Travelers on Interstate-94 have the scenic pleasure of Gabe & Shelly Brown’s ranch with its aesthetic beauty of trees, plentiful grass, good crops and quality cattle. Brown’s Polled Gelbvieh Ranch is a purebred cow/calf operation located adjacent to I-94 in central North Dakota just east of Bismarck, the state capital.

Browns raise and sell Gelbvieh and Balancer bulls each February, as well as background an additional 100 to 300 head in their feedlot utilizing homegrown feedstuffs. These feeds include alfalfa, corn, peas, barley, hairy vetch, millet, sorghum-sudangrass, wheat and a variety of legumes. Ninety-five percent of the family’s income is from their cattle and alfalfa hay sales.

The ranch covers 4,000 total acres: 1,567 acres native rangeland, 333 tame pasture, 900 acres alfalfa, 650 acres cropland, 465 acres wildlife cover and the remaining 35 acres are corrals, feedlot and farmstead. Browns own 1,389 of these acres and lease the remaining 2,611 from the State of North Dakota and five individuals.

Cattle

Browns run 250 registered Gelbvieh cow/calf pairs and 50 to 250 yearlings depending on moisture and forage conditions. The yearling numbers vary according to the abundance of forage. This allows Brown to maintain his cow numbers even in drought years.  The black heifers are AI bred to Black Angus bulls and the red heifers to Red Angus. This F1 cross produces the popular Gelbvieh Balancers. After AIing, the heifers are exposed to the bull for one cycle, then pregnancy ultrasounded in late July. Any open heifers are culled immediately, typically taking advantage of higher markets.

The Gelbvieh cows are bred to Gelbvieh bulls for a 45-day breeding period. Gabe weans the calves in early September, pregnancy tests the cows and sells the opens. He adamantly culls his cow herd for correct structural soundness, udder type and gentle disposition.  Browns supply herd bulls to an Angus cooperator herd in Montana. This arrangement provides the cooperator with top genetics for his replacement heifers and Gabe has a larger base from which to select his Balancer bulls.  Browns feed and grow out a total of 250 to 300 bull calves in their feedlot using feedstuffs they’ve produced.  They offer the top 75 bulls to sell at auction
in February at their annual production sale, and keep an additional 20 to 25 bulls for private treaty sales. Bulls that don’t make the cut are banded and backgrounded until January or February, then sold as heavy feeders.

Crops

Gabe has the same beliefs in his cropping system as he has in grazing. He has increased organic matter in the soil through zero-till and crop rotations which included
legumes which benefit the soil health, forage quality and next year’s crop productivity. Hairy Vetch is a legume they added to their rotation, seeding it with forage peas. After chopping the forage for haylage
in early July, the vetch grows rapidly, allowing another cutting of hay or high protein fall grazing. The vetch, a biannual, continues to grow the following year, continuing to
fix nitrogen in the soil. This second year crop is either hayed, grazed or used as a cover crop. Brown has also diminished his fertilization by up to 75 percent on subsequent years’ corn crops and this reduction in commercial applied fertilizer has improved groundwater quality. Alfalfa also plays an major role in the cropping system. The 900 acres fits well into their rotation, building soil health and holding water on the land.

Gabe has practiced zero-till since 1994 and is a strong advocate, crediting zero-till for improving soil health, thus increasing worm populations and other micro and macro organisms in the soil. This, along with increased organic matter and litter on the soil surface increases soil health, water infiltration and utilization for a positive impact on the environment. Wildlife have increased, both in diversity and population, since Brown began the zero-till cropping system.

Manure Handling
Nutrient management is very critical at Brown’s ranch because the land is in the watershed for the recreational McDowell dam and Apple Creek, which flows directly into the Missouri River. All manure is composed for at least six months, then custom applied to the cropland, rotating fields from year to year. Brown no-tills peas and other legumes (Hairy Vetch and clover) into these fields because legumes are high users of phosphorus, thus utilizing the nutrients in the manure.  Worm populations are high in no-till fields and help to break down the manure, leaving no evidence after the first cropping.  The legumes add nitrogen for the following crop, usually
corn, and in addition to the organic material, have allowed Brown to cut commercial fertilization by up to 75 percent. These legumes and crops are unconventional for this area, but have turned into prolific feed producers for Brown. He says he is willing to try anything and believes this is, in part, due to the fact that he didn’t grow up in agriculture and doesn’t have preconceived notions.

Wildlife
Although not mandated by guidelines or easement stipulations, Browns consider and include wildlife in their management practices.  Gabe maintains a 465-acre plot specifically for wildlife use and production. The natural plant cover provides a nesting habitat for game and song birds, as well as cover to White Tail Deer, turkeys, pheasants, game and other non-game wildlife. Gabe has developed a dugout for a water source and only grazes the plot areas if he needs forage once nesting is completed.  Browns leave at least three percent of all cropland unharvested for wildlife food plots and seeded a wildlife nesting cover along each field’s windbreak tree row. They also delay their grassland haying until July 15th so the birds can complete their hatching and nesting.

Although the ranch is only two miles from Bismarck, population 75,000, wildlife are abundant and flourishing. Ringneck Pheasants, Sharptail Grouse, Hungarian Partridge, Canada Geese and many species of ducks, song birds and raptors make the Brown ranch their home. It’s not uncommon to see over 20 deer on the home section and smaller mammals, such as mink, weasel, raccoons, coyotes and fox also inhabit the area.

Tree Development and Air Quality
Trees have always been an important part of the ranch, even before Gabe and Shelly owned it. The five rows of Ponderosa Pine and Green Ash trees planted between fields run from the headquarters south to interstate. Shelly spent many hours hand hoeing those tree rows as a child. Gabe and Shelly have planted an additional 30,536 feet of trees which increase the beauty of the land, provide protection and nourishment for wildlife, windbreak for the cattle and improves the air quality. Browns like to plant green ash, ponderosa pine, blue spruce, oak,
scotch pine, buffalo berry and russian olive, as well as fruit bearing trees like apricot, buckthorn, choke cherry, plum and juneberry.

Water
The McDowell dam recreation area is only a half mile from the home place so Browns manage nutrient and feedlot runoff carefully. The grass buffers and trees utilize the runoff nutrients before it reaches the watershed which eventually empties into the Missouri River.  The 8,500’ of pipeline, funded in part with EQIP money, supplies fresh water to 20 tanks for the cow herd. Brown also utilizes four new and two renovate dugouts, along with other existing wells to supply constant fresh, clean water to both cattle and wildlife. The livestock pipeline is polyethylene pipe with quick coupler hookups at each rubber tire or fiberglass tank. The pipe is buried  approximately one foot deep and winterizing is quick and simple with clean-out drains.