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 Democratic Spirit: Reflections on North Dakota History and the Declaration of Independence at 250 – America250
A state and national public forum comprising a lecture, and then a question-answer session. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s lecture commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and explore its enduring significance in American life. Appiah’s scholarship on ethics, identity, and cosmopolitanism offers a unique lens for examining democratic ideals in a diverse society. By connecting these themes to North Dakota’s historical narrative, the forum fosters civic engagement, intellectual discourse, and cultural understanding within our community.
FARGO — Drivers can expect to see a slight uptick in gas prices as a result of the Iran conflict.
As of Monday, March 2, the average for North Dakota is $2.65 a gallon. While that is a $0.13 increase from a month ago, it is significantly lower than prices a year ago.
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GRAND FORKS – The Study ND, formerly Humanities North Dakota, has received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts for a statewide theater and humanities initiative in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This commemorative investment is meant to bring historical events and figures – such as the framers of the U.S. Constitution – to life through virtual and live performances that celebrate the nation’s history.
The grant, along with funding from private sources, has made it possible for The Study ND to host “America 250” activities after the organization sustained a considerable cut in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year, according to Brenna Gerhardt, The Study ND executive director.
“We absorbed a 50% budget cut, resulting in a loss of $467,645 in funding,” Gerhardt said. “As a result, we had to significantly scale back our American 250 initiatives focused on American history and civics education.”
Funds received from the National Endowment for the Arts will be used to present public readings, theatrical portrayals and guided discussions to encourage audience members to reflect on the nation’s founding in 1776 and on its democratic ideals, while engaging in contemporary conversations about civic life.
All of the programming in the series organized by The Study ND, titled “American Heroes,” will be livestreamed statewide.
In the grant application submitted to the National Endowment for the Arts, “we framed the project around a simple idea: democracy requires more than information, it requires citizens who can think historically, listen well, and argue in good faith,” Gerhardt said.
“This series uses living history performances to bring consequential figures into the room, then turns the room into a civic space through moderated dialogue and related public events. We define ‘heroism’ as civic courage under pressure, the willingness to contend with hard truths, and the capacity to enlarge a community’s moral imagination,” she said.
“The project does not ask audiences to agree on a single interpretation of a figure. It invites them to grapple with complexity together, and to connect the past to the responsibilities of the present.”
When Gerhardt and her colleagues received the application for grant proposals from the National Endowment for the Arts, “we were already planning a line-up of America 250 events and it fit perfectly with what we were already planning, so then we just wrote the grant,” she said.
Private funds, including matching funds from the Bismarck-based Tom and Frances Leach Foundation, have also been provided for this project.
Details about all the events will probably be posted on the website
www.TheStudyND.org
in March, Gerhardt said.
The America 250 events, which are planned to take place at Bismarck State College, are 5-6 p.m. July 8, “Reading of the Declaration of Independence, with John Adams,” and 6-7:30 p.m. July 9, “Alexander Hamilton Speaks,” both performed by William Chrystal.
The Living History programs are planned for 7-8:15 p.m. Sept. 17, “Thomas Paine,” performed by Doug Mishler, and Oct. 6, 7-8:15 p.m, “Frederick Douglass,” performed by Nathan Richardson. Both will be moderated by Susan Frontczak.
The performers Chrystal and Richardson live in Virginia, Frontczak in Colorado,and Mishler in Nevada.
Another program, “Hemingway and Gellhorn,” is set for Sept. 16-18 at Bismarck State College, Gerhardt said. “It is part of our broader Chautauqua/living history programming connected to America 250 … (and) will feature performances and discussion centered on Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, using their lives and writing as a way to explore major questions about American identity, war reporting, public memory, and the stories we tell about freedom, conflict and responsibility.
“What I am excited about with this event is that it gives us a way to approach America 250 beyond founding-era material. In other words, it helps us show the American story is not just about 1776, but also about the generations that followed and how Americans wrestled with democracy, power, truth and moral courage.”
This program “expands the initiative beyond commemoration into reflection, dialogue and interpretation, which is where the humanities are especially valuable,” she said. “It helps us reach audiences who may be drawn in through literature, journalism and performance, not only traditional history events.”
The Hemingway and Gellhorn program fits in with America 250 in that “it broadens the frame and adds depth to the larger effort.”
Gerhardt is hoping that these activities will give participants “a better understanding of all the debates and issues going on when our country was founded, and how those debates are continuing today,” she said, “and just to be more thoughtful and informed citizens.”
College students and members of the general public will also be invited to participate in a workshop aimed at teaching participants how to build a living history performance from primary sources and historical research.
Last year, The Study ND lost a substantial amount of funding – nearly $468,000, about half of its annual budget – from the National Endowment for the Humanities for its fiscal 2025 year.
The loss of that much funding was discouraging, Gerhardt said. “Very much so, because we had a lot of activities planned for America 250 and we had to cancel a lot of them, or – like in this case – seek other funding, which we were lucky to get.”
The Study ND currently has four full-time employees, she said. “We eliminated a part-time marketing position after the cuts.”
A nonprofit organization, The Study ND provides civics, arts and cultural education programming. The organization’s programs – which include online classes, book talks, lectures and more – reached about 24,000 people in 2024, Gerhardt told the North Dakota Monitor in April 2025.
During the summer, the organization hosts a civics education program for high school and middle school social studies teachers, she said.
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