorporates the stories of the families that own, use, and steward the barns. The Bitter Root Cultural Heritage Trust is proud to be a partner to the BitterRoot Barns Project.

A Barn in a Bank There used to be a television human-interest segment called “Everybody has a Story” broadcast on Sunday mornings. The host chose interviewees by throwing a dart at a map, then flipping open a phone book for the selected town and randomly calling a phone number. My method of choosing the barns featured in this series of articles is nearly as accidental, yet each building has had a wonderful story to tell. During the 15 years I’ve lived on the shoulder of Blodgett Canyon, I’ve driven by the Smith barn at least a

thousand times, but had no idea what delightful details awaited discovery. I finally found time to call co-owner Quinty Smith and arrange to meet her for a tour of the building.

I arrive a little early, park on the lane, and snap a few preliminary photos of the barn, which is mostly camouflaged by trees this time of year. If I look closely, I can see a slight difference in roofline that defines a break between living quarters and a barn. A house that shares a common wall with a barn is very unusual

Agriculture AgricultureQuarterly, Quarterly,September September2010 2010- -Page Page31 7

in Montana, and I amchores anxiousinto to explore this beautiful grass aaround buildingsproperty. to gold, On a complement their cider-making apples and I’ve heard few the parent’s one side old example of a European and New England farm to the fading red paint clinging to the abarn a party. When their son, Loyd, people say their apples didn’t of the new house was smalland building style.coach Darby varstep,” Quinty was helping set on as good asattached usual.” house. “Watch stick ofyour a tree poking upcautions, from pull into the the boys yard would and park beside Smith’s she drags the wooden porchBarbara steps into sityI football, Nothe matter howasmany gallons the ground. left position it restoration-in-progress, house below theenjoy front door of the weathered house, which make and sell the cideraasdifferent a of ciderthat theywas make, “we’ll undisturbed and over the next built near the barn sometime around the said. end “Freshly of is obviously earlier than the one we fundraiser. it,” she made of an38 years,vintage it flourished.

World War Thoughhave the farmsteadcider is justfrom a stone’s just left.

There is a On yawning gapyet in sunny the foundation “Now weI. usually crisp apples is truly a crisp, throw across river from town, remnants an beside the steps. September I make sure afternoon, there is some strong church youththe groups come andtheout of thisof world.”

Barbara make an activity out of it,” said marveled at her bounty this apple orchard and brush along the river shield it from support above the dark space before I step up into Lillian.

“Anybody whoofcomes year.through Last year’s was minithe hustle and bustle people in a hurry. There is the house. We wander its fiyield ve high-ceilinged usually has a great time.”

Barbara Buckallew was just a mal, “but we’re making up for a rustle of deer moving through the tall grass, and rooms, noting that it was wallpapered and apparently By the end of September, baby when her parents put her it,” she said, looking up at the birds sing their territorial had a water tap and drain the apples are ready for harvest and her brother in apple boxes heavily laden branches.

“I boundaries. in what appears tousube butQuinty if the goal is to make cider, to nap while they picked fruit ally have a great harvest every arrives in her a kitchen area.

Several the be much less in Corvallis’ east-side orchards. otherchimneys year.” evidence a parlor Miniprocess Cooper,can accompanied particular.

When she was 7 years old, they She picks the by a cloud of dust from the heated by apples a woodtoormake coal “The thing with making bought four acres off Dutch applesauce and pie filling and lane.

She is breathless, stove and meals prepared cider,” said Lillian. “is you can Hill and planted an impressharesonthea fruit with her chilapologizes for being late wood kitchen range. lay down a tarp and shake the sive garden. The land was part dren. When apples fall to the (not much -- I don’t mind at Our imaginations served tree and you don’t have to of the Bitterroot’s infamous ground, she throws them over all), and is dressed in tights to picture furnishings, walls worry about climbing and pick- orchard experiment, so several the fence into the field where andthem.” flipflops from yoga class. that are longer in place, ing trees remained and her parents deer have theno mess cleaned up She offers me a tour of the a pantry, bedrooms, and As for this year’s prospects, finally had apples of their own. by morning. main house.

