Does North Dakota really want more animal agriculture?
The North Dakota Legislature will be in session again in January, and one topic that seems destined to come up again in 2025 is animal agriculture and how to grow that sector of the industry.
Animal ag was a big deal in the 2023 session, which culminated in a watering down of the state's anti-corporate farming law in an effort to increase livestock numbers in the state.
North Dakota has long lagged its neighbors to all three sides in livestock. While the state has a solid — though nowhere near nation-leading — cattle industry, it's pretty low in other segments. And you might say, who cares? The state leads in many categories of production. Does it need to move up the ranks in livestock, too ?
Economically speaking, animal agriculture is an important sector to grow. All those crops farmers grow need to go somewhere. Having more livestock to which to feed crops like corn or byproducts that result from value-added processing would add value to the state's existing products and provide additional economic movement in communities.
And while that makes complete sense, something keeps rattling in my head: Do the people of the state really want more animal agriculture?
I live on a farm and ranch that includes a feedlot. It's a small feedlot in comparison to the kinds of operations boasted by neighboring states, but we do use a lot of corn and dried distiller's grain, along with some occasional sugarbeet pulp and a lot of hay and forage.
The feedlot was a big investment that took years of planning and work to build. And that was just the beginning — to make the place financially viable, it takes year-round work, seven days a week. It was a choice we made, but I don't think it's a choice many North Dakotans are clamoring to make. Warren Zenker, a cattleman who lives to our south in Gackle, North Dakota, made the point while speaking on a recent panel to state legislators that not many young people are looking to keep cattle or other livestock around, in part because of the lifestyle restrictions needed to make it work.
The lack of meat processing in the state also reduces the economic viability of finishing livestock on a large scale, as the end markets are far away and require high trucking costs to reach. Zenker questioned whether the people of North Dakota really would be interested in having a packing plant in their backyard — any more than they seem to want the livestock themselves there.
Announcements of livestock developments are rarely met with unfettered optimism in North Dakota. Riverview Dairy has announced two huge projects in North Dakota , and at least one of them has an active and organized opposition that has many important questions about the impact on their lives . Some opposition has indicated that they wouldn't mind the total size of dairy expansion, if it was spread out across more farms in the state. But without more people who want to care for cattle on their own farms and ranches, you won't see expansion happen outside of large developments.
As someone who has been connected to the beef cattle industry her whole life, I obviously see the value of livestock. I've owned cattle, fed cattle, sold cattle. My days off from my full-time job usually involve caring for cattle. It's a consuming way of life. The same would be true of raising dairy cattle, hogs, poultry or caring for large numbers of any other living creatures.
I hope the Legislature keeps looking at ways to increase livestock numbers. But I hope they focus on a couple key points as they work: Who will raise the livestock? And how can development be managed in a way that gains the acceptance of the people of the state?
