Greg Smeenk, a Bel Fourche, S.D. land broker, wrote in his blog at DakotaProperties.com in March that he “recently had an interesting experience showing two gentlemen from China farmland.” “We looked at thousands of acres of farmland from the west end of the state to the east end of the state and beyond. When asked what they envisioned for their purpose of buying farmland they responded that they intended to supply China with 20% of their soybean purchases,” he…

Continue Reading

Do you get tongue-tied when confronted by somebody who doesn’t like the way you farm? I do. When one of my sisters-in-law, who lives in California, announced over lunch that pasteurized milk was bad; that she didn’t want her girls getting all the extra hormones that were in milk produced in big factory farms; and that genetically modified foods were an abomination against nature about all I could manage was a weak, “Well, I don’t think so.” I…

Continue Reading

I can look out my home office window and see the 10-foot tall snow drifts back in the shelterbelt that surrounds our farmstead near Fargo, N.D. There’s two feet of snow out on the level in the yard between the house and barn. It’s clear and sunny, but cold and windy. Blow ice on the Interstate 29 is keeping me from going to a precision farming conference in Sioux Falls, S.D. It’s March, but winter won’t let go. We won’t be planting in April this…

Continue Reading

It is pretty cool that farmers in the Dakotas have raised a lot of money recently for food banks. The South Dakota Corn Growers Association raised $25,000 for Feeding South Dakota, an organization that supplies food banks in South Dakota North Dakota and South Dakota Farmers Union members raised more than $26,600 for food banks as part of a national challenge. At the SDCGA’s recent annual meeting, Mark Gross, SDCGA president, challenged each member to give $100. Each…

Continue Reading

I haven’t been a big believer in man-made global warming or climate change. But I recently gained a new appreciation of what some global warming beleivers are worried about. I was in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., recently, attending a BASF Innovations Symposium (tough duty, I know), and I stayed in the Westin Hotel right on the beach. The hotel was, literally, right on the beach. If it had been any closer to the Atlantic Ocean, we would have had needed boat to get the lobby. It…

Continue Reading

I was blown away by what Wes Jamison said when he lectured at South Dakota State University recently. Jamison, a Palm Beach Atlantic University professor of political science and an expert in animal welfare messaging, showed example after example of simple, powerful and effective advertising from the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Humane Society of the United States and other groups. In one advertisement, a puppy and baby pig stand side by side. The caption reads…

Continue Reading

Humane Watch says the Humane Society of the United States was “crushed” in the election last week. In North Dakota, HSUS and its lobbying foundation spent more than $675,000 in support of a ballot measure to make cruelty to dogs, cats and horses a felony. The measure failed 65% to 35% In Iowa, HSUS spent $750,000 opposing Rep. Steve King, who it said supported dogfighting. King won re-election. In Arizona, HSUS spent $100,000 to defeat U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Flake…

Continue Reading

I recently made a trip to western North Dakota to see what it’s like farming in the middle of the oil boom. When I hit the heart of the Bakken, I was shocked. What were they doing to land? There were payloaders, backhoes, bulldozers and graders everywhere. It seems farmers can’t clean a ditch, touch slough or covert grassland to cropland without getting into trouble with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Ducks Unlimited, the Sierra Club and…

Continue Reading

A measure to make abuse of horses, dogs and cats a Class C felony may  be on the November election ballot in North Dakota. The crime is currently classified as a misdemeanor -- the same as assault, battery, vandalism, theft, larceny and trespassing. Misdemeanors are generally punishable by fines and/or up to a year in a county or local jail. The state has approved a group's petition to increase the penalty to a Class C felony. The group now needs to get about…

Continue Reading

I’m surprised that the beef industry seems surprised by the pink slime controversy. Two weeks ago, ABC News reported that “its investigation” revealed that 70% of the ground beef sold in U.S. supermarkets contained something critics called pink slime – a filler made by spinning the flecks of beef off trimmings and disinfecting them with ammonia. The industry calls it Lean Finely Textured Beef. Of course, ABC News sensationalized the heck out of the story. It…

Continue Reading