Wewe visit for have a perhaps deer a hired man’s “I have noticed don’t After Barbara married, she “I thought were theroom minutes at the sunny with who a separate afew lot on ours this year,” she and her husband built a small only ones liked myentrance. apples, kitchen table not so I loaded can begin The gloom is alleviated said.

“We’re with house on the west side of her but the other night I looked by to stir up some memories of light filtering through large her childhood in the house casement window. and the old barn before we A well-worn door launch our expedition. She topped by a partially open recalls that her mother and transom window leads father, Bettye and Bob Smith, directly from one room into purchased the property at the spacious barn. Oddly, an auction after the death there is a window in the wall of the owners in the early shared by the house and barn 1960s. It had been the site (to keep an eye on the hay?) of a thriving truck garden The barn’s floor seems solid, operated by a Bugarian but the small window at the couple, Fannie and Evan opposite end has become a Spasoff. Quinty’s mother was particularly enthralled parallelogram rather than a rectangle. The building with the stand-alone house, and immediately began is developing a definite lean to the south, and I hear a working to make it liveable. One of the first projects trickle of water running somewhere beneath my feet. was to move a toilet that resided in the hallway just A wooden ladder leads to the basement, but we inside the front door to a more discreet location. decide it looks too precarious to test. A large door Another concern was cleaning up after the poultry leads north to ground level, large enough for a hay that enjoyed the sunny south bedroom upstairs. Fifty wagon to pass through. I point out that most old hay years of loving work has made the handsome old barns have a hayhook and trolley system along the 714 North ridgepole, 1st, Hamilton house glow. and that it’s missing here. With a closer After Quinty chats for a minute with a niece who look into the shadows, however, we notice a pulley drops by on her last day before leaving for college, with old ropes still attached hanging high up at one we head for the barn. The afternoon sun turns the tall end of the gambreled vault; it appears the trolley

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was removed. The original cedar shingles let shafts of light into the interior, but the wood trusses still appear to be in good condition.

Quinty steps back out into the bright sunshine, and trots down the bank to the barn’s lower level.

I admire her fortitude as she collects foxtails with her flip-flopped feet and knit tights. She pays no attention, forging on to show me more of the barn’s secrets. She pries open another worn door, and we carefully step into the gloom of the basement under the house portion of the building. There are two rows of milking stanchions, a total of about a dozen, with space for fodder, and drainage troughs built with

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two perpendicular layers of heavy planks in the floor.

Cows, right under the kitchen! That’s a European tradition for sure. An alleyway leads to the basement under the barn, but access is blocked by old planks and siding, so we go back outside. “Yikes!” Quinty exclaims, “There’s a regular river running under the barn here! I don’t remember that when we played here as children.” We peer into the barn basement, but would need rubber boots to go further. We can see another dozen milking stanchions, an area that might have been used for processing milk, and a manger for draft horses, complete with two old harness collars and a bridle hanging on the wall.

Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010 - Page 33

Cool air surrounds us even though the temperature outside is nearing 90 degrees.

We speculate about why someone would build a barn on top of a spring-fed creek and marsh, risking serious deterioration of the foundation, and come up with a possible answer. If all the drainage troughs were still intact, water could flow from one end of the barn basement to an outlet under the opposite end. The water would not only wash away waste from the milk cows, but would keep cans of milk cool until they could be taken to market. My later research on the technique used to build this barn revealed it to be a bank barn, more common in Minnesota than Montana. The advantages are ease of filling the upper story with hay from ground level, and more constant temperature for animals housed in the basement, with direct access to pasture or corrals, usually on the south or east side of the building.

Quinty excuses herself and I poke around for another half hour or so, snapping more photos to show construction methods that might help date the structure. I stop at the house to thank my hostess, and find her on the sun porch, artist’s paintbrush in hand. I later find out that her mother was an artist and musician of extraordinary talent. The legacy continues. My research is just beginning.

My first stop is the Ravalli County courthouse, Clerk and Recorder’s office, to trace the chain of title on the property. It was originally part of a 160-acre homestead granted to Edwin W. Waddel in 1892.

