How do you find land when you are a beginning farmer? John Overboe, Kindred, N.D., is looking everywhere. He is talking to relatives, neighbors and friends; running ads in newspapers; and even visiting courthouses to track titles to land. Overboe has to hustle. He has to compete with large, established farms in the southern Red River Valley for land and he has to deal with urban sprawl from Fargo, N.D. Overboe has turned one those challenges into an opportunity. He’s met…

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You have probably been told more times than you care to remember that you need be a good grain and livestock marketer to survive in agriculture today. It’s probably true, but it may not be as important as being a good producer. Jay Olson, a North Dakota Farm Business management instructor at Devils Lake, N.D., wrote an interesting column about the topic in the April Dakota Farmer magazine. He says that his analysis shows that in recent years yield, not price, has driven net…

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Being open to change has paid off for Travis and Renae Gebhart since they returned to the family ranch. The South Dakota State University graduates returned to the Gebhart family ranch near Meadow, S.D., in 2002. They ranch with Travis’ parents, Mike and Jane Gebhart, and Travis’ younger brother, Dalton, and his wife, Sara. The three families each own their own land and cattle, but all work together. The ranch used to be primarily a commercial cow-calf operation with some…

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Every couple years, I attend the Northern Plains Sustainable Ag Society’s winter meeting to see what’s going on in organic business. North Dakota and South Dakota are among the leading organic grain producing states in the U.S. This year’s meeting in Aberdeen, S.D., was well attended -- a record 500 people registered. NPSAS offers something for everybody in the organic business. There were sessions for grain growers, livestock producers, gardeners and even…

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John Sumption, Frederick, S.D., has accomplished something that few other farmers can boast. He and his wife, Margaret, have brought all five of their sons back to farm. Sumption was recently named a Master Farmer by Dakota Farmer. “My greatest joy is seeing them all together and making it work,” he says of Chris, 41; Eric, 39; Mark, 38; Taylor, 37, and Warren, 33. A joy that is a close second is having grandchildren now helping out on the grain and cattle farm…

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Ricky Lawlar says doesn’t know the secret to success. But he says he’s learned what helps him sleep at night despite the big risks of weather, markets and trade policy that are beyond his control “Do everything you can and then put it in God’s hands,” says Lawlar, Watford City, N.D. “God does the rest.” Lawlar was recently named one of four Master Farmers by the Dakota Farmer. But there’s a flipside to philosophy. “We had…

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Ernest Krabbenhoft, another of our four Master Farmers of 2012, had some good advice on how to success for his daughter: “Invest in yourself.” “His idea was that you can’t control stock markets or commodities markets or the weather, but you can put your trust and money in yourself, as that is about the only thing you can control,” says Jayne Krabbenhoft, who operates her own farm. “I think it was this sort of thinking that brought our family’s…

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“I like the fact that I’m growing a crop that is used directly for human food,” says David Iverson, a soybean grower from Astoria, S.D., and one of four farmers and ranchers recently recognized with a Master Farmer award from Dakota Farmer. Master Farmer is the oldest farmer award program in the U.S. It recognizes active agricultural producers for their farm and ranch achievements and their civic contributions. Iverson, 53, is chairman of the World Initiative for…

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I’ve been learning from the Masters this past week -- the 2012 Master Farmers, that is. We are going to reveal their identities in the December issue of Dakota Farmer. Master Farmer is one of the oldest recognition programs for active farmers in the nation. It recognizes individuals for their farming and ranching success and their contributions to their family, their communities and their industry. White interviewing this year’s Masters, I have learned one man’s secret to…

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I had an interesting trip around southeast South Dakota this past week. Heavy thunderstorms have delayed planting from Watertown to Huron to Madison. People farming the Vermillion, James and Big Sioux river bottoms were waiting for flood crests to pass before getting into those fields. I made it as far west at Fairfax, S.D., which just about 20 miles west of the Ft. Randall Dam on the Missouri River. They were busy getting their first soybean fields planted. Down along Highway 50, between…

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