Peterson Ranch is a family-operated business with three separate enterprises: a cow-calf herd of roughly 270 cows, a heifer development back grounding lot with a 500-head capacity, and a farming operation that consists of 500 acres of dry land and 370 acres under pivot irrigation.

The ranch was purchased in January 1998 in a turn-key agreement as the cow herd and equipment were purchased along with the land. We operated the place as it had always been run for the first year in order to become familiar with its strengths and weaknesses. In general, the pastures were in good condition because of conservative stocking rates. However, they were continuously grazed and therefore were extremely vulnerable to drought conditions. The limiting factor to any other management system was water availability. There was little to no winter protection anywhere on the ranch, the practice being to corral all of the cattle next to the buildings during a storm. At that time, there were only 170 acres of alfalfa under a side-roll irrigation system. The field was one-quarter mile wide and one mile long, which meant that the ends of the field only got irrigated every 40 days.

With the aid of an EQUIP grant, we first addressed the problem of drought management by extensive water development in each pasture and some cross fencing. We initially increased storage capacity at each windmill by putting in 30-foot bottomless tanks. However, this was still inadequate for a rotational grazing system, so we drilled two new wells with submersible pumps operated by a propane generator that is started and stopped by a float. Each well serves two pastures. We were also able to get the Board of Educational Lands to drill a well on our school section and cost-share with some cross fencing there. We are now in our fifth year of a rest-rotation system and have managed to maintain pasture condition in spite of the on-going drought.

We have addressed the protection issue by planting seven windbreaks and building some artificial windbreaks in strategic areas, including a "storm pasture" for young pairs. We have used a modified Sandhills scours prevention pasture system since 1999 and have had few health issues in the calves.

It was obvious that the side-roll irrigation system was highly labor intensive with inefficient water use and mediocre yields. In fact, after the first year, we calculated that it was costing us $126 per ton to raise alfalfa. We addressed this problem by developing an additional half-section of land north of the alfalfa field and putting in a 243-acre windshield-wiper pivot. That decision gave us an abundant source of winter feed, which then allowed us to develop some feedlots. We custom develop and artificially inseminate heifers, an enterprise that gives us a positive cash flow during the winter months and markets our specialized skills (cow-calf veterinarian with over 30 years of A.I. experience and a strong background in nutrition).

Rex and Nancy Peterson