MOVING CUSTOM FEED BUNKS WITH AN IRRIGATION RIG

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This summer and fall, Dakota Lakes farm manager, Sam Ireland, consulting agroecologist, Dr. Cody Zilverberg,  and research manager, Gary Waack, put their heads together to find a more efficient way to feed grain to the livestock herd to supplement their cover crop swath grazing system.

The herd, consisting of 12 Aberdeen Angus steers belonging to Dakota Lakes plus 67 steers that were on loan from Lowry rancher Luke Perman, was given access to a corn field and an adjacent cover crop field (oats and triticale) that had been hayed and swathed in late summer and then allowed to regrow. The animals weren’t given access to the entire cover crop field all at once, though. Rather, their progress down the field was controlled by an electric fence suspended from one of the farm’s irrigation rigs. Each day, the rig traveled 60 feet, giving the animals access to a fresh patch of the cover crop ground.

This year’s addition to the system came in the form of several feed bunks that were modified so they could be attached to the irrigation rig and move along with it.

Waack built skids for the bunks so they could slide easily along the ground and attached plates and chains to hook them together and attach them to the irrigator.

Zilverberg noted that while the design worked, there were some issues that they might need to address, as the U-bolts that attached the bunks together had gotten bent and there are some stability issues.

“The bunks are a little tippy when turning,” Zilverberg said.

But overall the team is happy with the system as it eliminated the need to move the bunks manually. In addition, moving the bunks reduces the risk of there being too much compaction in any given location.

Zilverberg says they were concerned that the electric fence wouldn’t hold the herd in the field, but those concerns were alleviated by good preparation by Perman.

“Luke’s animals were already trained to hotwire,” he says. “So thankfully we didn’t have any problems.”

You can watch a video showing the feed bunks in action here.

Ample Wildlife

Just like people, wildlife needs food, shelter, and water not just to survive but to thrive. The farming practices we follow at Dakota Lakes nurture a robust ecosystem that provide for the needs not only of the deer and pheasants that are popular with local hunters and nature enthusiasts but also a diverse range of species that ideally keeps pests at bay naturally without the need for intensive pesticide intervention.

Healthy Food

Much of the nutrient acquisition in plants is mediated by microbes, so soils that are home to a rich diversity of microbial life are better equipped to provide plants with their required nutrition effectively and efficiently. Recent studies have shown foods, including meat, grown under regenerative farming practices contain higher levels of certain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals than those grown under conventional farming practices. While the science behind these studies is complex and sample sizes are small and highly variable, preliminary results suggest that regenerative practices can enhance the nutritional profile of many of the foods we eat.

Clean Water

Carbon is one of the best water filters known to man, and regenerative farming practices like no-till, cover crops, and livestock integration help to maintain or even increase soil carbon levels. Plants serve as natural “carbon pumps,” bringing carbon in from the atmosphere by way of photosynthesis and feeding it to soil microbes in the form of exudates. In addition, plants take up and hold onto nutrients that are mineralized in the soil, so keeping living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible goes a long way to preventing nutrient runoff into local waterways.

Living Soils

By following diverse cropping rotations, keeping a living root in the ground as much as possible, integrating livestock, maintaining good soil armor, and keeping soil disturbance to a minimum, we are nurturing the soil microbiome and providing favorable conditions for the bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa, insects, earthworms, and other living creatures that call the soil their home. Just a teaspoon of healthy soil can contain billions of microbes and our goal is to promote a natural, balanced environment that allows them to thrive.