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small group of cattle grazing on cover crops

Cover Crops & Livestock Integration: A Profit Opportunity for S.D. Farms

Cover crops have been gaining a reemerging acceptance over the last decade, with very few producers disagreeing about the potential soil health benefits of adding cover crops to their farming operation.

Bull Selection

Bull sale season is upon us and those who are in the market for a new herd sire face a choice that will impact their herd for many years.

several cattlemen on horseback moving a herd of cattle at pasture

Cow Share Agreements

Getting started in the cattle business can be tricky for beginning cattlemen due to the amount of capital investment needed upfront.

Requirements for Food Entrepreneurs Selling Food in South Dakota

Throughout the country and in the state of South Dakota, people are showing more interest in selling their own food products and starting their own business

Soybean seed drill planting soybeans. Courtesy: Soybean Checkoff [CC BY 2.0].

Improve Soybean Profitability by Reducing Input Costs

While declining prices and increasing costs considerably reduce profit for soybean production, there are certain input costs that might be reduced to increase profitability.

an image of red and yellow cherry tomatoes

Founding a Farmers Market: Form a Planning Team

The first step to forming a new farmers market is to form a planning team. Keep the team small enough so that it is simple, small and manageable.

Financial Record Keeping Software: A comparison of Quicken and QuickBooks

As fall nears many producers are beginning to gather their records to prepare for taxes. From these records many important operating decisions are made. Agriculture producers often use computer software to keep financial records. While there are software packages tailored for farm and ranch businesses, many producers successfully use general commercial software such as Quicken® or QuickBooks®. Both products can be useful for an agricultural producer’s record keeping. The question which often arises from producers is, “which one do I need”?

Soybean Production: Cost-effective pest management practices

Chemicals were one of the most expensive individual costs in soybean production, behind only to seed in the non-land cost category. The average cash-rent soybean production farms incurred a crop chemical cost of $39/ac in 2015, an 88% increase from 2010.

Farmers Market Food Safety: Health & Hygiene

Health, hygiene and hand washing apply to all stages of production, processing and marketing. Ill food handlers can easily contaminate fresh produce with disease-causing microorganisms. Many of these organisms have the capability to survive on fresh fruits and vegetables for an extended time, from several days to weeks. Once the organism is established on fresh produce, it is very hard to remove.

Let’s Talk BQA Assessments

Simply put, BQA assessments are a review of a farm or ranch by an assessor that helps managers benchmark their current level of cattle care and discover areas they may be able to improve.