25th Annual Herdsmanship School

Published: 2020
By Ben Hauptman

Cattle ranching is a primary driver of Granite County’s economy, creating $14,057,000 of revenue in 2016. Ranch inputs for many operations remain fairly constant year-to-year, but market volatility can lead to slim profit margins for ranchers. It is important for ranches to minimize losses and implement proper management strategy in cattle herds. To meet some of these challenges, in January of 2020, Granite County MSU Extension invited a group of MSU Extension Specialists to engage with local ranchers as part of the 25th annual Herdsmanship School. Over three weeks in January, area ranchers took part in seminars on a range of topics, including calving management, mineral supplementation, marketing, range and pasture seeding, and livestock mortality management. Livestock mortality management was an area of concern since the Granite County livestock composting site was going to no longer be used. Tommy Bass, MSU Extension Livestock Environment Specialist, was on hand to inform ranchers about the importance of having a way to deal with livestock carcasses correctly to keep away predators and disease. With the loss of the county site, it was important that ranchers could learn how to easily construct their own livestock composting site.