ND Grazing Lands Coalition
Dakota Prairies and Dakota West RC&D Councils are fortunate to partner with the North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition to provide quality education to crop and livestock producers and agency personnel across the state. Contact Dakota Prairies RC&D for full details on becoming involved in this organization, or in utilizing the free services of the Mentorship program.
Background
The North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition is a grassroots group organized in 1996 to promote the health and sustainability of North Dakota's 13.5 million acres of Grazing Land. The Coalition's goal is to provide local leadership, guidance, information, and technical assistance to grassland managers. They believe that through voluntary actions, respect for private property rights, and education on the values and multiple benefits of well-managed grazing resources, their goals are achievable.
Coalition members have a very strong focus on the importance of managing for soil health and systems biodiversity as a key to sustainable farming and ranching. They continue to implement and demonstrate new technologies that: improve soil health, productivity and profitabilty, reduce input costs, and integrate livestock and crops in a whole farm systems approach. They work through the kinks that are always a part of the transition to new technology, and are positioned and willing to assist other producers in making those adjustments.
Values
Coalition members believe in: learning from the trials and experiences of peers; opening doors to grass management expertise; sharing alternatives and different perspectives; discovering common goals and objectives; generating new ideas.
Membership
Any Individual who is interested in becoming a member of the North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition (NDGLC) may do so by attending the Coalition annual meeting and requesting membership status from that assembly. The annual meeting is held in November and the date will be posted on this page and on the RC&D events Calendar.
Mentoring
The ND Grazing Lands Coalition has established a grassroots-based network of managers who have agreed to provide guidance and council to interested farmers and ranchers and agency personnel on grazing and cropping management. Their advice is based on knowledge and experience they have gained on their operations and their interaction with other producers across the state. These Mentors are available to discuss a number of topics including: etc. They understand that no two ranches/farms are alike, and that each producer must adapt to those management practices that meet their own individual goals, resource needs, and management capabilities.
(Mentor Reimbursement Forms are available here)
Topics
- Cover crops & crop cocktails
- Grazing management & rotations
- Water development & placement
- Complementary grazing
- Using livestock as a management tool
- Wildlife management
- Pest Management
- Grazing Irrigated Pasture
- Grazing management on Expired CRP
- Fencing
- Livestock Movement
- Soil health
- Economics of grazing management
- Goal setting and decisionmaking
- Monitoring and record keeping
- Cropland aftermath grazing
- Winter Grazing
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