North Dakota
Raising sheep for 4-Hers and meat adds diversity to North Dakota operation
DES LACS, N.D. — Showing livestock in 4-H led Brandon and Kaitlyn Weidert to produce sheep for the organization’s youth.
The couple annually sell about 30 Suffolk-Hampshire cross lambs at the Top of Dakota sale held during the third Saturday in April. Members of 4-H clubs attend the sale to buy the lambs and other livestock — goats, rabbits and pigs — that they will show during summer showmanship competitions.
The number of lambs shown in 4-H competition in North Dakota has grown in recent years, Brandon said.
“There’s a lot of younger kids coming into 4-H right now, and it seems like the lambs are good for young kids to start a project with,” he said.
The owners of Weidert Farms near Des Lacs market the other 40 lambs they raise to customers who purchase them for meat. Besides the lambs they will sell at the April Top of Dakota sale, during late summer or early fall, the Weiderts plan to market whole or half lambs through their Facebook page.
Kaitlyn and Brandon plan to maintain their flock size at about 70 and increase the quality of their sheep through genetics.
In the summer of 2023, 30 of their ewes were artifcially inseminated with semen they purchased from a sheep farm in Iowa. The Weiderts also research the genetics of the bucks they plan to purchase.
Lambing season at Weidert Farms is from early January to late February. As of Feb. 12, they were three-quarters of the way through the 2024 season. In the barn, newborn lambs were nursing the ewes or warming under heat lamps. Outside, older lambs were scampering around the sheep pen while their mothers ate hay.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
The Weiderts started their ranch three years ago with 25 sheep on about 20 acres of land near Des Lacs. They chose to raise sheep instead of cattle because the former are a more manageable size and don’t require as much feed to produce.
Both Weiderts grew up with cattle — Brandon on a dairy and stock cow farm near Adrian, in southwestern Minnesota, and Kaitlyn on a sheep and cattle ranch near Anamoose in northwestern North Dakota — so they were used to handling livestock. The couple knew that raising sheep would be more practical for them, both because they require less feed inputs and for logistical reasons.
Kaitlyn, an agriculture public policy advisor for Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., works full-time in Minot, North Dakota, and Brandon is an outside sales representative for United Quality Co-op, based in New Town, North Dakota, traveling across the northwest part of the state selling agricultural products.
The couple enjoys the oportunity to supplement their agricultural-related day jobs with hands-on work in production agriculture.
“The lambing, we find a lot of joy in, getting those first few on the ground, just kind of getting the process started, then going through the sales and watching the kids go with them throughout the summer,” Brandon said.
Besides requiring less feed and time input than cattle, the Weiderts got into sheep production because they wanted to raise livestock that their children could easily handle.
At age 4, their daughter, Nora, already bottle feeds lambs and helps her parents feed sheep. Her brother, 3-month-old Wallen, sometimes rides in his mother’s front pack when she does chores.
“My favorite part of having the sheep is probably having the opportunity to have our kids be a little bit more involved, especially from a safety aspect,” Kaitlyn said.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
The Weiderts still keep a close eye on Nora when she’s with the ewes and their lambs in case one of the moms gets territorial, but, overall, there’s less concern about her being among the ewes than there would be with a cow nearly 10 times the size.
The couple enjoy seeing their young children out among the baby livestock.
“The kids being out there, especially during this lambing season is really fun,” Kaitlyn said.
The Weiderts get satisfaction from raising and selling the lambs to 4-Hers.
“It’s a challenge every year to see what quality lambs we do get and to see how kids can take them, and hopefully learn from them, and be successful with them,” Brandon said. “We’ve had a few that have been repeat customers throughout the years.”
Ann is a journalism veteran with nearly 40 years of reporting and editing experiences on a variety of topics including agriculture and business. Story ideas or questions can be sent to Ann by email at: abailey@agweek.com or phone at: 218-779-8093.
North Dakota
The Women’s College Fan Guide To 2026 Junior Nationals – FloWrestling
Justin Fairbanks went to work! He created this incredible breakdown of Fargo participants and their college commitments. Email kyle.klingman@flosports.tv with updates.
