NDGF: Steinwand Retiring

guywhofishes

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Being a good businessman doesn't mean profits above all else.

I see many farmers doing amazing things to improve their land. Does that make them bad businessmen? Hardly - I'd say in long term they're actually the good businessmen.
 


Allen

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Being a good businessman doesn't mean profits above all else.

I see many farmers doing amazing things to improve their land. Does that make them bad businessmen? Hardly - I'd say in long term they're actually the good businessmen.

Define for me "improving the land". Does that include tree row removal, tilling the riparian areas, wetland and tile drains, breaking up of native prairie? All of these increase the ag value of your land while lowering the hunting/conservation value.

I'm not saying there aren't landowners playing the long-game with conservation in mind, it's just not what I see on a lot of our larger corporate "family" farms.
 

guywhofishes

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Tree rows. Leaving buffer strips in high erosion areas of fields, etc.

Define “a good businessman “.
 

MuskyManiac

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Boy did this thread get off track! LOL


Thread Direction.jpeg
 


Davey Crockett

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An Indian Chief was asked by a government official, "where did the white man go wrong?”

He said “When white man find land, Indians running it. No taxes, No debt, Plenty of wildlife, trees and Clean Water; Women did all the work at camp, Medicine man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; All night screwing wife ”

Then the chief leaned back and smiled. “Only white man dumb enough to think he can improve system like that.”
 

FlatTopPete

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Oh great, this discussion has morphed into the "if you want better habitat then buy some land" territory again.

Hey GST - Who's fault is habitat loss if not farmers? Are we supposed to tiptoe around such a HUGE problem?

There ARE greedy farmers who farm every square inch they can. Let's go for a drive in eastern ND and I'll show you countless examples of ridiculous decisions to clear every creek and draw and farm it to within a foot of the river/creek edge.

Why is it so hard to accept there are greedy farmers who get carried away? Why always jump on the tiresome "blame all the farmers" retort?

That makes no sense. I don't blindly defend all hunters or city dwellers. We've got plenty of bad apples. But guess what, ag does too.

Guywhodoesntknowanythingabouteconomics:

Haha, First off I’m not GST. I just find it funny how a lot of you guys act like if you had the chance to improve the value of an asset and in turn make more annual income, you wouldn’t do it cuz it hurts the sportsman.

Think about it. If the crp payment is $40-60 per acre per year and land rent is $80-100, what exactly do you think is going to happen? Whether it’s an 80 year old woman that owns the land, or it’s in a trust, or those horrible farmers own it, every single one of them is going to try to maximize their income. You would too if you were in their shoes.

Another thing you guys talk about is tree row removal. Here’s the thing on that. A lot of those tree rows were planted in the 50’s-80’s back when farming involved tilling the ground and making it black every year. NRCS promoted tree rows to combat wind erosion of the soil. And in some cases it was a good idea. But now with the advent of no-till the dust doesn’t blow as badly as before. Hell the last year we would have seen an insane dust storm if everyone would be plowing. Wayyyy worse than what we have seen so far. And a lot of those shelterbelts have reached the end of their life cycle. So there’s that too.
 

CWS

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Guywhodoesntknowanythingabouteconomics:

Haha, First off I’m not GST. I just find it funny how a lot of you guys act like if you had the chance to improve the value of an asset and in turn make more annual income, you wouldn’t do it cuz it hurts the sportsman.

Think about it. If the crp payment is $40-60 per acre per year and land rent is $80-100, what exactly do you think is going to happen? Whether it’s an 80 year old woman that owns the land, or it’s in a trust, or those horrible farmers own it, every single one of them is going to try to maximize their income. You would too if you were in their shoes.

Another thing you guys talk about is tree row removal. Here’s the thing on that. A lot of those tree rows were planted in the 50’s-80’s back when farming involved tilling the ground and making it black every year. NRCS promoted tree rows to combat wind erosion of the soil. And in some cases it was a good idea. But now with the advent of no-till the dust doesn’t blow as badly as before. Hell the last year we would have seen an insane dust storm if everyone would be plowing. Wayyyy worse than what we have seen so far. And a lot of those shelterbelts have reached the end of their life cycle. So there’s that too.

If those tree rows are at the end of there life cycle, why not replant? I live in the Red River Valley, seems to be several tree rows being taken out and burned every year, while the farmers DONT practice no-till. Then comes the spring like we are having, extremely dry and windy, not that top soil ends up in the ditch and I hear farmers complain! And I think to myself "come on man!" don't take a tree row out or if you do, replant one!! If the no-till will keep the top soil on, don't till up black in the fall and spring! Blows my mind on the excuses the farmers give or other give for the farmers.
 

Allen

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Tree rows. Leaving buffer strips in high erosion areas of fields, etc.

