Tag: agriculture

ND farmers flying into D.C. to push for farm bill

Everyone has to eat.

That’s the motto southwest North Dakota farmers Jim Kerzman and Bob Kuylen have, and it’s the sentiment they’re taking with them to Washington, D.C., this week as part of the National Farmers Union’s annual fly-in event to lobby members of Congress to support the farm bill.

Sixty-seven North Dakota Farmers Union members are flying into the nation’s capital and Kuylan, who farms wheat and sunflowers near South Heart, said he hopes the delegation can put some faces to the farm bill.

“They like to talk to actual farmers instead of lobbyists,” Kuylen said. “We’ll tell them what’s going on out in the country, instead of someone being paid and curving it their way.”

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Tales of a typical North Dakota harvest

Combining south of New England.

Harvest in North Dakota can be a time of celebration, frustration and, if you get the crop in the bin or to the elevator, pure relief.

Once the crop is cut, there are no more worries about hail, thunderstorms or any other force of nature that can upset the fragile plants on which farmers’ livelihoods hinge. The stuff that makes the money is finally off the field and safely stored.

I spent eight of the last 12 days in August on what amounted to be a working vacation as I helped my dad and brother harvest their durum, spring wheat and canola crop. For those of you who don’t know my family or I, Monke Farms is located just west of the Enchanted Highway about 20 miles south of Gladstone and we farm land throughout northwestern Hettinger County.

Though my job here at The Press made me miss the start of harvest — my favorite part — I was able to experience more of it this year than I have since my first year of college.
Now any farmer will tell you that harvest doesn’t happen without hiccups. Ever.

This year wasn’t too bad though.

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Holding on until harvest: Crop outlook in southwest ND good despite late harvest projections

A field of durum south of New England, still almost completely green, is shown in early August.

The same fields that were being harvested on this day last year are lusher today in most parts of southwest North Dakota, and most are just barely showing signs of ripening.

Despite late planting and below-average July temperatures — including one overnight when southwest North Dakota neared frost-like conditions — grain crops in the area look good and have producers anxiously hoping the weather cooperates for another three to four weeks until it’s ready to harvest.

“It’s the old, ‘You never know until it’s in the bin,’” Scranton Equity grain manager Mike Wedwick said. “But things look good.”

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The keeping of the beekeepers: ND wants to keep a better eye on the industry

Doug Goehring, the agriculture commissioner of North Dakota, said there are concerns about the business of bees in the state. So much so that he has fielded late-night phone calls from landowners concerned about the placement of hives.

“‘Doug, I just want to let you know I’ve got bees right across from me,’” Goehring recalls one McKenzie farmer telling him over the phone at 10:30 p.m. on a recent Saturday.

Placement of beehives and the regulation of out-of-state beekeepers in North Dakota are among the concerns Goehring believes will have farmers, landowners and beekeepers buzzing at the first North Dakota Pollinator Summit, which is being held at 1 p.m. CDT today at the Kelly Inn in Bismarck.

“I think that the beekeepers are going to think I’m taking a shot at them. I’m not,” Goehring said. “I’m trying to address this issue because they are guests here.”

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Farm accident claims the life of 19-year-old Mott man

A 19-year-old Mott man beloved by the community he grew up in died Monday while doing what he loved, family and friends said.

Mike Wehri was attempting to spray a field for an area farmer he worked for when the machine he was driving “hit something electrical,” Hettinger County Sheriff Sarah Warner said.

Wehri was a 2012 Mott-Regent High School graduate and recently completed his freshman year at North Dakota State University, where he was majoring in agronomy.
“All he wanted to do all his life was be a farmer,” said Judy Martin, Wehri’s grandmother who lives in Dickinson.

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