Here’s the full Fargo schedule so you don’t miss any of the girls’ action.
2026 U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals
Junior Girls Freestyle
Thursday, July 16 at 2:00 p.m. ET – Session XI
Friday, July 17 at 10:00 a.m. ET – Session XIII
Friday, July 17 at 4:00 p.m. ET – Session XIV
Saturday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m. ET – Session XV
Saturday, July 18 at 3:00 p.m. ET – Session XVI
Saturday, July 18 at 4:30 p.m. ET – Finals
16U Girls Freestyle
Thursday, July 16 at 6:00 p.m. ET – Session XII
Friday, July 17 at 10:00 a.m. ET – Session XIII
Friday, July 17 at 4:00 p.m. ET – Session XIV
Saturday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m. ET – Session XV
Saturday, July 18 at 3:00 p.m. ET – Session XVI
North Dakota
San Francisco plots risky socialist bank modeled after controversial experiment
San Francisco voters will decide whether the city should have a public bank after city supervisors this week approved such a proposal to appear on the November ballot.
The city would be the first in the nation to have a municipal government-owned bank. Only the state of North Dakota runs a major public bank in the nation.
But the city’s proposal gives no answer as to where the estimated $325 million in start-up costs will come from as the city faces a $643 million budget deficit.
“In a moment like this, asking voters to commit San Francisco to potentially running a financial institution is asking for trust the city has not yet earned,” said Supervisor Alan Wong, one of the two votes against placing the measure on the ballot.
“Our city’s track record shows that meeting those demands is harder than it sounds, even for institutions designed with the right intentions,” he added.
Socialist Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who just returned from a months-long mental health leave, indicated that future legislation would figure out a revenue steam. Supporters of a bank wanted to get ahead of a 2028 expiration date for a state law that gives cities the power to create their own public banks.
“It feels like an incredible tool to add to the city’s tool kit,” Misha Steier, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Public Bank Coalition, told the San Francisco Chronicle. The coalition was founded by Fielder.
“This is the culmination of years and years of movement effort,” Steier said.
A city bank, supporters say, would unlock financing for thousands of housing units that lack funding to address the housing crisis. It could finance climate goals or lend to small businesses in the area.
“This ensures we have an institution run by real bankers that is accountable, nevertheless, to public priorities and public policy priorities,” Fielder said.
“We can build a public bank that prioritizes reinvesting back into what we all need to sustain our local communities,” added Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who brought forth the measure. “Let us use every tool at our disposal to keep the city affordable and to drive an economic recovery that leaves no one behind.”
The bank would be run by qualified bankers appointed by an oversight committee whose members would be selected by local officials. While it does not establish a revenue stream, the ballot measure would at least enshrine the bank’s rules, structure and mission in the city’s charter — including a provision that it would never lend to fossil fuel corporations or weapons manufacturers.
How startup costs will be funded seems to be difficult to answer. Fielder in February attempted another ballot measure that would impose a higher tax on lending companies to help fund such a bank, though that effort was paused to focus on this new ballot proposal.
Any new taxes may be difficult in the current political environment; this past June, voters in the progressive city even voted down a tax hike on highly paid CEOs.
North Dakota’s bank sees deposits mostly from the state’s collections of taxes and fees and corporate accounts. A very small portion comes from residents as “it is the Bank’s policy not to compete with the private sector for retail deposits,” it said on its website.
The bank has mostly seen success and has turned a profit for many years, which can be returned to the state government’s general fund or used for economic development initiatives. A lot of the success can be traced to the the state’s fracking boom, according to research by University of Illinois Chicago professor Robert S. Chirinko.
But unlike commercial banks, deposits into the public bank are not insured by the federal government, which means North Dakota takes on all the risk. California’s law requires federal insurance, which will give the city more regulatory hurdles as no public bank has sought that approval before.
Chirinko said any success replicating North Dakota’s model will heavily depend on funding. San Francisco’s proposed focus on investing in climate-friendly technology or housing may also not pay off immediately.
“There could be a role there for government, but you have to recognize that you’re not going to get your money back,” he said.
