Agri-culture
By Dr. Gerald L. Stokka
Associate Professor of Livestock
Stewardship at NDSU
Science Technology & Application
Knowledge is the accumulation of facts, wisdom is
knowing what to do with them.
Agriculture Stewardship: A Philosophy
of Life & Culture
Definition
Stewardship:
Careful and responsible management of
something entrusted to one's care (noun, Webster)
Philosophy & Culture
• Rangelands and herbivory co-evolved as part of a natural
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system. Grazing is a fundamental biologic process and is
the basis of the food chain.
Grass evolved to be eaten. It is a renewable resource,
grows from sunlight and water and needs to be harvested
just like a lawn needs to be mowed.
Ranchers are resident caretakers of brush, grass and
grazers.
Did God make a mistake in making these grazing animals?
J. Wayne Burkhardt, PhD. Professor, Range Management
University of Nevada, Reno
Range Magazine Nov
2003
Agricultural Stewardship:
Philosophy of Life & Culture
Stewardship:
A Philosophy of Life & Culture
Mission statement:
“I have a stewardship responsibility to manage available resources; land,
livestock, my personal life, while leaving behind a better place for the next
generation.”
– Stokka 2012 )
Stewardship of Truth, Philosophy
& Technology
Save the Whales, Forget the Children
• In developing countries, 200 million-300 million children of
preschool age are at risk of vitamin A deficiency
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– which increases their susceptibility to illnesses including measles and
diarrheal diseases. Every year, about half a million children become
blind as a result of vitamin A deficiency and 70% of those die within a
year.
GMO, "Golden Rice" varieties are enriched, by genes that produce
beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A.
Greenpeace's war on Golden Rice ignores science in the name of
misguided activism.
– Wall Street Journal, Oct 30, 2012 Henry I. Miller
Stewardship of Truth
Stewardship of Truth: Unintended
Consequences
Divergent trends in obesity and fat intake patterns: the American
paradox.
RESULTS: In the adult US population the prevalence of overweight
rose from 25.4% from 1976 to 1980 to 33.3% from 1988 to 1991, a 31%
increase.
Fat intake, adjusted for total calories, dropped from 41.0% to 36.6%, an
11% decrease. Average total daily calorie intake also tended to
decrease, from 1,854 kcal to 1,785 kcal (-4%).
Rise in consumption of low-calorie products, from 19% of the
population in 1978 to 76% in 1991.
CONCLUSIONS: Reduced fat and calorie intake and frequent use of
low-calorie food products have been associated with a paradoxical
increase in the prevalence of obesity.
– Am J Med. 1997 Mar;102(3):259-64. Heine, AG, Weinster, RL.
Stewardship & Economics
Livestock Stewardship & Our Well
Being
Stewardship & Technology: Are we keeping
up with the Grain Cart?
Precision Agriculture
• Fields
• Seed - GMO
• Fertilizer
• Herbicide/Insecticide
• Crop Insurance
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Beef Production
Animals – herds/pens
Genetics, DNA tech
Growth enhancement
Antibiotics, Anti-infectives
Vaccines
Behavior modification
Estrus synchronization, AI,
Embryo,IVF
Economic forces
Return/unit - /bushel, acre, cow
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Corn – Direct & Indirect costs $454/acre inputs, Cost/bushel
- $4.02. East Central ND
Revenue - $5.50 X 115 bu/acre = $632.50.
Beef cattle –Variable + Fixed costs $574/cow,
Revenue - 584 pound blk steers X $164.02/cwt = 957.88.
– Plus heifer calves, open heifers and cull cows.
– Price from Kist Livestock Dec 19 2012
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Input prices NDSU Ag Econ
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/cropeconomics
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/livestockeconom
ics/cool
Livestock Steward
Producing food by caring for animals
through responsible resource management
and the prudent use of technology
Solutions & Thoughts
Blend the disciplines of a guiding philosophy, animal
husbandry and animal science (technology).
• Emotion will always trumps science in the perception of the public.
• Be passionate and engaged about our chosen way of life, the
business and the science that we rely on.
"I've always thought that the most powerful weapon in the
world was the bomb and that's why I gave it to my people,
but I've come to the conclusion that the most powerful
weapon in the world is not the bomb but it's the truth" Andrei Sakharov, atheist, but believed in a non-scientific
“guiding principle” that governed the universe and human
life
Stewardship & The Beef Business
“In this business of cattle raising, we exert our will, We take a calf off a
poor cow and graft it onto a good one. We hobble a reticent cow until
she lets her calf suck.
We midwife these calves into existence, we care for them, sometimes
we even risk our lives for them, and they are ultimately slated for
slaughter.
In this fact lies the essential irony of our work. No one forgets that a
live calf is money in the bank. And yet a reverence remains.
John Bell and Hungry and the calf in the cab of the pickup are not
merely units of production; our connection to them is more than
economic.
Day in and day out we confront the messiness of this business of
living; if we live with slaughter, we also live with nurture, with seasons
and cycles, with birth and with death.”
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Riding the White Horse Home, Teresa Jordan, 1993 Vintage Books, pg
108
Stewardship
Believing---there are several layers to it.
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There's the surface-level type of believing, where you acknowledge
that something is true.
Then there is a deeper kind of belief--the type that gets inside of
you and actually changes you.
– It's the kind of belief that changes your behavior, your attitude, and
your outlook on life, and the people around you can't help but notice.“
o Anne Burkholder 2012, Feedyard Foodie
Agriculture
He
makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to
cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth.Psalm 104:14