Waddel owned it until 1902, when he sold part of it to W.E. McMurry and his wife Grace. The McMurrys deeded it to Hamilton Nurseries, a company they formed, in 1908, and they built up a large operation that provided fruit tree seedlings to the many orchards that were springing up across the Bitterroot Valley at the time. Unfortunately, with the end of the apple boom, Hamilton Nurseries was forced to relinquish the land to mortgage holder Citizens State Bank in 1918. The next deed was to Evan Spasoff in 1929. Mention is made in that deed of a previous lease between Citizen’s State Bank and Spasoff, so he may have begun farming it shortly after Hamilton Nurseries folded. Fannie Spasoff enters the chain of title in 1932, and the couple owned the property until their deaths in 1962 and ’64. Bettye Smith is named as buyer on a deed from the Ravalli County public administrator in 1965.

To flesh out the barn’s story, I head to the Ravalli County Museum, and its archive of newspapers that

begin in the 1800s. I find obituaries for W.E. McMurry and for both Spasoffs. McMurry came to the Bitterroot from Minnesota (remember bank barn?) at the turn of the century, via Missoula, and worked in a mercantile store in downtown Hamilton before he began cultivating fruit trees. He also served a short term as mayor of Hamilton. Evan Spasoff emigrated from his native Bulgaria in 1910, lived for a short time in Minneapolis (another Minnesota connection!) then moved to the Bitterroot. He became the leader of a large scale Bulgarian truck farming cooperative that shipped high quality produce by wagon over Skalkaho pass to Anaconda and Butte to satisfy the miners’ appetites for fresh vegetables. Western News calls Spasoff “a farmer of great ability, a most industrious worker.” Spasoff’s wife Fannie came to the Bitterroot later from Iowa. An article appearing in Western News after Fannie’s death explains why the farm property was then auctioned. Evan Spasoff apparently had a son by a previous marriage. In both Evan’s and Fannie’s wills, that son was left $1.00 from the estate, thus eliminating the possibility of an inheritance claim. There is no doubt an interesting story attached to that bit of information, but no one is left to tell it.

Armed with the bare facts, I do some more sleuthing, calling a friend whose surname matches that of one of Evan Spasoff’s pallbearers. She is unable to give me any more details about the barn, but refers me to another friend who happens to be the daughter of one of the other Bulgarian cooperative farmers who lived next door to the Spasoffs. I call a charming Virginia Koloff Simmons and chat for quite some time. She recalls that “Mr. Spasoff had a beautiful barn” and that she used to pick berries at his place. She didn’t remember whether he also ran a dairy, but does admit that several times when taking a forbidden shortcut to the berry patch, over a stile

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Page 34 - Agriculture Quarterly, September 2010

and through the pasture, she was chased more than once by a bull wearing a nose ring and chain that did not serve to slow him down. She said, “I think my mother paddled me a few times to discourage use of that path to Spasoffs!”

Further research might reveal the exact date of the origin of the barn and its attached house.

Evidence including the bank barn’s basic design, gambrel roof construction, and design details of the milking stanchions points to pre-World War I. Most likely it was built by the McMurrys, who may have lived in the house portion while they planned and began building the grander abode nearby when their orchard business was booming. Some of the construction details of the older house are similar to those used in the newer one, which might even be an indication that all three structures were kit-built.

During the early 1900s pre-cut materials and plans for houses and barns could be purchased by mail-order from a number of different companies. This might

explain the window located in the wall between the house and the barn in spite of the lack of daylight or view. The odd transom over the door leading to the barn might have been intended to circulate air from a nonexistent sunporch that was instead replaced by a barn. A dormer entrance on the north side of the barn leads to nothing but open space both inside and out. The builders also evidently had difficulty figuring out how to attach a gambrel roof barn to a simple gabled roof house while still utilize a common wall. I would characterize the joint as “cobbled together.”

Whatever their construction history, it is obvious that the human history associated with these buildings is disappearing with the passing of folks who remember the details. We are losing the race against time to preserve our important cultural roots.

Those roots are what bind us together in a community, and are well worth the effort it takes to nourish them.

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