From Farm to Prairie

Hi everyone! My name is Marisa Sather and I’m a biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Partners for Fish & Wildlife (PFW) Program. The PFW program is the private lands branch of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and we work with private landowners across the country to implement habitat restoration and enhancement for […]

Just when you think you have seen it all!

Good day from the Barthelmess Ranch. Hi!  My name is Leo Barthelmess.   I’m going to talk about what a challenging summer the ranch and region had.  In my last blog posting I discussed the drought we were in. It is now the end of October and most of the measurable precipitation we received came […]

Animal Health, Food Safety, and Sustainability

On a ranching operation, animal health is integral to sustainability.  Although this may seem like stating the obvious, the consequence of mistrusted animal health is debilitation of individual operators or of the industry in a particular region or country, as diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow disease”), bovine tuberculosis, and brucellosis, […]

Low-Stress Cattle Handling at the French Ranch

It is officially the first day of autumn! Since my last entry, areas of the United States have been coping with hurricanes, while in drought-stricken Montana we went from a high of 96oF on Monday, September 11th to 43oF on Thursday, September 14th with snow at higher elevations.  In south Phillips County we have received […]

Jim Gerrish Workshop

Ranchers Stewardship Alliance held a Sustainable Ranch Management workshop featuring Jim Gerrish of American Grazing Lands Services on September 19th.    It was well attended and packed full of information.  The morning was spent in the class room.                           The afternoon session was held […]

Greetings from the French Ranch

Greetings from the French ranch! My name is Taylor French; I live and work with my husband, Wayne, on the ranch that his grandparents built in south Phillips County.  I was raised in Calgary, Canada, with no background in agriculture, and my post-secondary education consisted of anthropology and chemistry, so let me begin with a […]

Walsh Ranch Cattle Moves, Water, & Remnants of the Past

2017 has brought new challenges with the drought.   Many ranchers have it much worse than we do.  We were fortunate enough last year to receive 30” of rain.  The normal is 10-12”.  With that said, our grass was in great condition going into the spring and the reservoirs and pits all had abundant water.   The […]

Grant Award from NFWF

Ranchers Stewardship Alliance receives Grant Award from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation LOCATION (June 26, 2017) – Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, Inc. (RSA) has been awarded a $300,000 conservation grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), RSA’s president Leo Barthelmess announced. Additional matching funds of $110,000 bring the total funds to $410,000. The […]

Howdy from the Walsh Ranch

Howdy from the Walsh Ranch.    We are a cow/calf operation on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.  My husband is 1/8 Gros Ventre.   He has lived on the same ranch his entire life.  We raise hay to supplement our cows in the winter.   We try to utilize the grazing forage in pastures before feeding hay. Our […]

June a busy month at Barthelmess Ranch

What a busy month, I had every intention of writing this blog shortly after the Barthelmess Ranch grazing tour. It has been 2 weeks since the ranch tour on June 15 and The Nature Conservancy’s Matador science symposium on June 14, the summer is just getting away from me. This is the 7th year in […]