Define “a good businessman “.


In the handful of business courses I took, I always got the impression a "good businessman" is always striving to maximize the return on their investment. Perhaps a GREAT businessman who is in the business of farming can do that while shrinking his tillable acreage. :;:huh
 

Duckslayer100

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Another thing you guys talk about is tree row removal. Here’s the thing on that. A lot of those tree rows were planted in the 50’s-80’s back when farming involved tilling the ground and making it black every year. NRCS promoted tree rows to combat wind erosion of the soil. And in some cases it was a good idea. But now with the advent of no-till the dust doesn’t blow as badly as before. Hell the last year we would have seen an insane dust storm if everyone would be plowing. Wayyyy worse than what we have seen so far. And a lot of those shelterbelts have reached the end of their life cycle. So there’s that too.

Bahahaha boy you don't live around here, do you...
 


guywhofishes

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Maximize tillable acreage equals good business.

Like Eidco building as many house as possible.
 

fireone

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Top soil is a one time asset. Let it blow or wash away and it is gone. You can build any number of burger doodle joints as they depreciate out but all those yellow clay knobs across ND have lost their fertility forever. And farmers are still doing that today.
 

CAH

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Yea but but but.... flattopete said there is way less dust blowing around!!!
 

FlatTopPete

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Yea but but but.... flattopete said there is way less dust blowing around!!!

July 2020 through March 2021 was the driest stretch EVER RECORDED in Bismarck ND. Of course there’s going to be dust blowing. You have any idea how bad it would be if farmers would still be farming like they did 50 years ago? You seriously want to sit here and argue that there’s the same amount of guys plowing and turning up the soil currently in the Dakota’s as there was in the 40’s through 80’s???

You obviously don’t know anything about farming and appear like you’ve gone full retard so I won’t take the time to explain it to you. It’s probably safer for you to continue thinking that food comes from the grocery store anyways....
 


CAH

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July 2020 through March 2021 was the driest stretch EVER RECORDED in Bismarck ND. Of course there’s going to be dust blowing. You have any idea how bad it would be if farmers would still be farming like they did 50 years ago? You seriously want to sit here and argue that there’s the same amount of guys plowing and turning up the soil currently in the Dakota’s as there was in the 40’s through 80’s???

You obviously don’t know anything about farming and appear like you’ve gone full retard so I won’t take the time to explain it to you. It’s probably safer for you to continue thinking that food comes from the grocery store anyways....

My food does come from the grocery store as does yours unless you found a way to eat soy beans and canola? I do appreciate canola farmers though. I like To use canola oil to fry up the pheasant schnitzel I shot out of a tree row... oh wait.
 

Bacon

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I gotta say, there is an amazing amount of ignorance when it comes to production ag on here.
 

Retired Educator

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You must not be very old. Hunting used to be ten times what it is now

I think that pretty much depends on your definition of "Used to be". When I started deer hunting in the 60's if you didn't shoot the first buck you saw you might not get another shot. Could get a license every year the first few years i hunted but there were half or less the number of applications today. Season was 101/2 days then. Pheasant hunting wasn't what it is today because of the CRP even with the much lower acres in CRP today. Some hunting is better today and some isn't.
 

lunkerslayer

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I believe in the distance future of wild game is that; wild animals will be raised domestically in the same way that bison and elk are raised now. The world is changing with more in more people of the world relying on the united states to supply them with grains. Bill Gates is already thinking of that future and I can assure you that he has no intention of preserving land for us hunters. The last article I read is something like a quarter of a million acres, the articles never said what his intentions were but I think he is buying farmland to raise crops for china. China is turning their farmland into a toxic dump and cant produce enough to feed a billion people if we really wanted to destroy china all we would have to do is quit selling them our grains.
 

Fritz the Cat

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Eventually this state will follow MN and other states where the state will decide how close to rivers and other water bodies one can actively farm, when nitrogen can/can't be applied, etc.

Rather than farmers making reasonable decisions about habitat and water quality, some bureaucrat in Bismarck will decide for them.

It's simply how things go when you start down the path to a "European" style government where most people are dictated the rules by the few - all because of the crappy decisions made by the few in the past.

And rather than encouraging better practices voluntarily NOW, many in ag will choose to attack the messengers rather than address the core issue.

Then they'll get all butt hurt when the gov't (city slickers in Bismarck with no land) start dictating what the farmers can/can't do.

The ag stronghold on the legislature isn't going to last forever.

Guy, your words are more soothsaying than you realize. Right now there are ballot measures in Oregon and Colorado banning slaughtering an animal under 30 months of age and making it sexual assault to stick an arm into a cows rectum during artificial insemination.

https://winepressnews.com/2021/04/2...ould-ban-breeding-and-slaughtering-livestock/
 


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