Rangelands rebound in Sioux County
Chabella Guzman
Author
07/05/2023
Added
62
Plays
Description
Josh Skavdahl, a fourth-generation rancher and operator, discusses the ranges he and his brother, Jud run their operation on.
Searchable Transcript
Toggle between list and paragraph view.
- [00:00:00.000]The pasture and rangelands in Sioux County are lush
- [00:00:02.867]and green this summer. They made a
- [00:00:04.559]beautiful backdrop for the June 29 tour of the Skavdahls’
- [00:00:07.932]Cow-Calf Enterprise, Stocker/Feeder Enterprise,
- [00:00:11.062]and Feedlots near Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.
- [00:00:13.997]Josh Skavdahl, a fourth-generation rancher and operator,
- [00:00:17.598]said the ranges are quite different now from last year
- [00:00:20.423]when the county and the Panhandle were under a drought.
- [00:00:23.574]We’re going to see a lot of beautiful grass,
- [00:00:25.497]because we’ve had a wonderful spring up here.
- [00:00:27.230]We’ll be making some stops up and down
- [00:00:29.777]this valley and we’re going to end up in Harrison
- [00:00:31.834]for lunch and we’ll look at some nice hard grass up there in Sioux County.
- [00:00:36.247]With the drought came challenges.
- [00:00:38.378]Our biggest challenge was just feed.
- [00:00:41.362]And getting cattle, retaining the cow herd through the
- [00:00:44.479]winter. We were lucky that we hadn’t stocked
- [00:00:46.536]super heavy. And the ability to raise, we have a
- [00:00:51.831]combination of dryland hay and irrigated hay.
- [00:00:54.446]Most all of our feed, except for the corn is
- [00:00:57.011]produced on the ground, it’s either owned or leased.
- [00:01:00.242]And we were very fortunate to have the
- [00:01:03.777]irrigation the last couple of years. Cause there
- [00:01:06.417]was absolutely no dryland hay in this area.
- [00:01:08.741]The pastures and ranges, the Skavdahls run their cattle
- [00:01:12.304]on is threadleaf sedge. The quality of the grass
- [00:01:15.266]that we have available up here it’s a hard grass prairie,
- [00:01:18.146]and short it never gets very tall but it’s very,
- [00:01:21.654]very nutritious. That’s probably the biggest secret to our
- [00:01:25.969]success. It looks like there’s not much there
- [00:01:29.273]but the grass is really got a good punch in
- [00:01:31.618]this part of the region. Skavdahl said stalking rates are
- [00:01:35.330]important in their range management. Stocking rate is about
- [00:01:38.257]all you have to keep an eye on. It’s a pretty
- [00:01:40.573]forgiving area, if you keep your stocking
- [00:01:43.240]rate manageable. You’ll have grass even in the dry years.
- [00:01:49.129]We were fortunate, we could still utilize the
- [00:01:52.232]pastures cause we hadn’t overstocked or over-grazed them.
- [00:01:55.630]Skavdahl said for those starting out in the business,
- [00:01:58.143]they should know the area, local climate and pick
- [00:02:00.999]a calving date that’s going to minimize feed cost
- [00:02:03.603]and maximize pounds produced.
The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!
You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.
Log in to post comments
Embed
Copy the following code into your page
HTML
<div style="padding-top: 56.25%; overflow: hidden; position:relative; -webkit-box-flex: 1; flex-grow: 1;"> <iframe style="bottom: 0; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; border: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%;" src="https://mediahub.unl.edu/media/21115?format=iframe&autoplay=0" title="Video Player: Rangelands rebound in Sioux County" allowfullscreen ></iframe> </div>
Comments
0 Comments