Dakota Farmer

Fund set up for cattle producers affected by spring blizzard

North Dakota cattle organizations create Hope After Haley Disaster Relief Fund.

Kevin Schulz, Editor

May 5, 2022

4 Min Read
Cattle in snow
HOPE IN HELP: Help is available to cattle producers in North Dakota after back-to-back storms caused power outages, building damage, and livestock illness and death. North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and North Dakota Stockmen’s Foundation have started a relief fund to help offset some of the losses.Michelle Erickson-Jones/Getty Images

April threw North Dakota cattle producers an aggressive one-two punch, with the blows coming at the most inopportune time of calving season.

First, Blizzard Haley dumped more than 40 inches of snow in some areas, but true totals were hard to calculate due to the sustained 50-mph winds accompanying the snow. That blizzard was followed by more feet of snow, severe winds, and rain or ice.

Between coping with blizzard conditions impacting calving season and other issues facing feedstuff supplies, North Dakota cattle producers have a lot to deal with, but help is coming.

The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and North Dakota Stockmen’s Foundation have launched the Hope After Haley Disaster Relief Fund. The two organizations have kick-started the effort with a $40,000 contribution.

Impact still unknown

The storms’ impact on livestock producers is still being calculated by the county offices of North Dakota State University Extension.

But “what I can tell you is that we have visited with literally hundreds of producers over the course of the last two weeks, and the impacts are very real from border to border,” says Julie Ellingson, executive vice president of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association. “The impacts range from livestock losses or illness that resulted from the storms, or other things like damage to buildings, feed reserves being depleted significantly, and now in the northwestern part of our state, significant long-term power outages that exacerbate the problems.”

Drought conditions had a border-to-border impact across North Dakota in 2021, reducing “production and restock-ability of both hay yards and feedstuffs in general, so that creates a compounding effect with the types of disasters that we’re dealing with now,” Ellingson says.

Snow amounts across the state will make it difficult for cattle producers to find clean, dry areas for their livestock. Also, with the drought carrying over, most will face a delayed turnout to pastures, “and will require more use of some of that stored feed, which already has been limited because of the conditions that we’re coming off of,” she says.

Delay turnout

NDSU livestock specialists say this spring’s weather on top of last year’s lingering drought will likely create a delay in pasture turnout.

“Air temperature is the main environmental factor that determines the rate of grass development,” states Miranda Meehan, Extension livestock environmental stewardship in an NDSU press release. “Each leaf produced on a stem requires a specific amount of accumulated heat, or heat units. The temperature when plants initiate development, or the base temperature, is 32 [degrees] F for cool-season and 40 F for warm-season grasses. The temperature, or heat units, that a plant needs to accumulate to produce a leaf can be expressed as growing degree days.”

Perennial grasses start to accumulate growing degree days the first day after March 15 when the average daily air temperature exceeds 32 degrees for five consecutive days, according to Kevin Sedivec, rangeland management specialist and interim director of the NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center at Carrington.

The number of growing degree days needed to reach grazing readiness varies between species from 443 days for crested wheatgrass to over 1,000 for most native species. Read more about grazing readiness at NDSU Extension.

“Grazing readiness is the developmental stage where the plant is able to recover from the stress of grazing,” says James Rogers, Extension forage crops production specialist at the NDSU North Central Research Extension Center near Minot. “Grazing readiness for most domesticated pasture is at the three-leaf stage, whereas grazing readiness for most native range grasses is the three-and-a-half-leaf stage.”

Rogers says grazing too early will:

  • reduce plant vigor

  • thin existing stands

  • lower total forage production

  • increase disease, insect and weed infestations

Pastures and range damaged by early grazing or severely overgrazed may take several years of deferment or rest before the stand regains productivity.

How you can help

To help cattle producers affected by the storms and lack of feedstuffs, monetary contributions to the disaster relief fund can be made in two ways:

  1. Checks can be made to the NDSF with “Hope After Haley” written in the memo and sent to 407 S. Second St., Bismarck, ND 58504.

  2. Credit card gifts can be made online by clicking here.

The gifts will be pooled and distributed in their entirety to North Dakota cattle ranchers later this spring through an application and nomination process. A selection committee comprised of fellow ranchers will make selections and distribute the funds to those most in need.

“We’re hopeful to get dollars in the hands of cattlemen and women in North Dakota that are the hardest hit,” Ellingson says. The storms of the past month “and the impact on livestock producers captured the attention of people from all over the country, and the outpouring of support has been incredible of people reaching out, really sympathizing for what our cattlemen and women are going through.”

About the Author

Kevin Schulz

Editor, The Farmer

Kevin Schulz joined The Farmer as editor in January of 2023, after spending two years as senior staff writer for Dakota Farmer and Nebraska Farmer magazines. Prior to joining these two magazines, he spent six years in a similar capacity with National Hog Farmer. Prior to joining National Hog Farmer, Schulz spent a long career as the editor of The Land magazine, an agricultural-rural life publication based in Mankato, Minn.

During his tenure at The Land, the publication grew from covering 55 Minnesota counties to encompassing the entire state, as well as 30 counties in northern Iowa. Covering all facets of Minnesota and Iowa agriculture, Schulz was able to stay close to his roots as a southern Minnesota farm boy raised on a corn, soybean and hog finishing farm.

One particular area where he stayed close to his roots is working with the FFA organization.

Covering the FFA programs stayed near and dear to his heart, and he has been recognized for such coverage over the years. He has received the Minnesota FFA Communicator of the Year award, was honored with the Minnesota Honorary FFA Degree in 2014 and inducted into the Minnesota FFA Hall of Fame in 2018.

Schulz attended South Dakota State University, majoring in agricultural journalism. He was also a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and now belongs to its alumni organization.

His family continues to live on a southern Minnesota farm near where he grew up. He and his wife, Carol, have raised two daughters: Kristi, a 2014 University of Minnesota graduate who is married to Eric Van Otterloo and teaches at Mankato (Minn.) East High School, and Haley, a 2018 graduate of University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She is married to John Peake and teaches in Hayward, Wis. 

When not covering the agriculture industry on behalf of The Farmer's readers, Schulz enjoys spending time traveling with family, making it a quest to reach all 50 states — 47 so far — and three countries. He also enjoys reading, music, photography, playing basketball, and enjoying nature and campfires with friends and family.

[email protected]

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