hardingfarm

About the HLCC Farm

Shortly after acquiring the Bradshaw ranches in 1989, the Harding family purchased the old Reuben Shrober farm and feedlot located 11 miles west of Terry. Shortly there-after, Hardings were able to purchase an adjacent farm, which directly bordered the Shrober place and which also had direct river frontage on the Yellowstone River. More recently, HLCC has purchased three other farms, which have land that either borders the main farm and feedlot, or is located nearby. Two of these additional properties also contain Yellowstone River frontage.

Today, the total acreage of the entire HLCC farm and feedlot unit exceeds 1,000 acres. Over 800 acres are irrigated. The other acreage is made up of tree-covered river frontage or various pastures, which are spread throughout the unit. Irrigation water used by the Harding farm is supplied by the Buffalo Rapids Irrigation Project. This water comes from the Yellowstone River and is pumped into the main ditch over 7 miles southwest of the Harding farm. All of the crops are irrigated by flood irrigation, using gated pipe (10 and 12 inch size) for the most part. However, around 200 acres are still irrigated using dams and/or siphon tubes.

After the crops are all harvested, the farm employees begin the fieldwork in preparation for next spring’s planting. At the same time, however, the farm is gearing up for the arrival of the first load of calves from the ranch. Except for the replacement heifers that are kept at the feedlot during the summer, the feedlot remains empty until the coming of the calves in the fall. As the calves begin showing up at the feedlot facilities, attention quickly shifts from the farming aspect of the farm/feedlot unit to the feeding aspect.

Calves are fed weaning pellets with grass hay for about one month. The amount of silage in their ration is slowly increased as time goes on. Because of the advanced health program used by HLCC, from branding until the calves reach the feedlot, sickness among the calves is very minimal. Also, all employees at HLCC participate and are certified in the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program.

Harding Land & Cattle Company has relied on the expertise of qualified individuals in formulating the ideal ration for the feeder calves. Among them, Dr. John Patterson at Montana State University inBozeman, MT is the Extension Beef Specialist who has assisted greatly in this respect. The goal is to grow the calves at a rate that takes into consideration the calves’ frame sizes and how close they are to being finished with the backgrounding phase and ready to advance to the next stage. The HLCC feedlot backgrounds its calves until they reach about 800 pounds. The calves are separated into small, medium, and large groups by weight in late November or December, and therefore reach this 800 pound mark at different intervals. Those calves that are finished with the backgrounding phase are sent to the McGinley-Schilz feedlot inNebraska. HLCC sells half of its calves to the McGinley-Schilz feedlot and retains ownership on the other half until they are slaughtered. The finished slaughter weight is about 1,200 to 1,300 pounds for steers and 1,000 to 1,100 pounds for heifers. In the past, HLCC’s calves have graded better than average in carcass quality, which is in keeping with the Harding family’s goal of producing quality beef.

The principal crops grown on the Harding farm are corn, alfalfa, and grass. The corn is either chopped for silage or combined as shell corn. Either way, the corn harvested on the farm is used to feed the cattle in the feedlot. Three cuttings of hay are put up on the alfalfa fields. The first and second cuttings are usually kept at the farm and ground up for use in the feeder calves’ rations. The third cutting is hauled to the ranch to feed to the cows that are being wintered there. There are several grass and alfalfa/grass mixture fields that are used for special purposes. Several pure grass fields are planted with a grass variety known as New-Hy. This grass variety does exceptionally well in high water table and high saline areas. This grass is typically fed to the calves while they are being weaned. One of the alfalfa/grass mixture fields is baled into small square bales. These bales are hauled to the ranch on Locate Creek and used in the calving barn during calving season.

The types of soil at the farm vary greatly depending on each particular field. The fields that are closer to the river are sandier in texture, while the soils as one moves east from the river, particularly in the fields surrounding the feedlot, are more clayey in nature.

The farm/feedlot combination works well for the HLCC operation. The feedlot activities consume all of the winter months, but since the feeder calves are only backgrounded at the Harding farm, they are typically shipped out by the time spring farming begins. The bulls and replacement stock are kept in the feedlot throughout the spring and even the summer months in some cases.

The farm would not be what it is without the availability of irrigation water. These photos show several different methods by which the HLCC farm is irrigated. The corn can be irrigated using gated pipe (as seen below), or with ditches and siphon tubes (as seen on the right). In the photo below, the loaded pipe trailer is about to be unloaded so that irrigating can begin on this particular field. In the photo at the right, over 70 of these 1.5 inch siphon tubes have been running for 12 hours and are ready to be changed. These irrigation ditches carry a large volume of water, and can water many rows at a time. It was near 105 degrees when this photo was taken.

In September and October, after harvesting the corn and wrapping up the last cutting of alfalfa, the big push to prepare the fields for the next spring’s planting gets underway. Fall preparation of fields is preferred to spring because the soil moisture is typically lower in the fall and therefore the risk of soil compaction is lower.

The HLCC farm is in an alfalfa/corn rotation plan. Alfalfa fields will remain productive for 5 to 7 years before being broken up and replaced with corn. Fields being taken out of alfalfa are worked with a sub-soiler and “ripped” or plowed first. Next, the fields are usually (but not always) disked, in order to further break down clumps that may exist. Finally, a roller harrow is used to finish the process and prepare the ground for seeding the following spring. Ground that is going back into corn is ripped, disked, and roller harrowed in preparation for corn planting.

Corn planting begins around May 1 each spring. Fertilizer is applied before seeding (fall or spring) in accordance with the soil test results that are obtained each year. After the corn has emerged, the fields are cultivated once and ditched once. The ditching is necessary for row crops so that they can be irrigated using siphon tubes or gated pipe. In dry years, the corn has to be irrigated in order to sprout. Chemical applications are made according to the stage of growth each cornfield is in and how bad the weed population may be at the time. HLCC has started using "Round-up Ready" (can tolerate Roundup Herbicide) corn in recent years. This has helped greatly in reducing weed infestations.

Irrigation on the alfalfa fields is started as soon as water enters the Buffalo Rapids Irrigation ditch—typically in early May. Thus begins the continuous summer process of moving gated pipe and monitoring irrigation water on the Harding farm. The summer activities are centered around the jobs of haying, irrigating, and checking the crops for diseases or other abnormalities. Last year, the total acres in corn on the Harding farm exceeded 220 acres, and the total land in alfalfa hay or grass hay production is over 550 acres. A yield of anywhere from 3.5 to 7 tons per acre is usually realized on the alfalfa fields during the course of the summer, while a silage yield of 20 tons/acre or greater is desired for the corn crop. These yields depend greatly on the year, the type of soil, and other factors. Silage crop yields have reached around 38 tons per acre, but that is not typical every year.

The HLCC farm is concerned with two main factors in the production of its crops—quantity and quality. We are constantly trying to boost production levels while at the same time maintaining a certain quality standard. In achieving these goals, timing is critical. Every stage of the process in growing and harvesting a crop has an “optimal” time of occurrence. Hay that is baled too early, or too late is less than desirable in many cases, just as chopping the corn too late or too early can affect the quantity and quality of the silage. Those at the HLCC farm are in continual pursuit of this “optimal” point throughout every phase of the farming process.