Fort Belknap holds Rancher Roundup

This week, as part of Ft Belknap's 48th annual winter fair, the Aaniiih Nakoda College hosted the Rancher Roundup. The purpose of the 2-day symposium was to help inform Natives, on the Fort Belknap reservation, of all of the Government programs available to help sustain a prosperous future in agriculture. The event was sponsored by the Ft. Belknap MSU Extension, Native American Community Development Corporation (NACDC), and the Fort Belknap Livestock Marketing Co-op.

The event consisted of 2 days of instruction: Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9-am, until about 2 pm, with lunch included both days. The NACDC and the Ft. Belknap Livestock Marketing Co-op sponsored lunch. It took place in the Returning Buffalo Building Room 213 of Aaniiih Nakoda College, and attendance and participation of the event earned 1 credit hour towards a degree offered by the college

When Jeremy Not Afraid welcomed the attendees, he started off by stating that the building that he attended college in 20 years ago on his reservation, was an old building, that was falling apart, and was actually condemned, and that it was a real blessing to have such nice and modern facilities available to use today. He also introduced the topics of risk management and how to mitigate risks, informing attendees about his 20 years experience from the USDA and helping them to understand how programs can be useful tools to help their businesses.

The primary purpose of the Rancher Roundup was to show native ranchers living on the reservation, more options on how to expand their businesses. Sometimes it can be difficult to

work with banks, due to poor credit, and outstanding collection notices. One of the services available through the NACDC is the option to have them buy out your credit cards, or vehicle payment, allowing your credit score to jump up, after these bills have been paid. The client will still need to pay off the NACDC, however, it will be much easier to do so, because the interest rates will be lower. Programs like this, could help many native entrepreneurs have many more opportunities to start or expand an enterprise.

John Lockie, of the USDA's Risk Management Agency, spoke to the group, concerning cattle insurance. This concept is not only available to natives on the reservation, but to all, and in some instances, may be a very helpful tool in a seemingly unstable economy. The way it works, is that they offer insurance, from the time your calves are on the ground, and whatever the projected income would be at the time when many people sell their calves, you would effectively lock in that rate. For example, we could say you have finished calving in April and you sell your calves in October, if something were to happen between those months to drop the price of livestock you will maintain the price that you initially contracted in April when your calves were born. "The calves that I sold in October of 2015," John began, reporting of his personal herd, "I sold for around 1.90 to about 2.05 per pound. However, at the time that I had finished calving the projected average for steer calves, was 2.43. Had I purchased the insurance at the time, I would have earned an additional 145 dollars per head, after the cost of the insurance." Though it may be difficult to predict what the cattle industry will do on any given year, this is just one more tool to perhaps make marketing cattle in the fall, a little less stressful. For information on this program, you can call John Lockie at (406) 651-8450, or visit http://www.rma.usda.gov.