Ag Lenders/Appraiser Experience Hands-On Training

"There's nothing else like it," says Dave Schriever, First Dakota National Bank, Yankton, South Dakota.  About 35 ag lenders, appraisers and realtors from across South Dakota and Wyoming took part in a three-day camp that focused on techniques to better evaluate the grass resource.  "We started with learning about the grass resource and looking at ranching from the operator's perspective," says Schriever.
     Hosted by the Stanley County Conservatin District, the participants camped out at the Cow Pasture Campground, 47 miles northwest for
Fort Pierre, South Dakota.  Camp sponsors wanted to help lenders understand trends in natural resource management.  The session had a well-rounded agenda to help broaden the lenders' understanding of natural resources on private lands.  "This is a unique opportunity for hands-on trianing about grassland management strategies that optimaize production while maintaining productivity," explains Dave Steffen, rangeland management specialist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Burke, South Dakota.

    Amoung other topics, the ag lenders and appraisers were exposed to different range impovement practives and the economics of implementing those practices.   One panel discussion offered a look at ranching complementary enterprises such as buffalo and wildlife management and selling seeds of native plants.
    "It's important for lenders to understand that improving productivity
and maximizing the benefits of rangeland is a slow process that require long-term planning and goals.  Lenders need to be aware of the short-
term cash-flow difficulties involved in range improvement," says camp participant Ann MacKaben, rancher and Farm Service Agency credit officer, Dupree, South Dakota.
    Over 2 1/2 inches of rain fell during the first portion of the camp, but it did not dampen the campers' eagerness.  Boyd Waara says, "The experience was very educational and the value
of the program really shows with the participants' enthusiasm for next year's camp which will
be held in the Black Hills area."
    The camp was co-sponsored by NRCS, South Dakota State University Cooperative Extension Service, South Dakota Grassland Coalition, South Dakota Section of the Society
for Range Management, and South Dakota Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils under the direction of a group of South Dakota bankers.

Seasonal Grazing of Warm Season Native Grass in SW Georgia

        The NRCS Plant Materials Center at Americus, Georgia is demonstrating rotational grazing of Eastern Gamagrass, and is working toward demonstration of rotational grazing of Switchgrass and Indiangrass (photo 1). Warm season, native, tall-grass forages are not in widespread us in the Southeast, but interest is growing.   The project uses single strand power fences, and portable water that is made available in each of the ten paddocks.  Growing age cattle are grazing in spring and summer, cycling through the tem small paddocks in twenty-seven to thrity-one and one-half days.
    When calves are going to be moved into areas where the forage species has never had been consumed by the animals, Plant Materials Center manager, Mike Owsley, introduces the forage in advance.  At the NRCS National Employment Development Center training course in "Plant-Herbivore Interaction," Owsley learned techniques like the one depicted in photo 2 to maintain forage intake rates when moving cattle onto "novel forage" pastures.

Angora goats in the Texas Hill Country.

Pronghorns in the Texas Trans-Pecos.

 
Nutbal Videos Available

The Grazing Land Technology Institute in cooperation with the Grazingland Animal Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University developed and is releasing two videos and CSs.  The first video, entitled "Introduction to the NUTBAL System," is about 20 minutes long.  It explains the use of livestock fecal sampling to monitor livestock nutritional status.  The second video, entitled "Using the NUTBAL Computer System," is about 15 minutes long.  It describes the use of the NUTBAL (Nutritional Balance Analyzer) computer decision support system to monitor animal well-being and the producer's performanance goals.  Both videos contain valuable information for livestock producers and their technical advisors.
    The videos were previewed at the recent National Range and Pasture Handbook Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.  They are available for distribution.   For more information contact your state grazingland specialists or Arnold Norman at (817) 509-3214.

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