Such banks also can face accusations of unfair political influence. In 2016, North Dakota’s bank financed local law enforcement’s militarized response to controversial protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, sparking liberal backlash.
Already, critics in San Francisco are saying the same political favoritism could happen for how loans and other financial products would get issued.
“What do they want? An SF Public Bank staffed by cronies of absentee SF Supervisor Jackie Fielder,” claimed tech figure and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan. “It’ll be a tremendous grift mill robbing the city blind.”
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North Dakota
Today in History, 1975: Earthquake rattles portions of Minnesota and the Dakotas, including Fargo-Moorhead
On this day in 1975, a moderate earthquake centered near Morris, Minnesota, shook parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota, startling residents but causing no major damage or injuries.
Here is the complete story as it appeared in the paper that day:
Earth Tremor Felt Across Wide Area Including F-M
An earth tremor at 9:56 a.m. today was widely felt in the Fargo-Moorhead area as well as other parts of North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota, but the National Weather Service here said it had no reports of damage.
The tremor lasted from two to five seconds, Keith Blessum of the Weather Service said, and ignited telephone reports from a wide area.
The earthquake measured 5.0 on the Richter Scale. Waverly Person of the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver, Colo., said: “The earthquake was moderate and was centered in the Morris, Minn., area. It could have caused much damage in a heavily populated area.”
The quake also was felt in northwestern Iowa. Carl Stover of the Earthquake Information Center said it affected an area 300 miles long and 180 miles wide in four states. He said the exact center of the quake was 10 miles west of Morris.
Person said the earthquake that struck California’s San Fernando Valley in February 1971, killing 54 persons and causing millions of dollars in property damage, measured 6.5 on the Richter Scale.
There were no injuries reported, but authorities in several communities in Minnesota and North and South Dakota reported that residents were startled, buildings shook, dishes rattled and books fell off shelves. Some residents in Alberta, Minn., and Wheaton, Minn., also reported cracked foundations.
Among the first to report locally was Mrs. Paul Dutt, 909 27th St. N., Fargo, who told the Weather Service pictures on the walls moved and a vase moved across the top of the television set.
Marjorie Henderson, who lives on a farm between Enderlin and Lisbon, N.D., reported that the house shook and windows rattled during the tremor, while Mrs. Wesley Belter, who lives south of Casselton, N.D., said that she and four neighbors had similar experiences.
Mrs. Earl Ernst, who lives eight miles east of Wolverton, Minn., also reported that the walls of her trailer home shook and dishes rattled.
Other reports received by the Weather Service at Hector Airport here were from Hankinson and Wahpeton, N.D., and Breckenridge and Ottertail, Minn.; Milbank, S.D., White Rock Dam on the South Dakota border and Canby, Minn.
The earth tremor shook much of northeastern South Dakota and parts of southeastern North Dakota and western Minnesota but apparently caused no injuries, the Associated Press reported.
Donald Johnson, Codington (S.D.) County Civil Defense Director, said the strongest tremors were felt in the South Shore area, about 12 miles northeast of Watertown.
Johnson said a school was evacuated in South Shore, but there were no injuries or major damage reported.
A University of Minnesota professor said that part of that state has a history of minor earthquakes, with about half a dozen reported since the mid-1800s.
Residents in the Willmar, Alexandria, Morris and Long Prairie areas all felt the tremor. It hit about 9:55 a.m., and lasted five to 10 seconds.
No major damage was reported, although the tremor startled many people and shook household furnishings. Some residents in Alberta, near Morris, reported cracked foundations.
Dr. Harold Mooney, professor of geophysics at the University of Minnesota, estimated the tremor would have measured 4 or 4.5 on the Richter Scale. Mooney’s seismograph wasn’t operating when the tremor struck, and he said his was the only such measuring device in the area.
“The motion of a fault in the western part of the state sent out seismic waves at thousands of feet per second, and that’s what the people felt,” Mooney said.
“There is a history of earthquakes in that area, so this one was not without precedent.”
The most recent was near Alexandria in 1950, he said. The most severe was near Brainerd in 1917; that one broke some windows and knocked things off shelves.
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